Practicing mind-body medicine before Freud: John G. Gehring, the "Wizard of the Androscoggin".

This article describes the psychotherapy practice of physician John G. Gehring and places it in historical context. Forgotten today, Gehring was a highly sought-after therapist from the 1890s to the 1920s by prominent figures in the arts, sciences, business, and law. He practiced a combination of work therapy, suggestion, and autosuggestion that has similarities to Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Behavioral Activation. Using biographies, memoirs, and archival records, the details of Gehring's work are reconstructed and the reasons for its success are analyzed. His invisibility in the history of psychiatry is attributed to the later dominance of Freudianism within the field.

[Profound meaning of acupuncture taboos in Internal Classic based on the fault of reinforcing and reducing technique by mind conduction of acupuncture therapy].

By analyzing the acupuncture taboos in Neijing (Internal Classic) on clinical application of mind conduction of acupuncture therapy in going against the actual situation, astronomy and others, it is found that the relevant acupuncture taboo implies many subtle mysteries of human body, qi, mind and astronomy, which have not been discovered yet in modern science and are very significant in qi protection. In Neijing, the acupuncture physicians have been highly required in the mind treatment, in which, accurately regulating qi circulation is the target in the treatment. The mind conduction is used for qi circulation to accomplish accurately the reinforcing or reducing in the deficiency or excess condition. All of the taboos are provided to normalize the accuracy of reinforcing and reducing technique of acupuncture therapy and avoid the damage of qi in human body. Hence, those taboos must be obeyed so as to prevent from serious consequence and ensure the safety of this acupuncture therapy.

James S. Gordon, MD: A Transformative Approach to Depression.

No Abstract Available.

Albert Heim (1849-1937): The Multifaceted Geologist Who Influenced Research Into Near-death Experiences and Suggestion Therapy.

Swiss geologist Albert Heim is well known for his pioneering contributions to several aspects of geology, and for his role in establishing the breeding of different kinds of Swiss mountain dogs. In the field of near-death research, it is also recognized that he performed a pioneering study into near-death states of falling mountaineers. It seems hardly known, however, that Heim also influenced suggestion therapy significantly-in particular, the treatment of warts by suggestion. This article provides an overview of Heim's contribution in the latter field of study.

Making theoretical principles for new Chinese medicine.

It is commonly assumed that contemporary Chinese Medicine has an ancient lineage and its practice can be related in a straightforward way to medicine practiced in China for thousands of years. In this article, I argue that this impression is mistaken. What we currently call traditional Chinese Medicine is only sixty years old and it does not share the same theoretical principles to the ancient medicine of China (referred to as yi). Both yi and contemporary Chinese medicine practices use herbs and acupuncture methods, but yi is based on the principles of yinyang, wuxing whereas contemporary Chinese medicine is fundamentally based on western anatomical understandings of the body and disease, and notably, the two practices create different healing outcomes.

Sigmund Freud: pioneer in energy healing.

BACKGROUND: Energy healing is a popular contemporary term for forms of healing that facilitate a natural healing process through harmonizing, rebalancing, and releasing energy flow disturbed or blocked by disease and illness. Biographical evidence indicates that Freud used physical, suggestive, and radiant forms of energy healing, and that his personal life, metapsychology, and psychoanalysis were founded on dynamic, energetic experiences and conceptualizations. CONCLUSIONS: Analysis of Freud's life and work leads to the conclusion that in experience, theory, and practice, Freud typified the traditional role of therapist and was a pioneer in modern forms of energy healing.

[Aspects of the mind-body relationship in the perspective of medical history]. / Aspekter af psyke --krop forholdet i medicinhistorisk perspektiv. Historieskrivninger, begrebshistorie og den påvirkelige krop.

In the article three kinds of history writing about the mind-body relationship are presented: History as a puzzle, history as a connection of important pieces into meaningful narrative traditions and history as an investigation into the changing importance and meaning of concepts and discussions in medical history. In particular, ideas behind "Begriffsgeschichte" are presented in detail. The history of imagination is given as an example of the usefulness of tracing concepts and discussions back in time and looking for modern representations. Discussions on the power of imagination initiated the first clinical trials in the 18th century. Emphasis on the power of the mind, self-efficacy and self-care has today substituted earlier discussions on the power of imagination.

Helping people live between office visits: An interview with Bernie Siegel, MD. Interview by Sheldon Lewis.

Bernie Siegel, MD, was born in Brooklyn, New York, and attended Colgate University and Cornell University Medical College. Dr Siegel trained as a surgeon at Yale New Haven Hospital, West Haven Veteran's Hospital, and the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. He was an assistant clinical professor of surgery in general and pediatric surgery at Yale University School of Medicine. In 1978, Dr Siegel founded Exceptional Cancer Patients (ECaP) using a group therapy approach aimed at personal empowerment, transformation, and lifestyle changes. He is the best-selling author of Love, Medicine and Miracles (HarperCollins, 1986); Peace, Love, and Healing: Bodymind Communication and the Path to Self-Healing (HarperCollins, 1989); and How to Live Between Office Visits (HarperCollins, 1992), among others. He retired from Yale in 1989 to continue to write and speak to patients and their caregivers. Dr Siegel recently spoke with the editor in chief of Advances, Sheldon Lewis.

Exercises for mind and body: Giulio Mancini, collecting, and the beholding of landscape painting in the seventeenth century.

This article explores the intellectual foundations for the development of princely art collections, and of Italian picture galleries in particular, as spaces for combined physical and mental exercise and recreation. This study then establishes the relationship between the therapeutic function of picture galleries and the manner in which landscape paintings produced for princely collectors at this moment in Italy embodied ideals of both exercise and repose.

[Description of the relationship between body and mind in Kutadqu Bilik (wisdom for fortune and happy), a Uigur' s ancient book].

The descriptions of the relationship between body and mind in Kutadqu Bilik ( Wisdom for Fortune and Happy) include the theory of five emotions (happiness, angriness, joy, annoyance and anxiety); the heart, liver and brain being the organs in charge of the function of the body and mind; and the viewpoint of spirit governing the body which, in turn, generates the spirit, and the overlapping of them. All of them have a scientific significance, forming the basis of the development of Uigur people and becoming a long-life ethnic group.

Instinct, "primitive" cognition, and the transformation of intuition.

This paper explores epistemological and historical relationships between "instincts" and "intuition". First, it discusses epistemological connotations of the instinct concept, specifically the implication of a kind of innate knowledge imbedded in the assumption of unlearned behavior as this emerges in evolutionary theory and 19th century comparative psychology. Second, it claims that while the intuition concept foreshadows (in some ways) the appeal to instinct, the instinct concept in turn contributes to changes in the concept of intuition.

Darwinian psychology, old and new.

Many senior American and British psychologists between c1890 and c1925 were engaged in an attempt to settle on a unified definition of the term "instinct" as a psychological construct. Whilst this enterprise failed, some of its basic concepts underpin today's project of evolutionary psychology. This claim is substantiated by an analysis of the similarities between William McDougall's "Social Psychology" (1908), in which he articulated his theory of instincts, and John Tooby's and Leda Cosmides' "The Psychological Foundations of Culture" (1992). It is argued that Tooby's and Cosmides' approach faces similar problems as were faced by McDougall's theory of instincts.