Good Business_ Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi [169]
“When I see works…” and “On a day like this…” are from Csikszentmihalyi & Robinson (in press).
The use of music by the pygmies is described in Turnbull (1961).
The importance of music in the lives of Americans is mentioned in The Meaning of Things (Csikszentmihalyi & Rochberg-Halton 1981), where it was found that for teenagers the most important object in the home tended to be the stereo set. The policeman’s interview is also from the same source. How music helps teenagers recover their good moods and its role in providing a matrix of peer solidarity are discussed in Csikszentmihalyi & Larson (1984) and Larson & Kubey (1983).
Recorded music makes life richer. I heard this argument propounded most forcefully (but, I think, quite erroneously) by the aesthetic philosopher Eliseo Vivas at a public lecture in Lake Forest College, Illinois, sometime in the late 1960s.
Durkheim developed his concept of “collective effervescence” as a precursor of religiosity in his Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912 [1967]). Victor Turner’s “communitas” provides a contemporary perspective on the importance of spontaneous social interaction (1969, 1974).
The writings of Carlos Castaneda (e.g., 1971, 1974), so influential even a decade ago, now barely produce a ripple on the collective consciousness. Much has been said to discredit the authenticity of his accounts. The last few volumes of the enduring saga of his sorcerer’s apprenticeship seem indeed confused and pointless. But the first four volumes contained many important ideas, intriguingly presented; for these the old Italian saying applies: Se non è vero, è ben trovato—or, “It may not be true, but it is well conceived.”
The stages of musical listening were described in an unpublished empirical study by Michael Heifetz at the University of Chicago. A similar developmental trajectory was postulated earlier by the musicologist Leonard Meyer (1956).
Plato expresses his views on music in the Republic, book 3, in the dialogue between Glaucon and Socrates about the aims of education. The idea is that children should not be exposed to either “plaintive” or “relaxed” music, because both will undermine their character—thus Ionian and Lydian harmonies should be eliminated from the curriculum. The only acceptable harmonies are the Dorian and the Phrygian, because these are the “strains of necessity and the strains of freedom,” inculcating courage and temperance in the young. Whatever one may think of Plato’s taste, it is clear that he took music very seriously. Here is what Socrates says (book 3, p. 401): “And therefore I said, Glaucon, musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward place of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly educated graceful….”
Alan Bloom (1987, esp. pp. 68–81) provides a spirited defense of Plato and an indictment of modern music, presumably because it has an affinity for Ionian and Lydian harmonies.
Lorin Hollander’s story is based on conversations we had in 1985.
Eating. For instance, ESM studies show that of the main things adult Americans do during an average day, eating is the most intrinsically motivated (Graef, Csikszentmihalyi, & Giannino 1983). Teenagers report the second highest levels of positive affect when eating (after socializing with peers, which is the most positive), and very high levels of intrinsic motivation—lower only than listening to music, being involved in sports and games, and resting (Csikszentmihalyi & Larson 1984, p. 300).
Cyrus the Great. The information comes from Xenophon’s (431 B.C.–350 B.C.) Cyropaedia, a fictional account of Cyrus’s life. But Xenophon is the only contemporary who had actually served in Cyrus’s army, and who has left a written record of the man and his exploits (see also his Anabasis, translated as The Persian Expedition, Warner 1965).
Puritans and enjoyment. On this topic see the extensive history by Foster Rhea Dulles (1965), Jane Carson’s account of recreation in