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| View Larger Image | The Cure Within: A History of Mind-Body Medicine
by Anne Harrington
| | List Price: | $25.95 | | Price: | $15.10 | | You Save: | $10.85 (42%) |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 44958 | | Studio: | W. W. Norton | | | Binding: | Hardcover | | Number Of Pages: | 354 | | Publication Date: | January 21, 2008 | | Publisher: | W. W. Norton |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Lays bare the history behind mind-body healing.
People 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. 36 illustrations. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 6 reviews)
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It's a great book 
Anne Harrington's book is a wonderful account of how we humans keep trying to figure ourselves out, and to define, "what it means to be human." It's a fascinating historical account that everyone should read.
May 31, 2008 | |
A Confusing Message 
Whenever a first-class scholar, like this one, writes a careful, data-based book, which is at the same time accessible to the intelligent lay person, we must be grateful.
This volume tells us much of the history, in the United States, of the various mind-over-body schemes: psychoanalysis, Transcendental Meditation, bio-feedback, Christian Science, and others. Nobody interested in modern American history can afford to ignore this story.
But I also found the book profoundly confusing. The author wants to tell us about these movements and how they were received by the public, but she has little interest, it seems, in the truth value behind the claims of these popular movements. Does bio-feedback, for instance, really help in reducing stress ? For that matter, is there such a thing as "stress" in the sense that the proponents of these movements have in mind ? Truth or untruth are things that hold little interest for this author.
Harrington generally tells the story of the beginnings of these movements as a series of successes, and then, for some reason, time and again, "things begin to unravel," as she has to state time and again. With all her sympathies for "mind-over-body," sympathies that dominate her "narratives" (a favorite phrase of hers), it turns out, generally, and in stark contrast to her enthusiasms, that things don't work out after all, and it would seem -- though she never says this -- that it's probably best to be cynical about the whole lot of these movements.
February 09, 2008 | |
The Cure Within: A History of Mind-Body Medicine
I love this book! Anne Harrington offers an insightful and beautifully written history of human effort at healing. She has identified six narratives, which have deep cultural roots, as well as ties to science. These narratives are sometimes intertwined with scientific endeavors, and sometimes they survive simply as part of the popular culture. Anyone interested in mind-body healing will value The Cure Within.
February 08, 2008 | |
A History Of Alternative Medicine
Anne Harrington has written a comprehensive account of the impact of the healing approaches outside mainstream medicine. Call it mind-body, call it new age, it is an approach that is as old as the Bible with the cures of Jesus. It is not new to our society. Her history traces the mind-body connection stretching from Bibical era to our own, with the bulk of the book focusing on the Age of Enlightenment forward. She has written this definitive history in an unbias and readable fashion .
January 27, 2008 | |
Works for me!
Well documented and fair book. The author does a lot to balance both sides of the issue. Having had 6 orthopedic surgeries in the last two years following an accident, I have managed better with meditation than anything the doctors could offer me. This book and I agree that there are other options out there, and no universal perfect fit, but if you are dissatisfied with care you are getting it is your responsibility to quit complaining and explore your options. It is your body and your life, after all.
January 26, 2008 | |
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