Drawing on case studies and personal experiences from his 40 years as a medical doctor and psychiatrist, as well as abundant clinical, experimental and public health data that support his seemingly paradoxical assertions, he presents an exciting, revolutionary approach that will change the way you think about medicine and psychotherapy.
The Healing Paradox: A Revolutionary Approach to Treating and Curing Physical and Mental Illness
by Steven Goldsmith, M.D. —
We often wonder why medicine fails to cure chronic physical and mental illnesses or why many treatments and drugs work only for a limited time before losing effectiveness or producing harmful side effects.
Goldsmith thinks the root of the problem is our combative approach. Instead of resisting and fighting our ailments, we should cooperate with and even embrace them.
We should apply treatments that are integrated with the causes of illness, not regard illness as an enemy.
This “hair of the dog” principle is already widely used.
For example, vaccines and inoculations are small doses of the microbes that cause the diseases being prevented; the stimulant Ritalin is used to calm and ground people with ADD/ADHD; and radiation is both a well-known cause of cancer and a method of treating it.
These are just a few of Goldsmith’s examples, which he relays in clear, evocative and thought-provoking language.
Perhaps most compelling, he explores why this effective principle is ignored by Western medicine.
Drawing on case studies and personal experiences from his 40 years as a medical doctor and psychiatrist, as well as abundant clinical, experimental and public health data that support his seemingly paradoxical assertions, he presents an exciting, revolutionary approach that will change the way you think about medicine and psychotherapy.
$18.95 — North Atlantic Books, P.O. Box 12327, Berkeley, CA 94712.
Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 32, Number 5, October/November 2013.
April 7, 2014
Book review, October/November 2013 Issue