Product Description

An examination of recent treatments designed to relieve back pain without resort to exercise, medication or physical therapy

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17513 in Books
• Published on: 1991-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Healing Back Pain promises permanent elimination of back pain without drugs, surgery or exercise. It should have been titled Understanding TMS Pain, because it discusses one particular cause of back pain---Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS)--and isn't really a program for self-treatment, with only five pages of action plan (and many more pages telling why conventional methods don't work). According to John E. Sarno, M.D., TMS is the major cause of pain in the back, neck, shoulders, buttocks and limbs--and it is caused not by structural abnormalities but by the mind's effort to repress emotions. He's not saying that your pain is all in your head; rather, that the battle going on in your mind results in a real physical disorder, which may affect muscles, nerves, tendons or ligaments. An injury may have triggered the disorder, but is not the cause of the amount or intensity of the resulting pain. According to Sarno, the mind tricks you into not facing repressed emotion by making you focus on pain in the body. When this realisation sinks in ("and it must sink in, for mere intellectual appreciation of the process is not enough"),the trick doesn't work any more and there's no need for the pain.(Healing BackPain should not be used for self-diagnosis. Always consult a physician for chronic or acute back pain). --Joan Price

Customer Reviews

Worth a look.
I think this book will be most helpful for people who have been suffering with back pain for a long period of time (months to years). Most back pain lasts only a short time, and if it persists, you probably either have a really serious medical problem (that is usually obvious) or there are psychological factors involved.

If you've been through the conventional medical system with your back pain for a long time with no satisfaction, have had many physical treatments (such as heat, massage, manipulation, etc.) with no relief, AND have had serious back pain issues ruled out, then I say it would be well worth your while to at least check out this book. While there are true physical causes of back pain that are not psychological, this book will make you think about any stress related issues that could be a part of your pain. Other self-help books I liked include The 5-Minute Plantar Fasciitis Solution. Good luck!

Magic Isn't Logical
Friends have been recommending Dr. Sarno's book to me for years but I ignored them because my back was fine. They told me it was an amazing book even if you didn't have back pain. When I hurt my back I hobbled out to get this book and it healed me...instantly! I thought it was miraculous that I didn't have to "do" anything and I was suddenly healed. Dr. Sarno explains the mind body connection in a brilliant and logical way. You've got to read it to believe it.

Other books that heal instantaneously are Working on Yourself Doesn't Work: The 3 Simple Ideas That Will Instantaneously Transform Your Life,Being Here: Modern Day Tales of Enlightenment andHow to Create a Magical Relationship: The 3 Simple Ideas that Will Instantaneously Transform Your Love Life. Dr. Sarno and the Kanes' work are magical and I highly recommend these books.

Very very limited
First I am a great believer in the mind body connection. Over the years I've found various physical problems had their root in my emotional state, so I'll give it two stars for the fact that if emotions are the cause of your pain emotional release will almost certainly fix it.

He takes it for granted that everyone reading this book is in the emotional cause category, and a lot of what he says is both ignorant and supremely arrogant. I find it hard to have any respect for a man who a) states that all injuries heal within six weeks no matter what and b)that the body doesn't suffer pain from physical damage in the spine.

He also states that no help from osteopathy, chiropractitioners, acupuncture, physiotherapy or exercise is ever worthwhile, useful or lasting. Any intervention that seems to work is in fact a placebo, regardless of how the pain started or its cause. If you believe this as well maybe you will find the book helpful.

I wanted this book to be able to help my agonising pain months after a severe accident, or at least be useful somehow - but his reason for pain lasting was that then you could sue someone. Maybe in some cases but not mine. I didn't like it as you may have guessed, but my main reason for not doing so wasn't his ridiculous observations - there were plenty of them - but the lack of any real help of any kind. His book consists almost entirely of his case histories where he describes the character and suppressions of his clients in detail and then says that after hearing his advice they were healed within a month.

The actual advice is that we all have a well of rage within us and that it is the well of rage that causes all our pain, once we accept this our pain is gone. We don't have to heal the rage, just acknowledge it.

What about those who do accept the well of rage already, who are in touch with their weaknesses, failings, frustrations etc and have already experienced therapy for their minds/emotions? A good question, and one that isn't so much as mentioned in this book. But to me his greatest failing, and - given his blithe 'Do everything and ignore the pain' advice - his most dangerous one, is that nowhere does he acknowledge that there may be times when the damage isn't just in the mind but has real and unignorable physical causes. John Sarno is a perfect example of the old adage 'To a hammer everything looks like a nail'