Where words fall short
The healing power of music in mind, heart and soul
Introduction
Music is more than sound or melody; it is a language that speaks deeper than words. For many, music is an anchor in turbulent times, a vessel in which emotions don’t have to disappear but can instead be carried and held. Music can comfort, elevate, connect, and heal. It can bring us back to ourselves — to that inner space where silence and resonance meet.
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For me personally, music has been a red thread throughout my life. As a child, I never left the house without my Walkman, and later my Discman and mp3 player. I always carried spare batteries with me, afraid that the music might stop — and whenever it did, I felt a mild panic. Today that feeling is less intense, but I still rarely leave home without my headphones. When I’m alone, I’m always accompanied by music. Music is everything: an anchor, a mirror, a way to regulate and soften emotions, but also a doorway inward — to the stillness of the heart.
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In psychology, the value of music has been increasingly recognized: its ability to regulate emotion, reduce stress, evoke memories, and strengthen social connectedness. Yet music is not merely a tool or an instrument; it is also a way of being — a manner in which humans relate to the world and to themselves. Philosophers such as Schopenhauer and Nietzsche even saw music as the most direct access to the essence of existence: an expression of that which transcends us and yet lives within us.
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With this essay, I aim to explore both the psychological value and the philosophical meaning of music: how it influences our brain and body, how it helps us regulate and endure emotion, how it connects us to others, and how it teaches us something about the human condition itself. Above all, I want to show why music, in its essence, is so profoundly important to our humanity.
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Music in Brain and Body
That music moves us is not just a matter of feeling; it is deeply rooted in our biology. Research shows that music activates almost every area of the brain — from the auditory cortex that processes sound, to the emotion centers in the limbic system, and even motor regions that allow us to feel rhythm physically.
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Music can stimulate the release of neurotransmitters such as dopamine, associated with reward and pleasure. This explains why a musical climax can give us goosebumps or why we want to hear the same song over and over again. Oxytocin, the “bonding hormone,” is also influenced by singing or making music together, which makes music a powerful social glue.
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Music is also closely linked to memory. In people with dementia, a familiar song can suddenly evoke forgotten memories and bring emotions to the surface that otherwise seem unreachable. Music activates networks that are more deeply and durably anchored in the brain than language alone.
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The body, too, responds to music: rhythm can synchronize heart rate and breathing, and certain frequencies can lower tension or generate energy. This makes music an effective means of regulating stress and promoting relaxation. It is no coincidence that music is increasingly used in medical contexts, from pain management to recovery after surgery.
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Music and Heartbreak
A striking example of how music affects both brain and body can be found in times of heartbreak. Brain research shows that the loss of a loved one activates the same pain circuits as physical pain. During such periods, music can serve as a safe way to regulate that pain. Sad songs evoke recognition and comfort — they mirror the loss, yet make it more bearable by placing the emotions within a musical framework.
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A paradox often arises: the very music that confronts us with absence and longing can also bring relief. The brain releases dopamine in response to familiarity and expectation in melody and rhythm, which temporarily softens the rawness of pain. In this way, music becomes a form of emotional co-regulation when the loved one who once fulfilled that role is no longer there.
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Music and Memory: Between Entanglement and Liberation
The power of music also lies in its ability to bring memories vividly back to life. A single chord or a few words from a song can instantly transport us to a specific relationship, a moment, or even a scent. That makes music deeply comforting, but it can also become a trap. In the case of toxic relationships, a song that once symbolized love or intimacy can repeatedly evoke the old longing or sense of loss. In this way, music can unconsciously sustain the bond with a destructive past.
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Kierkegaard described music as the most direct expression of passion. Precisely for that reason, music can convey not only the beauty of love but also the intensity of loss, desire, and despair. In its tones, passion itself resounds — unmediated by language or rational concepts. That explains why music can so quickly rekindle emotions: it speaks directly to the soul.
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Yet music also carries within it the potential for liberation. By consciously allowing new music into our lives, different emotional registers open up, and new memories and associations begin to form. Creating a new playlist can thus be a symbolic act — a gesture of reorientation, a way to retune the soul toward hope and the future. Music holds not only memory but also transformation.
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Music as Social Glue
Beyond the individual experience, music has a profoundly social dimension. Singing, dancing, or listening together is one of the oldest ways in which humans have connected with one another. In many cultures, music formed the heart of rituals, celebrations, and mourning — giving a shared rhythm to the life of the community.
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Neuroscientific research shows that making music together increases the release of oxytocin, the hormone that strengthens social bonds. This explains why singing in a choir, attending a festival, or joining a stadium chant can evoke a sense of unity that transcends words. Rhythm and melody align bodies and hearts, allowing people to literally and figuratively feel “in tune” with each other.
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In psychology, this is often described as a form of collective emotional regulation. Where the individual can hold and contain emotions through music, the group creates a shared container: sorrow can be carried in a lament, joy in a dance, hope in an anthem. Music thus becomes a language of community, in which differences are temporarily dissolved within a shared experience.
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Philosophically, this collective power of music is equally significant. Nietzsche saw in music the Dionysian dimension — the force that lifts individuals out of their separateness and draws them into a greater whole of ecstasy, rhythm, and life’s tragedy. In the intoxication of music, the isolation of the ego fades, and the human being experiences herself as part of a greater, vibrating life.
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From another angle, Martha Nussbaum explains that music trains us in empathy: by embodying and sharing emotion through sound, we learn to attune ourselves to the emotional state of others. In this way, music becomes not only a source of pleasure but also a moral training ground for living together.
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Music as Therapy and Healing
The healing power of music is increasingly recognized in psychology and psychiatry. Music therapy has become an established treatment within mental health care, using sound and rhythm to express, regulate, or re-experience emotion. Music provides access to layers of the psyche that are sometimes difficult to reach through words alone.
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In depression, music can help to break through feelings of emptiness and meaninglessness by reintroducing rhythm and melody as a foundation of vitality. For anxiety disorders, music can promote relaxation and help regulate the body through breath and heartbeat. In addiction treatment, music is often used to reconnect people with emotions that have long been suppressed or numbed; a single song can open what might otherwise remain hidden for months in talk therapy.
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Music also plays a special role in trauma. Because it influences the amygdala and hippocampus, music can evoke memories — but also make them bearable. A carefully chosen song can bring the past into awareness within a safe context, allowing integration to occur. At the same time, through its structure and repetition, music can provide grounding and stability when emotions feel overwhelming.
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For me personally, music has great therapeutic value. It helps me turn inward and reconnect with my feelings. Especially in times when much is happening, I tend to get stuck in my head — to drift into rationality. Music pulls me out of that and opens the door to emotion. Sometimes it feels as if songs express precisely what I myself could not yet put into words, allowing me to come home to myself again.
Music also functions as a nonverbal means of communication: for people with autism, dementia, or aphasia, sound can become a way to express themselves and make contact. Creating music together can break through feelings of isolation and build new bridges toward connection.
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In all these ways, music shows that it is not merely art or entertainment but also a form of care and healing — a language of the soul that brings us back to a sense of resonance with ourselves and with one another.
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Music as an Existential Experience
Beyond its biological, psychological, and social dimensions, music also holds an existential meaning. It touches questions that go deeper than brain function or emotional regulation: what does it mean to be human — how do we relate to love, loss, and connection? Philosophers have often seen music as a window into the essence of existence, precisely because it transcends words and concepts.
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When we feel that music touches our soul directly, we enter the realm described by Schopenhauer: music as the most immediate expression of the will — the underlying principle of life itself. It gives voice to something that precedes all form and image. Nietzsche saw in music the Dionysian force that lifts us out of isolation, connecting us to both the vitality and the tragedy of existence, letting us dance on the border between order and chaos. Kierkegaard emphasized music’s immediate emotional power: it expresses passion without detour through words or concepts, confronting us with the rawness of longing or loss.
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At the same time, music opens a window to the unconscious and the archetypal. For Jung, music is a gateway to the collective layers of the psyche: it can evoke a sense of synchronicity, where inner experience and outer sound coincide, and we feel connected to a larger whole. Martha Nussbaum, in turn, shows that music is not only an inner experience but also a school of empathy: by living through emotion in sound, we train our sensitivity to the joy and suffering of others and thus contribute to a more humane world.
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In this way, music reflects both our individual inner world and a greater order. It is an anchor and a vessel — but also a bridge and a field of resonance. Within its tones, the psychological and the philosophical converge: music heals, connects, and reveals the essence of what it means to be human.
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Conclusion
Music is at once intimate and universal. It touches the body and the brain, helps to regulate emotion, and brings memories to life. It connects us with others through shared rhythms and melodies and reaches deep into the existential core of our being. Philosophers have described it as an expression of the will, as a source of life force, as passion, as a doorway to the archetypal, and as a training ground for empathy.
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For me personally, music is both anchor and mirror. In difficult times, it opens the door to my emotions when I tend to get lost in reason. Within music I can find comfort — but also strength and inspiration. It reminds me that I am part of a greater whole, a field of sound in which my personal voice resonates with that of others.
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Perhaps that is the deepest meaning of music: that it helps us rediscover ourselves while simultaneously experiencing our connection with the world and with one another. Music is not merely something we listen to; it is a way of being — a resonance that reminds us who we are and what binds us together.
