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Instinct to Heal, The: Curing Stress, Anxiety, and Depression Without Drugs
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Product Description
Recent discoveries about the emotional brain show we can heal naturally from stress and depression. Award-winning psychiatrist and neuroscientist David Servan-Schreiber, M.D., Ph.D., presents seven methods for faster, more dramatic, and permanent results for patients who want to leave suffering behind and live joyful, happy lives. The methods presented in this book, taken from case histories, have all been proven to work in clinical tests. They are based on the self-healing mechanisms of the emotional brain, which controls the body, as opposed to the cognitive brain, which manipulates symbols and language. Dr. Servan-Schreiber considers the influence of the heart upon the brain, explores the use of EMDR (eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing) to recover from trauma, and explains how to reset your biological clock to avoid symptoms from seasonal depression. We learn how the biochemistry of touch and love can heal emotional wounds, and we also learn how to use acupuncture, nutrition, and exercise to control our moods. An international bestseller, this is the first book on the market to answer the public`s questions about the new alternatives to conventional psychopharmaceuticals, as well as traditional talk therapy. By reprogramming their emotional brains, people struggling with stress, anxiety, and depression can rediscover the balance and well-being needed to transform their lives.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #313008 in Books
- Published on: 2004-02-03
- Original language: English
- Binding: Hardcover
- 304 pages
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Pointing to the stark statistic that more than 11 million Americans currently take antidepressants, Servan-Schreiber, psychiatrist and co-founder of the University of Pittsbugh's Center for Complementary Medicine, offers seven natural treatments for stress-related disorders. Honed by his travels as a Doctors Without Borders founder, Servan-Schreiber's holistic approach involves neither drugs nor traditional talk therapies (which he notes have never been proven effective), but relies on the brain's own healing mechanism. Combining solid scientific data, diagrams and anecdotal evidence in a highly accessible format, the author smoothly guides readers through alternative therapies, including acupuncture, dawn simulation, heart coherence and nutrition, "a field almost entirely abandoned" by today's mental health professionals, but of vital importance, he notes, to such conditions as postpartum depression and bipolar disorder. While admitting all treatments should ideally submit to a rigorous controlled study, the author laments the lack of economic interest on the part of pharmaceutical companies to study anything unpatentable. A final section, with tips and techniques on improving communication in personal relationships and integrating therapies into daily life nicely rounds out this valuable resource.
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Review
"Written with grace and elegance, this book might well become the most important mental health landmark of this generation."--Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Ph.D., bestselling author of Flow, Being Adolescent, The Evolving Self, and Creativity
"The Instinct to Heal is a fascinating account of unorthodox approaches to treating the emotional brain and mind. I learned a lot."--Joseph LeDoux, Ph.D., the Henry and Lucy Moses Professor of Science at New York University and author of The Emotional Brain and Synaptic Self
"The Instinct to Heal will help anyone expand their concept of health and health care to a more majestic level."--Larry Dossey, M.D., bestselling author of Healing Beyond the Body, Reinventing Medicine, and Healing Words
"A brilliant, absorbing synthesis of science, experience, and thought, by an internationally known neuroscientist and clinician ... essential reading for all those who want to understand the frontiers of mind-body health."--Michael Lerner, Ph.D., author of Choices in Healing
From the Inside Flap
Americans seek therapy in record numbers and consume more medications than ever before, yet stress, anxiety, and depression continue to rise to epidemic proportions. People can spend years on the psychoanalytic couch without making any progress. And for many psychiatrists, the prescription-writing reflex has become almost automatic, despite the fact that benefits often disappear as soon as drug treatment stops. Standard treatments simply aren't long-term solutions.
But psychiatrist/neurologist David Servan-Schreiber, M.D., Ph.D., knows that we can cure our emotional pain. He's seen certain natural methods produce tremendous results in his clinical practice, in that of his peers, and even in war-torn regions where horrific memories can leave deep scars.
Numerous studies in prestigious scientific journals have documented the amazing benefits of these methods on anxiety and depression, but because the mechanisms through which they operate remain poorly understood, they've remained largely excluded from mainstream medicine and psychiatry. Dr. Servan-Schreiber explains how each of the natural methods in this ensemble treatment plan can help us escape the therapy/drug trap by working through the body to tap into the emotional brain's self-healing processes rather than relying on the cognitive process of language.
Weaving fascinating accounts of his firsthand experience and findings together with the research of hundreds of other esteemed scientists, Dr. Servan-Schreiber outlines a program that's becoming embraced throughout the world as a permanent cure for emotional pain. See how you, too, can tap into The Instinct to Heal.
"This book, the translation of research findings into meaningful clinical insights and practice, bears the unmistakable signature of Dr. Servan-Schreiber's unique abilities and voice, which echo with humor, wisdom, and compassion." --Jonathan D. Cohen, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Center for the Study of Brain, Mind, and Behavior at Princeton University
"This book has love on every page." --Professor Francine Lecas, chair of pediatric cardiovascular surgery, Sick Children Hospital, Paris, France
David Servan-Schreiber, M.D., Ph.D., is clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and cofounder of the Center for Complementary Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He codirected a National Institutes of Health laboratory for the study of clinical cognitive neuroscience and functional neuroimaging for several years and has published more than 90 scientific monographs. He's lectured at leading international academic centers, including Stanford, Columbia, Cornell, and Cambridge Universities. One of the original seven members of the United States board of Doctors Without Borders/Médicins Sans Frontières, he served on the board for 9 years and provided medical relief in Kurdistan, Guatemala, India, Tajikistan, and Kosovo. He continues to develop mental health interventions for victims of crises and to train therapists in crisis areas.
