title: The Mindbody Prescription: Healing the Body, Healing the Pain
author:  John E. Sarno 
description: Dr. John Sarno caused quite a ruckus back in 1990 when he suggested that back pain is all in the head. In his bestselling book, <i><a href="/exec/obidos/ASIN/0446392308/${0}">Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection</a></i>, he claimed that backaches, slipped discs, headaches, and other chronic pains are due to suppressed anger, and that once the cause of the anger is addressed, the pain will vanish. Relieved Amazon.com readers call this book "liberating" and say "it sounds too good to be true, but it is true." Sarno has returned with <i>The Mindbody Prescription</i>, in which he explains how emotions including guilt, anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem can stimulate the brain to manufacture physical symptoms including fibromyalgia, repetitive strain injuries, migraine headaches, hay fever, colitis, ulcers, and even acne. If these psychosomatic problems all sound a little Freudian, what with the repression of emotions in the unconscious, it's because Sarno unapologetically borrows from Freud for the basis of his theory and cites childhood trauma as a major source of emotional problems. He also says that his program is a "talking cure" of sorts, since patients must be convinced their pain is rooted in their emotions before healing can begin.
zlib_text: Medicine of the Mind v. 08.17, www.philaletheians.co.uk, 21 September 2017 
  Page 1 of 12 
  Medicine of the Mind 
  Vairagya, Ataraxia, Dispassion 
   
   
  
  LIVING THE LIFE SERIES 
  MEDICINE OF THE MIND 
  Medicine of the Mind v. 08.17, www.philaletheians.co.uk, 21 September 2017 
  Page 2 of 12 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Abstract and train of thoughts 
  Wisdom is acquaintance with all divine and human affairs, and knowledge of the 
  cause of everything. 
  Virtue is the good of the mind: it follows, therefore, that a happy life depends on vir-
  tue. Pain is virtue’s sharpest adversary. Pain and pleasure are trifling and effeminate 
  sentiments peculiar to the lower self. Fortitude is fearless obedience to reason. To her 
  followers, prudence teaches a good life and secures a happy one. 
  The aim of life is neither applause nor profit, but to merely experience it on behalf of 
  the silent observer within. By exercising authority over his lower self, the wise man 
  opposes pain as he would an enemy. Armed with contention