Mind’s healing powers put to the test in new book
‘Cure’ considers brain’s role in health and medicine
Cure
Jo Marchant
Crown, $26
In a wide-ranging and compelling new book, science journalist Jo Marchant explores whether the mind can heal the body. The question is polarizing: Conventional doctors dismiss the power of the mind as New Age hooey, while alternative medicine advocates are quick to claim miracle cures for whatever ails you. The murky middle ground between these poles is where Marchant lingers.
Inflammation, blood sugar and breathing rate can all influence mood, and it seems mood may influence those processes right back, Marchant argues. Those blurred boundaries cloud Descartes’ old distinction between mind and body, integrating the two so tightly that “it is impossible to consider one without the other,” she writes.