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Title: Molecules Of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine by Candace B. Pert ISBN: 0-684-84634-9 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 17 February, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.42 (59 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Molecules of ego
Comment: Now don't get me wrong, this is a good book. Pert provides a (Western) scientific perspective on the mind/body question, and provides a lot of food for thought. The idea that our bodies and minds are bound together as one, through a process of transmission and reception of molecules throughout the body (not just in the brain), opens up endless possibilities for keeping ourselves well and healing when that is required. You should read it just to get the layperson's understanding of how this is so. On the other hand, be prepared for another story, the intellectual/emotional biography of Pert. While it makes sense (in keeping with the holistic perspective) to meld the personal and the professional, I'd estimate the ratio as 3 personal to 1 professional, where I would have preferred the opposite. Whether she is displaying hard work, intelligence, naivete or her appreciation of her co-workers' physical attributes, the book seems to be very much about her. If you want the ideas without the ego, read something else on this topic.
Rating: 4
Summary: Neuropeptides and the Evolving Bodymind
Comment: A curious mix of the personal and academic travails of an acclaimed neuroscientist-the woman who codiscovered the endorphin receptor-and her semi-ostracization into a new age world where heterodox approaches to healing are overly welcomed, rather than overly criticized, Candace Perts Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine is an important, if provisional, scientific document chronicling the beginnings of what she calls "the new paradigm." The New Paradigm is Pert's term for a verifiable, hard science field beyond political terms such as "alternative," "complementary," or even "integrative" medicine-a field devoted to human health and wellness that recognizes the deep, peptidally mediated connections between the gastrointestinal, cranial-neural, immunological, and endocrine systems. As Pert emphasizes, the mind is not the brain although the forebrain (the neocortex) is, along with the gut and the heart, one of its crucial nodes. The would-be "magic bullet" approach of institutionalized and governmentally funded western medicine ignores the complexity and mutliple feedback systems of the human organism as a peptidally connected unified field. Endorphins, released by the pituitary gland beneath the brain's limbic system, have effects throughout the body and are found not only in other mammals but in microbes such as Tetrahymena. (The extent to which peptide-producing microbes affect human moods remains an unexplored area.) They cause (and/or are the result of) pleasure, measurably increasing in orgasm and exercise; they are also involved in learning (and probably laughter). But they are only one of hundreds of neurally active peptides dovetailing together to establish mood and filter perception within the human organism. There are seratonin receptors in the gut, and antidepressants active in the brain also have been shown to increase gastrointestinal disorders. Placebo anaesthetics have measurably real chemical effects on pain threshold: psychosomatic may be a matter of suggestion, but it is hardly "all in the mind." Pert, fighting an uphill battle against an entrenched institutionalized morass, has (not without strong emotional involvement on her part) proved the dichotomous narrowness of the mind-versus-body approach endemic to modern, male-dominated western medicine. Ironically, males may be more prone to such over-dichotomization, including that of the mental and the physical, due to their smaller corpus callossums, the fibrous neural mass connecting the brains two hemispheres. We are more like segmented worms than ensouled machines or minds inside the vats of bodies. We have gut feelings and even during adulthood cells in the bone marrow migrate through the body along peptide gradients to form neurons, literally making up one's mind. I learned this in a recent interview with Pert in her office at Georgetown Medical Center. In it-interrupted for phone calls preparing for further work on the peptide-based AIDs drugs Pert has been championing for fifteen years, but is only recently receiving attention-she also told me that she had met many of the top brass in the alternative healing movement. (Photos of her with the pope, and of her with the Dalai Lama adorn her office wall.) As the scientific evidence mounts for the molecular basis of moods in receptor sites finely modulated by roving peptides, the scientific importance of this popular document increases. Virtually every street drug known works by acting on a correlated endogenous receptor. Pert's book, although certainly flawed as literature, stands as a founding document of medicine's "new paradigm"-the fascinating interconnections of a single, peptidergically mediated body-mind.
Rating: 3
Summary: It is more an autobiography then anything else
Comment: This book came highly recommended. I am a scientist but not a biologist. I found the first couple of chapters rather difficult to comprehend since I had absolutely no background in molecular-biology. Because I like a great challenge, I decided to stick with the book and see if I could learn the technical lingo; after several pages into the book, and additional anatomy textbooks, I was able to comprehend what was going on and started to make sense of all the detailed research Dr. Pert was talking about. The downside of this book is that after 160 pages Dr. Pert is still talking about herself, her-misfortune and the roughness of her life being a woman working in a male dominated environment. There is nothing concrete on how one should apply or work with emotions to prevent illnesses until the very end of the book. If one would like to skip the agony of learning a new science and would like to get the just of the book, I suggest reading the last chapter, chapter 13 "Truth" pg 279 and then go to Appendix A and B. Personally, I found this book to be more of an autobiography. If you like autobiographies then it is entertaining but a difficult read if you are looking to better your life by learning from this book I suggest you choose an other author.
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Title: Your Body Is Your Subconscious Mind by Candace B. Pert ISBN: 1564557367 Publisher: Sounds True Pub. Date: May, 2000 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis of Bioenergy Therapies by James L., Ph.D. Oschman, Candace, Ph.D. Pert ISBN: 0443062617 Publisher: Churchill Livingstone Pub. Date: 15 June, 2000 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
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Title: Vibrational Medicine: The #1 Handbook of Subtle-Energy Therapies by Richard, Md. Gerber, Richard Gerber M.D., William A. Tiller, Gabriel Cousens ISBN: 1879181584 Publisher: Inner Traditions Intl Ltd Pub. Date: 15 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: A Practical Guide to Vibrational Medicine : Energy Healing and Spiritual Transformation by Richard Gerber ISBN: 0060959371 Publisher: Quill Pub. Date: 07 August, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The 12 Stages of Healing: A Network Approach to Wholeness by Donald M. Epstein, Nathaniel Altman ISBN: 1878424084 Publisher: Amber-Allen Publishing Pub. Date: October, 1994 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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