About this item

For readers of Oliver Sacks and Being Mortal by Atul Gawande.. A celebrated art therapist plays the cello for patients with autism, neurodegenerative disease and terminal illness - and offers a moving reflection on the extraordinary power of music to enrich our lives, all the way to the very end.. When Claire Oppert plays the cello, miracles happen. Children with profound autism, patients in extreme pain and distress, even people on the threshold of death smile, cry, laugh, sing and dance. "When you play, I'm not sick anymore," one man tells her. "I feel happy, I feel alive.". In The Schubert Treatment, Oppert recounts her remarkable story of healing suffering through music, alongside portraits of the many people she has helped. Born into a family of doctors and artists, Oppert trained as a classical cellist and began playing at a center for autistic youth, where she witnessed how music could connect with even the most difficult-to-reach patients.