Loui Plays at the Intersection of Music, Medicine

Psyche Loui, assistant professor of psychology, assistant professor of neuroscience and behavior, is one-fourth of the musical quartet “Folie à Quatre,” profiled in The Boston Globe. The musicians–all mental health professionals–use “music to explore mental illness from a different angle, performing for patients as well as fellow medical professionals looking to learn more about the mysteries of the human mind,” the article explains. Focusing on brilliant yet troubled composers who may have struggled with mental illness, they treat each as a medical case study while learning one of their musical compositions.

The group performed in Mass. General Hospital after the Boston Marathon bombing; it opened at the World Congress on Heart Disease; and has played at nursing homes, as well as more typical venues like Shakespeare in the Park.

Loui, whose current research at Wesleyan focuses on chills–“the ineffable, spine-tingling feeling of connection that can happen when a person feels moved by music”–told the Globe that “unlike the last quartet she was in, where the group would focus on sections, asking how each ‘envelope’ of the music should sound, Folie à Quatre members will often share how the music makes them feel.”