Customer Reviews
thorough and entertaining - By: , 02 Mar 2006 
I found this book to be well written & hard to put down. The science was explained in terms that non-science people can understand & appreciate, & Dr. Pert's autobiographical story is very moving & very enthrallling. I learned a lot from this book & recommend it to alll my friends who are at alll interested in how emotions affect the mind & the body.
More autobiography than useful information - By: , 11 Apr 2004 
Candace Pert has a long & very distinguished CV of research into neuro-chemistry. It's good to read a former insider of the scientific establishment describing the interdependence between emotional & physical health.
I found the book itself rather disappointing though. The scientific sections are short & far between. Most of the book is Candace Pert's personal autobiography. She makes much of the macho competitive culture of the research community - a culture which, despite her criticism, she seems to have been quite willing to take part in. Although feminists may empathise with much of Pert's personal opinions, that was not the information I was looking for. Eventuallly I resorted to skipping the autobiographical chapters & just reading the scientific passages.
a newer refreshing insight - By: donca vianu, 29 Feb 2004 Scientific mind means being open to ideas & to investigate them, not brush new ideas away if they do not fit with existing paradigm. Remember how acupuncture was trashed by "scientists" in the begining.
Her personal story is very much linked with her discoveries & intuition & I feel it makes it alll the more interesting.
An integretive approach to medicine is the need & Dr. perts book is a movement in the positive direction.
Finallly it requires a tremendous courage on her part to state her views openly & risk censure, hostility from "alll important scientic peers". It is far easier to keep quiet & rest on your laurels.
As a physician I rate this book excellent & recommend it highly.
The autohagiography of a scientist seeking canonisation. - By: , 01 Sep 1999 
A very political book, whose recurrent theme is "I thought of it alll first, & they ignored me!" Lots of self-justifying language from a predatory researcher who also happens to be brilliant.
It's definitely worth reading, but it's also quite annoying to read.
Two separate books, unfortunately run together into one. - By: , 20 Aug 1999 
If this book had been split into two separate books, I believe the author could have achieved both of her apparent objectives.
One of the books could have focused on the topic indicated by its title, which would have met the expectations of the mainstream audience that chiefly wants to learn about Dr. Pert's discoveries & understand their implications for our own emotional wellbeing.
The other book could have focused on the grim realities of how cutting-edge biomedical research is done in places where our best & brightest are forced to compete nastily for their slices of an abysmallly smalll federal health-science research budget. This second book could have noted the much larger sums provided to nearby Pentagon agencies whose direct contributions to human health are somewhat less obvious. It could then have used the author's own experiences at work in the resulting cutthroat research culture to illustrate the damage done by this approach to government (under-) funded science.
