Amazon.com 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, he's saying that the battle going on in
your mind results in a real physical disorder that 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 realization
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 Back
Pain should not be used for self-diagnosis. Always consult a physician for chronic
or acute back pain.) --Joan Price
Synopsis The renowned author of the classic Mind Over Back Pain has written a new guide
examining revolutionary treatments to relieve pain without exercise, medication, or
physical therapy.