The Mindbody Prescription: Healing the Body, Healing the Pain
February 8th, 2010
- ISBN13: 9780446675154
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Dr. John E. Sarno’s Healing Back Pain is a New York Times bestseller that has helped over 500,000 readers. Continuing the research since his ground-breaking book, the renowned physician now presents his most complete work yet on the vital connection between mental and bodily health…. Musculoskeletal pain disorders have reached epidemic proportions in the United States, with most doctors failing to recognize their underlying cause. In this acclaimed volume, Dr. Sarno reveals how many painful conditions-including most neck and back pain, migraine, repetitive stress injuries, whiplash, and tendonitises-are rooted in repressed emotions…and shows how they can be successfully treated without drugs, physical measures, or surgery. His innovative program has already produced gratifying results for thousands of patients. The Mindbody Prescription is your invaluable key to a healthy and pain-free life.Amazon.com Review
Dr. John Sarno caused quite a ruckus back in 1990 when he suggested that back pain is all in the head. In his bestselling book, Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection, he claimed that backaches, slipped discs, headaches, and other chronic pains are due to suppressed anger, and that once the cause of the anger is addressed, the pain will vanish. Relieved Amazon.com readers call this book “liberating” and say “it sounds too good to be true, but it is true.” Sarno has returned with The Mindbody Prescription, in which he explains how emotions including guilt, anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem can stimulate the brain to manufacture physical symptoms including fibromyalgia, repetitive strain injuries, migraine headaches, hay fever, colitis, ulcers, and even acne. If these psychosomatic problems all sound a little Freudian, what with the repression of emotions in the unconscious, it’s because Sarno unapologetically borrows from Freud for the basis of his theory and cites childhood trauma as a major source of emotional problems. He also says that his program is a “talking cure” of sorts, since patients must be convinced their pain is rooted in their emotions before healing can begin.
The book reads a bit like psychology text, with Sarno quoting from psychoanalytic theorists including Heinz Kohut and Graeme Taylor and the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition). Sarno walks through the neurophysiology of mindbody disorders, lists the symptoms of dozens of disorders that he believes are emotion-based, and offers a basic program for overcoming psychosomatic pain and illness. His recovery plan includes meditation and sometimes psychotherapy, including behavior modification, and stopping any medication or physical therapy. While Sarno’s ideas seem radical, they were commonly implemented earlier in the 20th century, when psychoanalysis was at its peak of popularity, and they promise to become more accepted in our current era of alternative medical therapies and anger management. –Erica Jorgensen
The Mindbody Prescription: Healing the Body, Healing the Pain
February 8th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
While I certainly agree that a negative attitude can impact an illness and that having a positive forward thinking attutide and not a self-defeating one is very important in treatment the idea that negative thouths or attitude can cause illnes is total bunk! I’ve been striken with 3 auto immune illnesses for 11 years now and I was happy and healthy before them- I didn’t have any negative attitudes UNTIL I became ill and in constant daily unthinkable pain! Who is this author to talk about something that he has no first hand knowlage of!!!
While there is no lab lest for Fibro (or CFS) there is an elevated level of subsance P in the spinal fluid in Fibro patients, as well as several other scientif studies confirming it;s scientific existnace. It’s not IN OUR HEADS!!!!
We fight enough battles for good research and good help from books we don’t need to be discredited at every turn!
Rating: 1 / 5
February 8th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
I actually have found mind/body approaches very helpful in dealing with my medical problems, but this book is really terrible, the least effective approach I’ve seen. Given how helpful mind/body approaches can be, I find it sad that this book, which only works on a limited subset of chronic pain patients, is the only approach that is well advertised. The vast majority of people I know who read this book did not find it helpful. It’s basically a placebo which doesn’t work if you are scientifically minded. Dr. Sarno has no grasp of the scientific method, statistics, or experimental design.
Rating: 1 / 5
February 8th, 2010 at 7:32 pm
Dr. Sarno suggests that most chronic pain is of a psychogenic nature (caused by unconcious, repressed emotions). Being psychogenic also means being psychosomatic, so he is literally saying that for most cases it’s all in your head. His claims are based mostly on speculation and are unscientific. It is true that emotions do contribute to chronic pain, but Dr. Sarno is suggesting that the emotions are the _primary cause_ of the chronic pain and not just a contributing factor. Because emotions due contribute to the pain, his emotional treatment does appear to help (to some extent) for a small number of people. Since you can check this out of your local library for free, it’s at least worth a try even if the chances of it working are slim. In other words, give it a try, but don’t hold your breath.
Rating: 2 / 5
February 8th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
Ever have a cramp in ur leg? Was there anything phyically wrong with it? Probably not, but the pain was sure real. Something in ur little brain short circuited and caused the extreme pain! READ THIS BOOK!
Rating: 5 / 5
February 8th, 2010 at 9:50 pm
much information for me to absorb. Am reading it a second time. Will comment more at a later date. I am interested in contacting someone in southern Orange Country, California, with whom I could consult. Am interested in lectures etc. Appreciate your input. THANKS!
Rating: 5 / 5