Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine

by Candace B. Pert

Book Overview

Why do we feel the way we feel? How do our thoughts and emotions affect our health? Are our bodies and minds distinct from each other or do they function together as parts of an interconnected system?... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684831872
• ISBN13: 9780684831879
• Release Date: September 1997
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Understanding our Emotions through our cells molecules

Absolutely love the information provided in this book

excellent eye opening for all medical professionals

i really enjoyed reading this book along with my pathophys class as it all ties in and reinforces what we are learning and then takes it to the next dimension, it is applicable and makes sense, academic and personal at the same time.

Very informative

Dr. Pert's credentials as a pioneer in this field is well documented. Her research has given credibility to what humans have known intuitively, that is, that the mind and the body are one. In this manuscript, Dr. Pert attempts to bring into a reader's grasp, a basic understanding of a very complex subject. She brings her theories and findings closer to us by using her own life experiences as examples of how, the way we process information, determines our molecular response. We are what we think. Some of the chapters addressing the science itself may have to be read twice as it is indeed a complex subject but she does a pretty good job at simplification. Towards the end of the book, some readers may feel that she may be reaching too far with her connections to alternative medicine and the New Age crowd but , from reading Dr. Pert's biography on previous occasions, reaching too far is what she does best. It is that drive and ability to see beyond the established rule that makes her a pioneer. I would certainly recommend this book.

Great book, a little slow at times

Candace Pert is amazing, a great and courageous scientist. Her book shows how emotions and cells work together. She presents all the scientific evidence, which can be a bit hard to comprehend. If you need hard, scientific evidence for understanding body-mind-spirit connection, Pert and Bruce Lipton are a great combo.

You really ought to read this book.

When I was first recommended this book, the title made me very uncomfortable - too New Age for me. I thought it would be another book that would claim to find the bridge between mind and body, to point some unscientific pseudofacts that we should all be aware of. However, after the third recommendation I bought the book and delved into it. Dr Candace Pert is a neuroscientist and she speaks biology, which is a recognised territory for me, since my wife is a scientist as well. At the beginning of her book (which is, more than anything, a novel, a very good novel and very well written) Candace unfolds her scientific history and experience, mainly from a biological point of view but also from an autobiographical one. I was excited to enter her lab, when she invited me in, with her enthusiastic approach towards science and with professional knowledge phrased in words I could understand. Very gradually, she draws you into the basics of information-substances, which create the core of information flow in our bodies, communicating with the outside world and the inner one. With regard to facts - the book is full of them. If you are looking for scientific approval of complementary medicine, of hypnotherapy or any mind-body approach, you will surely find references for it there. It is so heart-warming to find a western scientist who not only acknowledges the unity of mind-body (the body is the unconscious mind, she says), but also further serves the public in the endeavour to shift the old paradigm of separation and move towards a new, integrated one. Candace's future flows right into her past (since information and metaphors are boundless in terms of space and time), creating a shift in her language. She stands on the edge of a new paradigm, explores her own boundaries, with beauty, love, excitement and humble humanity. Personally, I found a lot of the knowledge in the first part of the book irrelevant - when a paradigm changes, it needs a new language, new metaphor, but I acknowledge that we are on the threshold of an exciting shift. Hence, the old language is gradually twisting itself, until barely recognised, before finally moving forward to the new one. Speaking more languages is always better, having more choices is what we aim for - as humans, and as therapists. She takes the reader in a shamanic journey of self-exploration, through the realms of her private life, through the realms of science, as she shapes it with her knowledge. I found myself joining her journey, holding her hand and showing compassion in her difficult moments, happy in her growth, always from within. You really ought to read this book.