Why People Get Sick: Exploring the Mind-Body Connection

Can social isolation be bad for your health? Can stress make rheumatoid arthritis flare up? Is there a link between the amount of control a person has over his or her life and the likelihood of suffering a heart attack? British psychoanalyst Leader and biologist Corfield attempt to answer these and other questions in a sometimes stimulating but more often repetitious and outmoded study. Already, most American schools of medicine no longer hold to a single-cause theory, which Leader and Corfield go so far as to claim “is more a belief system than a rational perspective.” Yet drawing on case studies, the authors argue that modern medicine continues to often ignore the role of the mind-body connection as both a cause and cure for illness. Their take is from a distinctly psychoanalytical perspective and they suggest that both a holistic approach and therapy could prevent sickness and help with treatment: in a case involving an 18-year-old diabetic, they link her refusal to follow a treatment regimen to her underlying feelings about her father. According to the authors, medical practices in the U.S. could be improved greatly if doctors took the time to listen to their patients and ask questions in order to learn if psychological events might underpin physical ailments. (May)