Mind-Body Unity

Book excerpt: Over the past twenty years, an explosion of scientific studies have helped to explain why our state of mind may exert such a strong influence on the state of our health. In Mind-Body Unity science writer Henry Dreher weighs the results of leading-edge mind-body research, and he concludes that mind and body are not merely connected, they are unified. Our minds play a role in health, Dreher argues, the way our eyes play a role in sight. Integrating biological research on mind-body unity with psychosocial research on emotions in human health, Dreher surveys remarkable findings on the role of emotions, coping, and personality in coronary heart disease; on psychosocial factors in cancer progression and survival; and on the social dimensions of human health. He also describes mind-body approaches to the treatment of cancer, women's health conditions, somatization disorder, and in surgery. Finally, Dreher provides a critical overview of the social and political context of this research, from the presentations of leading popularizers such as Bernie Siegel and Deepak Chopra, to the experiences of practitioners and patients, to the resistance of mainstream medicine, to the many exciting possibilities suggested by a deeper understanding of how mind and body are inextricably bound.