Book Reviews

There's been a quiet revolution occurring in Western thought for the past 40 years with the rise of Embodied Cognition and the return of bodily experience to a central role in science and philosophy. This began in philosophy which built upon advances in neuroscience and then it entered psychology and sociology thanks to a small group of thinkers of which Mark Johnson is one of the most prominent. The Meaning of the Body is one of his best works and summarizes the essential principles and implications of the movement.

William James (1842-1902), the father of American psychology, was the first scientist to examine the nature of spiritual experience. Not much has been done since his time, but now a neurologist, Dr. Kevin Nelson, who has long studied near-death experiences, grounds the phenomenon in the nature of consciousness and brain structure going so far as to argue that spiritual experience is a natural function of the brain.

Reisman is an MD and world traveler who possesses a fascinating mind that makes meaning from a wide variety of seemingly unconnected facts to then wrap it all up into a meaningful whole. He does this by starting with a wide variety of insights about the places he has traveled to and connects them to insights as to how various organ systems of the body operate. For example, he shows us how understanding the structure of mountain watersheds helps to diagnose heart attacks. He notes how the body is made mostly of mucus, not water, and the implications of our viscous existence. And how urine tells the tale of the origin of human life on this planet. A really interesting book from a very intriguing author and an MD to boot.

This book takes us on a journey starting with Descartes in the 1600s and ending in the mid-19th century of how the concept of soul fell from its dominance for several thousands of years in favor of the mind. It is a story of the evolution of mind shaped all of modern thought. The subtext or shadow story is how the body-soul was kicked out of modern thought. Fortunately, the concept has been re-discovered by the embodied cognition movement which envisions mind as a holistic unit of mind-body-environment. This is the next stage in our somatic evolution.

This little book by Dr. Robin Rosenberg provides a simple, direct road map out of body unhappiness and body image disturbance to body satisfaction and well-being. It is a very practical tool and of interest to bodyworkers, movement therapists, and clinical somatic psychotherapists for supporting and/or coaching clients with body image disturbance.