Answer Is Within You

Ayers (Teenage Girls: A Parent's Survival Manual), a clinical psychologist who works with breast cancer patients, believes that women can change their experience of breast cancer treatment and win a better chance of affecting the outcome of the disease by looking inward. She believes that breast cancer survival is not some random trick of fate but an orderly process that involves sometimes obscure rules of physiology and psychology. Make no mistake: Ayers, who documents her views with numerous studies, is not simply suggesting that a good attitude will change someone's prognosis. But a combination of factors in an integrated medical treatment plan, boosting the effects of treatment, can be helpful. In addition to professionally led groups for breast cancer survivors, she suggests the use of hypnosis, systematic desensitization and biofeedback, among other strategies, all of which can help strengthen the work of chemotherapy and reduce uncomfortable side effects. Although some skeptical readers, especially those who know of women who seemed to do the right thing and yet succumbed to breast cancer, will question the studies, this slim volume still merits a close look. The author provides a small glossary of terms and extensive reference notes for each chapter. (Oct.)