| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| forestfortrees |
Posted - 02/08/2013 : 22:31:13
Hi all,
My life has just been super hectic recently so I haven't been able to post on TMSHelp for a while, but I'm hoping to get back in on the action soon. In the meantime, I am back tonight because there is a new book by two of Dr. Sarno's most trusted psychologists and a call-in book group starting up that I thought the TMSHelp community might want to know about. The book is called Pathways to Pain Relief and was written by Frances Sommer-Anderson, Ph.D., SEP, and Eric Sherman, Psy.D., two psychologists who were trained by Dr. Sarno and who, between them, have about 60 years of experience treating his patients. If you've always wished that you could have the opportunity to be seen by one of the psychoanalysts that Dr. Sarno refers to, this is about as close as you may be able to get to it without actually traveling to NYC.
The book strikes me as important because it is the first book written by two of Dr. Sarno's closest psychologists to go into detail about how the PPD personality develops. In the preface, Dr. Sarno writes, "The authors of this book have had years of experience working with TMS and bring to their interaction with the patient not only their knowledge of TMS but great sensitivity and insight into the mysterious ways of the human unconscious. They have been of crucial importance in the lives of many of our patients. The case histories in this book are illustrative of their successful management of people with severe TMS." (January 2010)
One person wrote the following to me about the book:
quote:
I just finished reading the book and it was a moving read. Eric Sherman and Frances Sommer Anderson serve as our Virgil in the exploration of the TMS personality and psyche. The depth of their explanation of perfectionism, goodism, and anger are thorough and informative. Great description of the psychological underpinnings of TMS.
Reader beware, you will be uncomfortable during some portions of this book, especially if you are not ready to face some of the insights the authors have. This book is like holding a mirror up to your soul.
Forest, just wait until you get to Dr. Anderson’s chapters. I felt like I was sitting in the room with her and her patient during their session. Some parts were pretty intense. I have to say though, that all of the patients in these case stories are very courageous. Thank you both to Drs. Anderson and Sherman, as well as their patients for sharing these moving accounts.
I'll spare you the wall of text you'd have if I pasted my own review in, but if you're interested you can read it (it includes some of my own success story) on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2OFRX76KBX0VC/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00B4DFATS&channel=detail-glance&nodeID=133140011&store=digital-text
(please like it if you find it helpful... I put a lot of effort into it)
The book is currently only available as a Kindle ebook ($12). It can be read within minutes of purchase on your PC, mac, phone or tablet or even over the internet. When the book was first announced, I signed up to be announced when it was published, and I'll paste in the official details at the end. It has information about how to purchase.
As you can probably tell, I'm pretty excited about the book, so I thought I'd organize a call-in book group for it. Our organizational meeting will be later on today (Saturday) at 2:00 EST (Eastern Sarno Time). While a couple people may have purchased the book already, I bet that most people will still be deciding, so I will talk for a little while about the book and what I found helpful in it. Then we'll decide how far we all want to read for the following week, discuss one or two other organizational questions and will open it up to general discussion about TMS. Anyone is welcome to call in whether they have read the book or not and whether they want to talk or not. Identifying yourself by your screen name is encouraged. All are welcome. For those of you who can't join the book group, we want you to be able to listen in, so we will be recording portions of the calls.
You can connect to the call either via your phone or over the internet. To connect via phone, just dial 646-583-7415 at 1:55 EST and enter the pin code 21558901 when prompted. To connect over the internet, watch this video (that's me! cute, eh?). The video has important instructions, so please do not skip it and please try to connect starting at 1:45, because things are sure to get hectic later. To follow the instructions, you will need this link. If it asks for a meeting number, the number is 18311499. If you have any difficulty connecting, feel free to email me at ForestForTreesWeb@gmail.com . I will be checking that account all morning, so should be able to get back to you quickly. I'll also check this thread.
I hope you will consider dropping by and listening in to our first meeting, but, if not, I hope you get the book anyway. It's a terrific book and definitely worth the read.
Forest
My Video Success Story
www.thankyoudrsarno.org
Here's the official announcement I mentioned above:
Pathways to Pain Relief
An ebook* by authors Frances Sommer Anderson and Eric Sherman with Foreword by John E. Sarno, MD, is now available on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B4DFATS
Based upon the pioneering work of John E. Sarno, MD, retired Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, Pathways to Pain Relief embraces the position that musculoskeletal pain and other psychophysiologic disorders can originate from psychological experiences as a means to protect an individual from unbearable emotional distress. This book details how treatment has worked from both the patient’s and the therapist’s perspectives. For more information on Dr. Frances Sommer Anderson and Dr. Eric Sherman, please visithttp://pathwaystopainrelief.com
*Don’t own a Kindle Reader? No problem: Now you can read Pathways to Pain Relief on your Mac/Windows PC, iPad, iPhone, Android device, Blackberry, and more! Just download the FREE Kindle Reading App for your device available from Amazon: Kindle Reading App |
| 20 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| forestfortrees |
Posted - 02/15/2013 : 17:07:57
Hi bjackson,
I don't think that there are any plans for this. On the email mailing list used by TMS Therapists, someone asked that question. Dr. Anderson responded by saying that "If and when we get it into paper, we'll let you know!" However, if I hear anything else, I'll be sure to let the TMSHelp community know.
If you're considering getting the book but aren't sure, I encourage you to call in tomorrow. I'd be happy to answer any questions you have. It's also not too late to join the group, for anyone who is interested. We'll only be about 20 pages in and we plan to keep going slowly so that the most people can participate.
We're also discussing SteveO's The Great Pain Deception and another great book by Gabor Mate entitled When the Body Says No. We're going super slow on those books as well. It's really just about having a good discussion.
Hope this helps!
F
My Video Success Story
www.thankyoudrsarno.org
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| bjackson034 |
Posted - 02/15/2013 : 12:38:57
This book looks interesting, do you know if it's coming out in actual book form? |
| forestfortrees |
Posted - 02/14/2013 : 21:52:04
Hey folks, for anyone interested in the reading group, we we will have another one this Saturday (February 16th), at 2:00pm. We will start discussing the first portion of Pathways to Pain Relief, including the foreword by Dr. Sarno and the first four sections by Dr. Anderson. It’s only about 20 or so pages, so it shouldn’t take more than about an hour to catch up. As I mentioned before, the book can be downloaded instantly for only $12. For connection details, I have created a Wiki page: Saturday TMS Book Discussion Group.
An audio recording of the last reading group is now available as a YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1sdkavt5nM
I talked perhaps for a bit too long, giving people background on the authors, but, later on the discussion heats up and things get a bit more interesting. Eventually, the recording will be available as a downloadable MP3 to put on your phone (one piece of the required software is still being shipped). When it is, I’ll update this thread.
Speaking of this thread, it has been a fascinating one, and I have to admit, I have had some difficulty keeping up with it. This is a great forum, and I wish I had more time to post on it. There is only so much time during the day, and I try to focus on the areas where I can have the largest contribution and where I can help the most amount of people. For me, this involves volunteering at the two nonprofits, which takes up more time than I would like to tell my girlfriend.
Shawn, I totally get your point that it is hard to accept something that you can’t sense directly, and I don’t blame you for applying Occam’s razor. I believe in Sarno’s theory just because it has worked for so many people, and while I definitely do believe that the unconscious is trying to protect us, I actually think the bio-medical approach Ace is describing works well with Dr. Sarno’s theories. I actually brought up a related idea with Alan Gordon a while back, and he thought the idea made sense.
In general though, I always think the most important thing we all need to know is what Dr. Sarno wrote in the foreword: the origin of the symptoms is entirely psychosomatic. Of course we want to have a clear understanding of the mechanism and biology behind TMS, but in terms of our recovery the most important thing is knowing that the origin of the symptoms is entirely psychosomatic, figuring out how to apply this knowledge to our lives, and developing ways to soothe our minds.
Speaking of ways to de-rev our minds, I am in the process of reading Ace’s keys to healing and think they are great. I am a deep fan of Sarno, but feel like Ace’s ideas are very helpful in applying Sarno’s teachings. Thanks a lot for writing those.
Likewise I loved your post clarifying the unconscious, Ace. I thought it showed your training as a physician in terms of its very modern understanding of the unconscious. There are some significant movements among psychoanalysts, particularly in regards to neuroscience that your post reminded me of. For anyone who's interested, Wikipedia refers to this as neuro-psychoanalysis:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-psychoanalysis
Personally, I am really excited about neuro-psychoanalysis and the potential it has to help us understand TMS and the unconscious. I sent an email to SteveO telling him how excited I am about this area, and saying that I hoped he would write about it. Of course Steve is so brilliant I am sure he has his own ideas on what he wants to cover next.
In the meantime, a couple really good books about the subject are Richard Davidson’s “The Emotional Life of Your Brain,” Joseph Ledoux’s classic text, “The Emotional Brain,” and a new book entitled “The Archaeology of Mind,” by Jaak Panksepp. Davidson’s book is a nice easy read and tells a story the same way that Candace Pert’s Molecules of Emotion does. Davidson’s book is slightly more up-to-date being published in 2012 instead of 1999, and it focuses on brain regions and emotional style. I know that MatthewNJ is huge fan of Davidson's book (his success story is great, too).
Dr. Fran Anderson, one of the coauthors of Pathways, is interested in this as well. In the introduction of Pathways to Pain Relief she says: "My treatment approach is also influenced by 1) Allan Schore’s integration of data from the psychoanalytic theory of development, neurobiology of attachment [and SteveO is all about attachment/tracordification-F], and the neuroscience of emotional regulation [which reminds me of Ace -F]; 2) Daniel Siegel’s “interpersonal neurobiology” which captures the complexity of the interpenetration of the psychological and the neurobiological realms of theorizing; and 3) Wilma Bucci’s research on the bodily basis of emotional and cognitive processing." It seems like psychoanalysis has changed a lot in the last few years, and Dr. Anderson, with her amazing CV, is at the forefront of the field. ... yet another reason why I am so excited about this book.
My Video Success Story
www.thankyoudrsarno.org
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| tennis tom |
Posted - 02/12/2013 : 22:51:40
What Is a Defense Mechanism?
By Kendra Cherry, About.com Guide
Definition:
Most notably used by Sigmund Freud in his psychoanalytic theory, a defense mechanism is a tactic developed by the ego to protect against anxiety. Defense mechanisms are thought to safeguard the mind against feelings and thoughts that are too difficult for the conscious mind to cope with. In some instances, defense mechanisms are thought to keep inappropriate or unwanted thoughts and impulses from entering the conscious mind.
For example, if you are faced with a particularly unpleasant task, your mind may choose to forget your responsibility in order to avoid the dreaded assignment. In addition to forgetting, other defense mechanisms include rationalization, denial, repression, projection, rejection and reaction formation.
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| alix |
Posted - 02/12/2013 : 13:48:14
Balto, I don't think we are very far apart. We are the product of our experiences.
I don't see the subconscious as a highly intelligent entity. I see it as a decision making machine (some sort of binary decision tree) that went haywire at some point. I also do not agree with the "protection" the pain gives us against repressed emotions. My view is that the binary decision tree malfunctions based on a stress overload that did not get registered correctly. But just that fact does not negate the unconscious mind for me. |
| tennis tom |
Posted - 02/12/2013 : 08:41:50
quote:
Originally posted by jegol71
...What about the ignored mind? That's what we do. Don't even have to say repressed. The rub lies therein: an ignored cut knits at the finger; yet an ignored emotion, or perhaps an ignored reaction, is not a strictly-speaking organic and resolvable.
If you put the present moment in the numerator, and all we've been through in the denominator including now, you arrive at a ratio of what it means to be human: coping with what have now - moving ahead- while adding it to the whole of what we've been.
We are more complex everyday, adding circuits in series day by day. We can't change that. In that sense, we are inevitably drifting towards an entropy that the mindbody cannot console, and we attempt to balance it with meaning at every hard interval.
That is the strain of what we have, and why thinking even about the abstract assumption that we must be strained is doing the right work towards healing. We have burdens, allostatic loads and narratives (etc.) that are only as reliable as they need to be to keep us moving. By being present, mindful, decompressing, one can stop all narratives in their tracks, and elicit the sensation of what it means to have lived, without reacting to how that was. Ergo, choice and peace are almost the same thing.
The above bears repeating, so I will. I would read it until fully understood; look up the hard words if needed. J7, pretty well sums up TMS and it's relationship to the meaning of life. GOOD JOB! |
| Ace1 |
Posted - 02/12/2013 : 07:20:40
Ok I'd like to explain Helen's story from a different perpective and tell me if this makes sense. Helen was supposedliy cured 1 year before going to the group meetings were she relived her child abuse in her mind. Please refer back to #7 on my key to healing which states "It is also important to note that situations that you have not deconditioned yourself to will produce symptoms in you that make you feel that you have made no progress even if you’re close to being cured. Don't let this disway you as you only need to decondition yourself to these situations as well." It was as if the reliving of the traumatic event brought back that conditioned reaction which led to worsening and worsening pain. This then shifted to psychosis (an equivalent). She was probably thinking a lot of negative thoughts like - how could I have let that happen?, how could he do that to me? As she was supported by her husband and possibly described to him what had happened, she may have had a release in the tension of holding secrets back by letting it all out. After that episode we are told she is now "cured", but in reality, she went back to the state she was in prior to attending those meetings. If this was really a problem in her unconscious that needed expulsion, then she would NOT have been cured for a whole year before this event. |
| balto |
Posted - 02/12/2013 : 05:38:29
quote:
Originally posted by alix
Balto, My lower back has never hurt in my life and while I do the TMS work, I get a giant jolt in the lower back! Do you really believe that is all conscious?
Why would I get that jolt if it is just a conscious thought? It never happened before in my life and I had plenty of time to think about mortality without consequences.
I don't know Alix, I don't know what exactly is in your mind at the time. I don't know what negative emotion you're having at the time. I just thought that you probably just live through some traumatic events. Or you went through a depressing or stressful period... something recently happened that made you tense, that filled your mind with negative thoughts, negative emotions... and at some breaking point, the symptoms appear.
I just have a different belief than you had about what caused the symptoms. Discussing mindbody illnesses is like discussing about religions. No one is going to win, each of us just have to pick our own belief I guess.
the thing I thought is silly about repressed rage theory is when I asked myself: I suffered for 20 years of continuous pain, that should be long enough to drain empty thousand of my "reservoirs of rage", why the pain last so long? Why my subconscious mind don't come running to help me supress this pain? Why it didn't turn off the distraction mechanism and save me, after 20 years?...
Let just agree to disagree. We don't really need to know the cause of our symptoms to heal anyway.
------------------------
No, I don't know everything. I'm just here to share my experience. |
| shawnsmith |
Posted - 02/12/2013 : 05:16:29
quote:
Originally posted by EileenTM
What convinced me there was a reservoir of rage was Dr. Sarno's story about Helen in the Mind Body Prescription.
You may have noticed, however, that Helen's case was an extremely rare exception, so I don't know if we want to use such a case as an example. |
| plum |
Posted - 02/12/2013 : 01:15:35
quote:
Originally posted by jegol71
Is fearing mortality a form of suicide?
When the dance is sacrificed to God, what becomes of the dancer? |
| alix |
Posted - 02/11/2013 : 22:39:01
Balto, My lower back has never hurt in my life and while I do the TMS work, I get a giant jolt in the lower back! Do you really believe that is all conscious?
Why would I get that jolt if it is just a conscious thought? It never happened before in my life and I had plenty of time to think about mortality without consequences. |
| eric watson |
Posted - 02/11/2013 : 20:56:47
look shawn i see that you have delt with your repression
gone over them till it was enough
im not saying for you shawn to go back to your repressions
i really think all you have to do is aces keys
i was just commenting on what we all know as the subconscious-the holy spirit-the go with your gut thing-that feeling and etc-
we can call it what we want but for the site and in science its still called -well ya know.
i wasnt even going there but i had to say what i said for a reason
i had a gut feeling it needed to be expressed-not to make shawn or you ace of less affect.
i needed to know what i missed.but at the same time i had to know why the names were being changed
see the hallmark is we face the repressions that lie in our sub-un-gut-spirit-call it what you will and i did defend the subconscious not to argue but to get to the bottom of what did i miss
really if we take that out-it makes sarnos books hard to understand you see
but shawn your passed that and if you still like me and i think you do
i would love to finish our conversation on the phone soon
ace if you believe slightly different than sarno then i really respect that.your name is in my profile.so to make a long story short.
i didnt understand the animosity of the word-now i do-
i know we have stressors everyday that keep us reved up and tense
we have to learn to get them under control.
i did notice how all the stress seemed to flood me after i healed
so i just kicked the meditations and affirmations in overdrive
if we think its easy on the mind after we heal-just be prepared
we have to really learn to change a lot-and stay changed
its like a whole makeover....
now did you see what i said there at the end chickenbone
i had stress flood me after i healed-now if my mind was keeping me from this rage,
and i learned how to heal from the tms-which is keeping me safe from the rage, then where did the flood of stressful emotions come from?
something to think about-
it was like i had to learn to be calm again and i did.....
|
| EileenTM |
Posted - 02/11/2013 : 20:26:41
What convinced me there was a reservoir of rage was Dr. Sarno's story about Helen in the Mind Body Prescription. At middle age she had memories of childhood sexual abuse. She got bad back pain, and then repression broke down and her repressed feelings came pouring out. If you haven't read that account, it is quite convincing. Anyway Dr. Sarno says it rarely happens. And we don't need that to happen to heal.
I also have had times where an event happened and I knew I should feel something like anger or fear and I felt nothing. It was always puzzling to me. Now I know. Repression at work.
Also I am one of the ones for whom complicated healing does not work very well.
Journalling has not done much.
When I get symptoms I do 2 things that mostly seem to work.
I just run thru in my head what could be causing it and rattle off a litany of stressors.
And I yell at it. The firmer the better. That actually works quite well.
Also, Dr. Sarno emphasizes that denial of the syndrome is part of the syndrome.
In my case, I accept the concept, but my trigger was always looking for something more.
The next book, etc. That was my distraction and it worked well. Now I just try to keep it simple. Steve O's book was a big help because i have very strange symptoms and he talks about more than just back pain.
I laugh sometimes because they are so unusual.
Good luck, you can do this! There are lots of success stories. |
| shawnsmith |
Posted - 02/11/2013 : 18:20:22
quote:
Originally posted by alix
Shawn, have you experienced the pain moving around.....
Take a look at my profile to see where in my body the pain has manifested. Yes, one of the hallmarks of TMS is that the pain moves around. |
| shawnsmith |
Posted - 02/11/2013 : 18:18:24
quote:
Originally posted by jegol71
Is fearing mortality a form of suicide?
No, it is being human. Let's face it, as much as it sucks to even think about it, we are all going to eventually die. |
| jegol71 |
Posted - 02/11/2013 : 18:13:20
Is fearing mortality a form of suicide? |
| balto |
Posted - 02/11/2013 : 18:02:23
quote:
Originally posted by alix
Shawn, have you experienced the pain moving around when you explore painful emotions?
It has for me when I was thinking about simple things like aging or mortality. An unbelievably sharp jolt in the back or the knee. Not random at all (I have no back or knee pain). Where is that coming from?
From you Alix. If you don't think about it, it wouldn't hurt you. You brought the thought into your mind. It didn't come from your "subconscious mind".
------------------------
No, I don't know everything. I'm just here to share my experience. |
| alix |
Posted - 02/11/2013 : 16:30:45
Shawn, have you experienced the pain moving around when you explore painful emotions?
It has for me when I was thinking about simple things like aging or mortality. An unbelievably sharp jolt in the back or the knee. Not random at all (I have no back or knee pain). Where is that coming from? |
| shawnsmith |
Posted - 02/11/2013 : 14:08:59
That was well stated jegol71. |
| jegol71 |
Posted - 02/11/2013 : 13:18:58
We all agree and could hug were it not for the language.
What about the ignored mind? That's what we do. Don't even have to say repressed. The rub lies therein: an ignored cut knits at the finger; yet an ignored emotion, or perhaps an ignored reaction, is not a strictly-speaking organic and resolvable.
If you put the present moment in the numerator, and all we've been through in the denominator including now, you arrive at a ratio of what it means to be human: coping with what have now - moving ahead- while adding it to the whole of what we've been.
We are more complex everyday, adding circuits in series day by day. We can't change that. In that sense, we are inevitably drifting towards an entropy that the mindbody cannot console, and we attempt to balance it with meaning at every hard interval.
That is the strain of what we have, and why thinking even about the abstract assumption that we must be strained is doing the right work towards healing. We have burdens, allostatic loads and narratives (etc.) that are only as reliable as they need to be to keep us moving. By being present, mindful, decompressing, one can stop all narratives in their tracks, and elicit the sensation of what it means to have lived, without reacting to how that was. Ergo, choice and peace are almost the same thing.
I hope this helps and doesn't sound like the ramblings of the syphilitic kangaroo I saw at the discount zoo.
Really, Shawn (et al)- we care. |
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