Call Him a Youngian

As a psychologist who specializes in and teaches a university course on the psychology of modern music, I appreciate Steve Hochman’s review of Neil Young’s “Are You Passionate?” (April 7).

The cathartic value of music can’t be valued enough in this age of new rage. But there’s a marked difference between vomiting up emotions like the band Disturbed does so disturbingly, or delivering those same bottled-up emotions with both grit and grace.

When it comes to the latter, Neil Young is king.

BRUCE L. THIESSEN

Sacramento