Hidden Within Us; A Radical New Understanding of the Mind-Body Connection
Decades of psychosomatic research, and innumerable books on the mind-body connection, focus on the stress and emotional distress we experience as a cause of medical illness. However, in the studies of many medical conditions, research has failed to confirm this longstanding popular belief or to contribute significantly to treatment.
‘Hidden Within Us’ is truly revolutionary in offering a new understanding that is suspected by neither patients nor physicians, and is missing from both the medical and psychology literature. The main tenets are:
- The mind-body connection is driven by our most powerful emotions,
- We are often unaware of our most powerful emotions because, without conscious effort, they were hidden from our awareness by virtue of repression,
- Repression is not psychopathology; it is a gift of evolution that is a widely unrecognized key component of our resilience in the face of the trauma and overwhelming stress that many encounter in life,
- This understanding can open a new direction in managing many widely encountered yet still inadequately explained and treated medical conditions such as hypertension, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and other pain syndromes, migraine, and possibly many others.
Hidden Within Us; A Radical New Understanding of the Mind-Body Connection
Overview
Compelling case histories will make this new understanding unavoidable to readers. The book starts with the fascinating cases of patients with unexplained and difficult-to-treat forms of hypertension that are attributable to repressed emotions. It then presents similarly revealing stories of patients with other medical conditions. The cases will also convey the potential for healing, even decades later, through awareness, and alternatively through medication. Hidden Within Us then goes on to discuss both the paths and the barriers to healing.
Repression of potentially overwhelming emotion is a necessary though unrecognized gift that silently is a key component of our resilience and enables us to survive emotionally, and thrive. But yes, it can have consequences even years or decades later. Importantly, recognition of this link offers new paths to treatment.
Here are a few typical cases that illustrate the book’s main tenets:
A 22-year-old patient had been suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome for four years. He had grown up in the midst of severe battling between his parents. Even though he had no history of anxiety or depression, his chronic fatigue resolved quickly after beginning treatment with an antidepressant.
A patient had a 10-year history of frequent and severe bouts of hypertension. She had no recent stress, but her history revealed years of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse during her childhood. Her hypertensive episodes ceased with treatment with an antidepressant.
A patient with a 30-year history of migraine headaches experienced cessation of attacks after gaining awareness of emotions related to parental anger and discord.
A patient with hypertension, whose blood pressure remained elevated on five medications, experienced normalization of her blood pressure and elimination of three of the five medications after gaining awareness of emotions related to her experience of rape when she was 14.
Dr. Mann comments: “Hidden Within Us is the first book to demonstrate the long-lasting and unrecognized effects on our physical health of emotions that are hidden from our awareness and offer an explanation for many patients who are suffering from commonly encountered medical conditions whose cause has remained an enigma. I am confident that many readers will see themselves in the book and that the book will trigger insights that can either lead to rapid improvement or to more effective choices in their treatment. It will offer a fascinating read, and open the door to readers, physicians, and psychologists to a radically different understanding of the mind-body connection, and its important treatment implications.”
https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Within-Understanding-Mind-Body-Connection-ebook/dp/B09YZ4CYVC
Perspective from Dr. Arlene Fainblatt
Arlene Feinblatt, a New York State Psychologist who worked with Dr. John E. Sarno, professor, author, and innovative leader in the field of Mindbody Medicine, commented: “Dr. Samuel Mann is one of the few MDs who has always administered care with the total human being in mind. He is acutely aware of the psychological factors affecting medical conditions and the interactions of mind and body on the health of the individual. This book reflects his expert medical perspective about the mind-body connection and its ramifications for health and well-being. It is a joy to read particularly with the case histories included which clarify his unique insights.”
Beyond Mainstream Medical Thinking
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