The Cure Within: A History of Mind-body MedicinePeople suffering from serious illnesses improve their survival chances by adopting a positive attitude and refusing to believe in the worst. Stress is the great killer of modern life. Ancient Eastern mind-body techniques can bring us balance and healing. We've all heard claims like these, and many find them plausible. When it comes to disease and healing, we believe we must look beyond doctors and drugs; we must look within ourselves. Faith, relationships, and attitude matter. But why do we believe such things? From psychoanalysis to the placebo effect to meditation, this vibrant history describes our commitments to mind-body healing as rooted in a patchwork of stories that have allowed people to make new sense of their suffering, express discontent with existing care, and rationalize new treatments and lifestyles. These stories are sometimes supported by science, sometimes quarrel with science, but are all ultimately about much more than just science. |
Contents
Acknowledgments | 9 |
STORIES SCIENCE AND CULTURE UNDER THE SKIN | 15 |
THE POWER OF SUGGESTION | 31 |
THE BODY THAT SPEAKS | 67 |
THE POWER OE POSITIVE THINKING | 103 |
BROKEN BY MODERN LIFE | 139 |
HEALING TIES | 175 |
EASTWARD JOURNEYS | 205 |
MAKING SENSE OF MINDBODY MEDICINE | 243 |
Notes | 257 |
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American animal magnetism Anne Harrington available online began believe Bernheim Bill Moyers brain breast cancer Buddhist called cancer patients changes Charcot China Chinese Christian Science chronic cited clinical colleagues convulsions Coronary culture cure Dalai Lama demon developed disorders doctors Eastward journeys emotional experience Freud Groddeck Hans Selye Harvard healing heart disease Herbert Benson History hypnosis hysteria ideas illness immune system insisted Jon Kabat-Zinn Journal Kabat-Zinn kind laboratory later live Lourdes Maharishi mainstream meditation Mesmer mind mind-body medicine modern narrative Norman Vincent Peale person physical physician physiological placebo effect positive thinking power of positive power of suggestion practice psychoanalytic psychological Psychosomatic Medicine published qigong religious response Robert Ader Roseto scientific scientists Selye sense Sigmund Freud skeptical social support Spiegel story stress symptoms therapeutic therapy things Tibetan Tibetan Buddhism tion told traditional treatment Type A behavior University Press word York