The Mindbody Prescription
Dr. John E. Sarno's Healing Back Pain is a New York Times bestseller that has helped over 500,000 readers. Continuing the research since his groundbreaking book, the renowned physician now presents his most complete work yet on the vital connection between mental and bodily health, The Mindbody Prescription. Musculoskeletal pain disorders have reached epidemic proportions in the United States, with most doctors failing to recognize their underlying cause. In this acclaimed volume, Dr. Sarno reveals how many painful conditions--including most neck and back pain, migraine, repetitive stress injuries, whiplash, and tendonitises--are rooted in repressed emotions... and shows how they can be successfully treated without drugs, physical measures, or surgery. His innovative program has already produced gratifying results for thousands of patients. The Mindbody Prescription is your invaluable key to a healthy and pain-free life.
Stats for nerds
34recommend
64mentions
47people
2008–2024years
77% recommend22% neutral2% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- So I had horrible RSI wrist pain using a computer that no ergo keyboard or touchpad/mouse could solve and I did eventually figure out the source and get better, in part from discussions here on HN. Talking to other people who overcame RSI, they recommended the book The Mindbody Prescription by Dr. John Sarno. So I got the book and I did get better, even though over 90% of the book is Freudian quackery I just skimmed over.
The 10% meat of the book presents evidence the brain has the ability to control bloodflow to extremities. For example, we all know an embarrassed person can blush red in the face due to increased bloodflow caused by the brain processing the emotion of embarrassment. And reproductive arousal certainly involves bloodflow to various regions (not just genitals, but also lips and nipples for women, etc.).
So the theory is that the brain can restrict bloodflow to the arms which causes the numbness and burning that so many with RSI wrist/hand pain experience. The brain does this to us in response to us not processing certain negative emotions. In my case it was abuse from a parent I never consciously thought about. The book goes into stories such as a woman who was sexually abused by her father who, once she began consciously processing her hurt and rage, literally started crying out the chronic pain in her back. I had a somewhat similar experience, but slower and less dramatic. I had tremendous anger at the abusive parent and telling myself "I AM MAD AS F---ING HELL" made the pain go away.
Before this I literally tried thousands on ergo equipment, tried stretches and exercises and pushups and all that, none of it worked. It was my brain causing the problem, and my reluctance to not see it as a brain health issue made my healing process much slower.
- Another one, tying into the theme of "we repress too much anger, it slowly kills us": The Mindbody Prescription
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/361775.The_Mindbody_Pres...
- I'm not sure what the cause of your chronic pain is, but I would highly recommend reading John Sarno's "The Mindbody Prescription." I've dealt with chronic pain for years and it's the only thing that's had any effect. Please, please, don't write it off until you've read the book. Note that Sarno's work focuses on back pain, but it applies to all types of chronic pain (including migraines, which he discusses in the book).
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jQtmSZetJM
- https://aaroniba.net/how-i-cured-my-rsi-pain
- https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/09/well/mind/john-sarno-chro...
- https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/well/chronic-pain.h...
- Has your wife considered that her symptoms are PPD (https://ppdassociation.org/diagnosis), i.e. have a psychological cause which can be unconscious?
I had been suffering from unspecific aches, extreme tiredness, insomnia, sore throats, and other non-specific symptoms for the past 8 months. I had to take months of medical leave and went through 10+ doctors, accumulating negative tests and inconsistent diagnoses as I went along. Then, despairing, I read The Mindbody Prescription by Dr. Sarno and realized that my symptoms were due to repressed unconscious emotions. Since starting a free online recovery program a couple of months ago, I've gotten 80% better and I'm planning to resume work in a couple of weeks.
I know this sounds just like more quackery, but I promise you it isn't. There's more and more peer-reviewed research supporting the theory behind PPD, and the track record of long-term recovered patients speaks for itself. Feel free to email me at me [at] bobmichael [dot] io if you or your wife would like to chat more about this.
- Yeah, I was in a similar place at one point. Check out the book in this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6099623. The book is: https://www.amazon.com/Mindbody-Prescription-Healing-Body-Pa...
I don't know if it was the book, a placebo effect, or something else, but I got better after reading that.
- I’ve learned a lot about RSI over the past year, having spent about 8 months completely unable to type or use a mouse, trying dozens of things and talking to dozens of people. And the main thing I’ve learned is that every story is unique; the right thing for one person might be an absolutely terrible idea for another.
Folks in the comments seem to be making pretty broad statements about what is good or bad, and I just want to let readers know to take everything with a huge grain of salt.
In my case, fear of making things worse was the biggest obstacle — pushing myself to trust that typing isn’t dangerous, even though it hurt, was critical in my recovery. This is awful advice for many people with RSI, though.
My advice: see a physical therapist first. They can often help, or point you in the right direction. If months pass and nothing seems to help, seek out alternative explanations and keep an open mind. Check out The Mindbody Prescription” by Dr Sarno. It was the missing puzzle piece for me.
