Customer Reviews
Thoughtful, with new material. - By: LM, 24 Feb 2008 
This is an intelligent & thought provoking text. The authors examine the physical & psychological causes of disorder(s) with equal scrutiny, & introduce a third element exploring how each might contribute & manifest iteslf in the presenting disorder. As such this is a refreshing book that treads new ground & moves away from entrenched theories which have dominated the discourse to date.Whether your interest is in conventional or alternative medicine, you will find something of intrigue & challlenge in these pages
Surprisingly fun to read - By: Adrienne T., 09 Mar 2007 From scanning newspaper reviews of this book one might get the impression that it's worthy, interesting & possibly a little hard-going. I began reading it with a slight sense of duty, but was quickly drawn in by the accessible prose, fascinating stories & elegantly laid out ideas. Not only are its arguments subtle, complex & humane, it's also a damn good read.
One of the book's central ideas is that medical practitioners need to take human complexity into account when making diagnoses & offering treatment. Having read it shortly after its release, it was interesting to see how it was represented in the media. Clearly these are ideas that some people find quite threatening, as if the notion of careful listening has been so successfully factored out of the medical equation that any mention of it seems outlandish & impracticable. Thanks goodness there are writers like this around, who still hold out hope for meaningful human exchange.
A resurrection of psychosomatic medicine - By: Dr. Christopher I. Pelton, 02 Mar 2007 
This work is pertinent in a time of dehumanised medicine obsessed with targets , protocols , bureaucratic micromanagement & digital measurement. It starts with a historical survey illustrating just how much has changed since the heyday of psychosomatic concepts. Mr Corfield reminds us that up until about 30 years ago there was an ongoing effort to understand the manifestations of the unconscious mind in illness & disease through various psychodynamic disciplines that tend to be dismissed by our selective evidence-based approach as too "soft". Therefore for much of the book the focus is on individual case histories. To readers unfamiliar with psychoanalytic concepts it could be hard-going & verging on the repititive. Some of the interpretations might seem far-fetched.
There is a sustained & sometimes polemical effort to restore awareness of the unavoidable complex personal & often unconscious psychological factors ignored in much of contemporary medicine. Chapter 15 on doctors themselves is challlenging; I wonder how many specialists have ever been described as having a "sociallly sanctioned form of fetishism"?
As a General Practitioner I found it stimulating & I would recommend it to my colleagues. By one of those odd coincidences, only hours after reading it I saw a patient with a hysterical illness- only to realise how difficult it would be to incorporate this approach into my day to day practice. But the book has much wider appeal & I hope will become popular.
