[gcheong]

Would you have been likely to recommend this book if your pain didn't resolve after trying it? I'm skeptical of this specific theory of how the mind and body are interacting to cause pain and what he thinks is the proper way to treat it. First of all, on the back cover a 2-6 week period is given. A lot of back pain resolves itself within this time frame so without a proper study done there is no telling how many of his "success" stories are just back pain taking it's usual course. He relies a lot on testimonials. That is never a good proof of a treatment's efficacy. Why not do a proper study and not push the treatment until the results are in? We see this a lot in the medical field where some doctor has convinced themselves they have found the key to treating something yet never actually bothers to do a proper study of it. I can understand that, studies are expensive and it's much easier to live in the world where you think you are helping people and the self-selecting testimonials reinforce this. On the flip side I see a lot of people who are convinced that some "alternative" therapy works for them simply because they tried it and got some relief but are convinced others are BS because it didn't "work" for them. The problem here isn't people not believing in the mind-body connection.

Edit: there may be some slight truth to why his treatment seems to work for some in that if you can mentally reframe your pain you are more likely to get better but that nugget seems to be buried in the fluff of his TMS theory: (https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/chronic-pain-a-disease-in-i...)