Mind-Body Deceptions: The Psychosomatics of Everyday Life

Discusses the belief that medical treatment should focus only on the mind or the body, and explains how all illness, whether psychiatric or medical, can be treated with a psychosomatic approach

An ambitious and confoundingly uneven exploration of psychobiological interdependence. Dubovsky (Psychiatry and Medicine/Univ. of Colorado Medical School) is onto something--but not the rhetorically loaded ``deceptions'' of the title, into which frame the text is force-fit at some cost to clarity and credibility. The business of the book is examining mind-body connections and their implications for health and health care by explaining psychodynamic and biochemical actions and interactions and exposing prevailing misconceptions and their ramifications. It opens with padded conventional wisdom asserting the overlap of mental and physical processes, then usefully introduces the phenomena of somatization and psychosomatic illness as physiological expressions of emotional pain. In the gray area of depression, all ambiguities are veiled by a confident schematic rendering of the intimate correlation between mind and body systems at the level of the synapse: If maladaptive emotional behavior becomes automatic after repeated episodes of stress (a process known as ``kindling''), healthy brain circuits atrophy. That elucidation of brain biochemistry, like the descriptions of the workings of the cardiovascular and immunological systems in the later section on heart disease and cancer, presupposes a degree of scientific literacy discontinuous with the popular tenor and thrust of the psychological models and the casual assimilation of supportive research; the result is at once overtechnical and oversimplifying. Dubovsky writes sentiently, however, about psychosocial resources for medical patients, and saliently about how the managed-care industry both reflects and perpetuates the traditional mind-body dichotomy. At his judicious best--respecting the multiplicity of psychobiological events and responses, or cautioning against the very cognitive leaps he seems subtly prone to make--he does contribute to the substance and dimension of a fascinating discussion. For the shelf well-stocked with other perspectives. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

A professor of psychiatry and medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Dubovsky first deals with the mind-body split in historical and philosophical perspective, then focuses on "deceptions," which he categorizes under somatization, depression, and physical illness. Not all readers will want to know so much about neurotransmitters, but the attractive presentation goes beyond the simplistic discussions found in the general literature. Thanks to his knowledge and humane perspective, Dubovsky provides a comprehensive study of body-mind interaction without slighting either side, and his book exposes weaknesses in popularizations that tout one over the other. Readers wanting consumer guidance on psychological and pharmacological treatment for depression will find two excellent chapters; psychiatrists and other physicians will find a valuable synthesis of knowledge; and librarians will find a state-of-the-art reference. Highly recommended for all libraries.?E. James Lieberman, George Washington Univ. Sch. of Medicine, Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.