Why People Don't Heal and How They Can by Caroline Myss
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Book Reviews of Why People Don't Heal and How They Can
Book Review: Not Completely Useless, But ...
Summary: 2 Stars
We all know people with legitimate illnesses who seem to wallow in their misfortune. However, we all suffer from illnesses, and we all age -- some of us dwell on our ailments, others are stoic to the point of self-neglect. The author is obviously a charlatan, who has positioned herself as the Camille Paglia of New Age Healers.
As others have pointed out,she has no credentials, and isn't even a healer -- she is a professional busy body, telling others where to get off, and it is sad that people have actually gone to her in their desperation. There are plenty of New Age healers who aren't charlatans, who have a genuine gift of love and will to help others.
She basically says that some people need their illnesses for attention or whatever, and that others experience spiritual growth through their physical travails. None of this is exactly news. I just worry that people who come down with cancer or whatever will think it's their own fault if they don't heal, as she seems to think.
This book isn't really a waste of time -- but it is mean spirited, reduces a complex topic to a formula, and is completely lacking in a spiritual element. Which is ironic, because she is preaching spirituality. Scary.
Book Review: Mean-spirited and circular
Summary: 2 Stars
Myss makes a good point when she talk about people wearing their wounds as badges of honor..then proceeds to trash a woman for making a casual comment about her incest support group. The book is too full of these examples of people Myss deems as not ready to heal. Like a lot of fuzzy New Age thinking, her book presents arguments that allow her to have her cake and eat it, too. If you "heal," then it means you have "forgiven," according to Myss. If you don't, it's probably because you aren't ready to heal. Either way, you've bought Myss' book and earned her some money.Book Review: review
Summary: 2 Stars
The book is very basic and repetitive; a good introduction to the ideas but boring if you know anything about the subject.Book Review: 'Blame the victim for their illness' would be a better title
Summary: 1 Stars
These days, people are looking beyond traditional western medicine to realize that there are other systems and traditions of medicine that are also effective. I think this is a good thing, and the more people can become critical about existing methods, and more aware of all of their options, the better.Indeed, one of the common threads among these non-western medicines is the holistic idea that the body and spirit and mind are intertwined and that any of these elements affects the other. Western scientists are repeatedly proving correlations between outlook, attitude and physical wellness.
Of course, now that the door has opened to new ideas about medicine, it has also opened far enough to allow frauds and snake-oil peddlers a place to prey. The sad thing is, most of the people that are preyed upon are truly ill, and truly desperate. I'm not going to say Ms. Myss is one of these frauds. She'd probably find a way to sue me.
On the other hand, she claims to be a PhD. Has she ever said in what? I've researched it--she is a PhD in Medical Intuition, and get this--from an institution that she started herself! Its not accredited by anyone! She offers this same 'PhD' for others too--after a week-long workshop at her overpriced school.
As for her other degrees, I think she has a graduate degree in anthroplogy or something (sorry, I forget).
She was apparently given her 'special powers' by a Native shaman woman that she met once. Come on, give the native peoples of this hemisphere a break. Isn't it enough that their land and culture was decimated, that they don't have to continue being exploited with the ridiculous New Age stereotypical ideas. Wanna know what some Lakota people think about Ms Myss? Try this page: http://www.aics.org/war.html
I could go on, but in the interest of priority, here is why this book is dangerous: It leads people to beleive they are the cause of their own illness.
While a person can grow and empower themselves by analyzing their lives or reading a good, inspirational book; and while it may be good to try to rid oneself of negative thoughts and misconceptions, desparate people do not always have the ability to deal with things like that on their own. People that are truly ill and desperate are not necessarily going to feel better, they might just end up feeling guilty and even less inclined to seek real help.
Even Chinese medicine accepts that sometimes people 'just get sick'. And practitioners of these older traditions go through a lot more rigorous training than a few days at some seminar. Don't insult them or the Lakota people by reading Caroline Myss or her ilk.
And don't insult yourself either. Find real hope in your life--it exists. Don't get your personal strength from some huckster, find it in yourself. It's there.
Book Review: A Bizarre Combination of Half-truths and Misconceptions
Summary: 1 Stars
Caroline Myss styles herself as an "intuitive healer", yet claims to have studied "Mysticism and Psychology" at a theological college. This on its own is a red flag.
While I see the validity of her point that (SOME not ALL) sufferers of abuse or injury wear their wounds as a mantle of entitlement, this can hardly be the basis for claiming that ALL people everywhere fail to heal emotionally and physically for this reason. Unforgiveness and a wandering spirit cannot be the basis for all chronic illness. And she claims that all injury is really the "perception" of injury - that your personal Judas just loves you so much that they assume the perceived role of "betrayer" in order to help you ascend to a higher plane of existence through the journey of forgiveness. BALONEY! An incest survivor didn't just perceive an injury from someone who loved them so much that they wanted to help them grow as a person.
In spite of having studied theology, her grasp on religion is a loose one. She claims to promote truth, but a hodgepodge of conflicting religions and mystic traditions combined with shamanism and intuition do not a bundle of truth make! Rather, her failure to understand the dissimilarity between/exclusive natures of all these faith traditions makes it clear that she knows nothing of truth, but tends to pick and choose those ideas which best support her own imaginings and ideas. And her self-righteousness and condescension regarding the parts of these faiths that she disagrees with must certainly negate her regard for the parts she has chosen!