The Mindbody Prescription: Healing the Body, Healing the Pain

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While I'm totally on board with his distrust of contemporary medicine's pervasive medicate/operate mentality, which focuses solely on "cure" and not at all on "cause" or "prevention". Once people are able to identify the psychological factors that are causing their pain, they can begin to retrain their minds and eliminate the pain. Emphasis on self-empowerment When Dr. Sarno wrote this book he was a practicing physician and professor at the New York University School of Medicine and had successfully treated countless patients for chronic pain.

I do not believe doctors are so unaware that emotions can cause disease, as Dr. Sarno states; I just think they might not be aware of how frequent this can be, or how to deal with it. Make a Written List: List all of the stresses, pressures, and anxiety you have in your life, including things that are self-imposed pressures, and any anger or issues from your childhood. These insights challenge conventional wisdom surrounding chronic pain management and provide you with a new approach to healing that emphasizes emotional self-awareness and self-empowerment. I personally don't have much in the way of physical pain, but reading this book highlighted just how much my depression - which I've suffered with, at times very severely, for 25 years - was the result of deeply oppressed aspects of my total self. As such, I think the principles behind this book apply equally to the current epidemic of mental health problems - particularly anxiety and depression - as it did to the 1990s epidemic of various types of physical pain syndromes that Dr. Sarno focusses on mostly in this book. Daily Reflection or Meditation: Dr. Sarno suggests that individuals devote time each day to think about their treatment and gain understanding on how to get betterAlso, perfectionism and goodism might not always be related to low self-regard; it might just be a learned behavior from children with good self regard but over-achieving parents. I’ve done it all and still, my pain woke up with me and laid me down to sleep, night after night/ day after day. The Mindbody Prescription” is written in a clear, concise, and accessible style that benefits you by making complex ideas easy to understand. Dr. Sarno encourages patients to take an active role in their own healing, rather than relying solely on medical professionals to provide a cure.

The solution is simply to become aware of the totality of self. That is, to expand the focus of consciousness to include not only the tyrannical 'upper class', but the whole of society. Once consciousness sees that its goal is to include all elements of the self, allow each one expression, and so find cooperation and harmony between them, then no aspect of the self is a 'problem' anymore. There is no upper class and lower class, just different aspects of society, each with its contribution. That would be a healthy society, and the equivalent with respect to the psyche would be a healthy individual. That I have the power to heal myself. That emotions, though intrinsic to living, important and necessary, if they are out of balance can be very toxic. No more pretty sentences. No more orchestrated thoughts brought together to form a pleasing and meaningful sentence. No more telling myself it’s going to be okay and then shoving my true feelings down because it may come out and what will people think of me then?This is gut work! This is mining! This is getting dirty and taking off the controlled chains that keep me tidy, organized and presentable. Even as flawed and limited a model as MPS is, it still makes TMS look simplistic and rather pointless. TMS was always a shallow idea, and it should have been aborted soon after it was conceived. Unfortunately, decades later, Sarno was still banging the TMS drum. More recent editions of his books still show no sign of awareness that MPS is a much more dominant and mature concept. And he acts like the “discoverer” of the psychology of pain

Dr. John E. Sarno’s book, “The Mindbody Prescription”, delves deeper into the vital connection between mental and bodily health. The invocation of psychoanalytical theory is either too much or too little. It's there for a good reason--to help assuage the doubts of more analytical readers, giving a scientific basis to psychological side of the book. For my taste, it didn't delve far enough--it just let me with a lot more questions.

I feel like I’ve done it all. Yes, there were still other options, but none that I would consider or they were not presented to me at a time that I was willing because it didn’t make sense or I was fed up! If this book gave me anything and everything it is this: My pain is an illusion. It is not real even though it feels that way! It can be healed! I do not have to buy into the mind game that my body is distracting me from identifying what my feelings are and where the pain is being directed to. I get that now. A long time ago, I borrowed one of Sarno’s citations without examining it closely enough. Eventually one of my own readers pointed out that it was a terrible source. I easily replaced it with a much more credible one. This kind of thing is pretty irritating: expert writers have a responsibility not to get sloppy just because they are writing for a less critical audience. Recommended anyway? Let me preface this review with the fact that the rating doesn't apply to Sarno's theory--that many physical ailments have mental causes--but rather to the book itself--to its execution. I feel like I could have gotten everything I needed from this book in the first chapter alone; the rest fel like overwrought redundancy, Sarno laundry-listing all of the ailments that are maybe/possibly/definitely rooted in mental causes.Perfectionists unconsciously set up standards for themselves they cannot possibly meet; their inevitable failure to live up to them results in unconscious shame and rage. Dr. Sarno’s writing is highly readable and easy to follow. He presents his ideas in a logical and organized way.

Another interesting anecdote in this book is the story of Rachel, a patient who suffered from chronic headaches for many years. Despite undergoing numerous medical treatments, including medication and physical therapy, Rachel’s pain persisted. Although much more widely known than TMS, the word about MPS has not exactly spread as far as it could. Some doctors and most manual therapists do know about MPS, but many others remain disconcertingly oblivious even to the phenomenon (let alone its hypothetical explanations and controversies). A methodical and skeptical but funny and diplomatic review of Dr. Howard Schubiner’s ideas about “mind-body syndrome” … which is basically a Sarno clone. It’s the best review of Sarno-like ideas I’ve read! I’m sure there are differences, but nothing of much importance. It also provides case studies of patients who have successfully overcome chronic pain using Dr. Sarno’s approach, which can be helpful in providing real-world examples of how the techniques can be applied. Case studiesWas this book worth reading? Yes, absolutely. Would I consider it the ultimate book on the matter? No. now I am looking for others with a similar view but more recent data. But that is me; I like to dive deep. If you have chronic pain, buy it, it might help. It might be exactly what you need. If I lived in the States, I would make an appointment with him and discuss my questions in person. After all, patients don't come into their office with an emotional complaint, but a physical one; doctors do the best they can with the knowledge they have. When doctors sense a strong emotional state, they usually refer the patient to a psychologist- they pass it on. That can be frustrating for them, and even more to the patient, who feels his symptoms are not being taken seriously. Additionally, this book’s focus on the mind-body connection may be viewed as overly simplistic by some medical professionals, who may argue that chronic pain is caused by a complex interplay of physical, psychological, and social factors.