Customer Reviews
Worth a look. - By: 2bluesky2, 29 Sep 2008 
I think this book will be most helpful for people who have been suffering with back pain for a long period of time (months to years). Most back pain lasts only a short time, & if it persists, you probably either have a really serious medical problem (that is usually obvious) or there are psychological factors involved.
If you've been through the conventional medical system with your back pain for a long time with no satisfaction, have had many physical treatments (such as heat, massage, manipulation, etc.) with no relief, AND have had serious back pain issues ruled out, then I say it would be well worth your while to at least check out this book. While there are true physical causes of back pain that are not psychological, this book will make you think about any stress related issues that could be a part of your pain. Other self-help books I liked include The 5-Minute Plantar Fasciitis Solution. Good luck!
Interesting but no help whatsoever - By: D. Newark, 17 Jun 2008 
This is an interesting read but no help at all. It is like going to a doctor with a back pain only to be told that there is a cure but they are not going to tell you what it is. OK I accept that my neck pain is caused caused by my brain not being able to face up to something else & all I have to do tell myself there is nothing physically wrong & ignore my neck pain. Well I have tried that guess what ... it didn't work. Now what ?????? Seems to me this book is nothing more than a brochure for the author's private clinic.
Incidentaly this idea is nothing new. My 88 year old father told them thatin the second world war he was told by a psychiatrist that 90% of all pain comes from the mind.
didn't work for me - By: a reader, 06 Feb 2008 I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I thought I would share my experience given that when I read the reviews I thought this book would be a great cure-all. I started to suffer from back problems two years ago which as any back sufferer will know completely disrupted my life. You name the treatment I have had it so I was really at the end of my tether when I bought this book. Unfortunately mind over matter when you arein pain only works up to a point. The reality is & Sarno sets it outin his book that most people workingin the back pain industry don't understand why some people with serious spinal problems showing up on MRI, x-ray etc have little or no pain & others with relatively little spinal degeneration have severe pain. I am one of the latter people. Sarno advises that back pain is predominantly due to myalgic tensionin the back & he uses the variationsin people's pain thresholds relative to their level of spinal degeneration as a premise for advising patients that back pain is allin the mind & is the body's way of coping with an unacknowledged psychological problem. Once the psychological problem is acknowledged, the pain should, he posits, go away. Well I have as many psychological problems as the next person but telling myself that did not work for me. The reality is that the huge risein back problems over the last 50 years or so is due to the increasingly sedentary lives people lead with longer hours spentin cars,in front of computers etc. Jasper Gerrard wrotein the Telegraph two days ago about the hugh risein back pain syndromein Africa which hitherto hadn't existed due to the increased employment of the populacein desk bound jobs. It is also a reality that most pain specialists don't know why there is such hugh variationsin pain between people with similar back complaints. You really have to persevere with treatments, exercises etc until you find out what works for you. In my own case, after two years of attending nearly every specialist available at great cost & having received varying diagnoses including the appallingly amorphous one of fibromyalgia I have finally discovered what works for me which is low impact aerobic exercise. I do hill walking which is not too taxing on my joints but gets blood into the affected areas - this nourishes them & decreases the pain. When a hill is not available I use a treadmill. I also use pilates but the trick is not to persevere with an exercise that you find painful EVEN if your physiotherapist recommends it. If you have back problems you should think twice before taking an step or yoga class. Some yoga movements involve extreme stretching of the spine which can excerbate a back problem. Similarly if have a back injury hopping up & down on the step box & doing militaristic exercises along with people who are young & fit can make your back worse. I found it easier to exercise on my own. You have to listen to your own body at the end of the day. The reality is that we were not designed to be sedentary & as you get older for some people back problems are inevitable unless you keep your back fit. Unfortunately mind over matter did not work for me.
Healing Pain - A mystery - By: Martin Tierney, 06 Sep 2007 The first review makes a fair number of points regarding the apparent arrogance & lack of 'how to' advice. That cannot be denied. I read this ten years ago during a particularly painful time & stressful job & was calling for Sarno to give more detail. I had suffered back pain for 9 years, the last 2 of those dominated by sciatica, & I thought it was mumbo jumbo but having tried every therapist: Chiro; osteo; sacro-cranium & some more besides, I felt I had nothing to lose & gave it a go. Literally 6 weeks later - I kid you not- the sciatica was gone. The back pain was gone. These conditions have NEVER returned. It's still something of a mystery to me.
Very very limited - By: Kaitlin, 11 Aug 2007 First I am a great believerin the mind body connection. Over the years I've found various physical problems had their rootin my emotional state, so I'll give it two stars for the fact that if emotions are the cause of your pain emotional release will almost certainly fix it.
He takes it for granted that everyone reading this book isin the emotional cause category, & a lot of what he says is both ignorant & supremely arrogant. I find it hard to have any respect for a man who a) states that all injuries heal within six weeks no matter what & b)that the body doesn't suffer pain from physical damagein the spine.
He also states that no help from osteopathy, chiropractitioners, acupuncture, physiotherapy or exercise is ever worthwhile, useful or lasting. Any intervention that seems to work isin fact a placebo, regardless of how the pain started or its cause. If you believe this as well maybe you will find the book helpful.
I wanted this book to be able to help my agonising pain months after a severe accident, or at least be useful somehow - but his reason for pain lasting was that then you could sue someone. Maybein some cases but not mine. I didn't like it as you may have guessed, but my main reason for not doing so wasn't his ridiculous observations - there were plenty of them - but the lack of any real help of any kind. His book consists almost entirely of his case histories where he describes the character & suppressions of his clientsin detail & then says that after hearing his advice they were healed within a month.
The actual advice is that we all have a well of rage within us & that it is the well of rage that causes all our pain, once we accept this our pain is gone. We don't have to heal the rage, just acknowledge it.
What about those who do accept the well of rage already, who arein touch with their weaknesses, failings, frustrations etc & have already experienced therapy for their minds/emotions? A good question, & one that isn't so much as mentionedin this book. But to me his greatest failing, & - given his blithe 'Do everything & ignore the pain' advice - his most dangerous one, is that nowhere does he acknowledge that there may be times when the damage isn't justin the mind but has real & unignorable physical causes. John Sarno is a perfect example of the old adage 'To a hammer everything looks like a nail'
