References
- Capra F. The turning point. Wildwood House, London 1982, Capra suggests that in every field of science and in the health fields as well. our methods and theories are leading to our own destruction. However, he sees physics-which led us into our present fragmented world view via Newtonian mechanics-as leading us out of this obsolete view of the universe
- Pietroni P C. Holistic medicine. New map, old territory. Br J Holistic Med 1984; 1: 3–13, ‘We should replace our mechanistic approach to the study of health and disease with a humanistic one where caring, sharing, loving, touching and hoping play as important a role in our endeavours as the study of pathology and biochemistry. We should replace the reductionist approach to the care of the sick with a holistic one where the transplant surgeon will be as concerned with his patient's lifestyle, and will recognise its relevance to the outcome of his skilled interventions, as he is about the level of the patient's lymphocytes.’
- Heron J. A paradigm of wellbeing. Br J Holistic Med 1984; 1: 101–8, Heron suggests we abandon the distinction between conventional and alternative medicine and adopt a comprehensive new medical paradigm for modelling changes in human wellbeing. It is a model that can encompass therapy and cure. prevention and positive development. The model sees wellbeing, physical and/or mental as the product of four relatively independent factors which are explored in this paper
- Bateson G. Mind and nature. Wildwood House, London 1979, According to Bateson, mind and nature form a ‘necessary unity’. This book builds on his Steps to an ecology of mind (Ballantyne, 1972) in exploring consciousness in a cultural and evolutionary context
- Von Bertalanffy L. General systems theory. Braziller, New York 1968, Core work on systems heirarchy, systems interaction and the links between the biological and the social sciences
- Locke S E, Horing-Rohan M. Mind and immunity: Behavioural immunology. Annotated bibliography 1976–1982. Institute for the Advancement of Health, New York 1983, Including 1300 research abstracts from over 200 Journals, this book compiles data from the emerging field of psychoneuroimmunology demonstrating that the two most rapidly adaptable aspects of the human organism-mind and immunity-constantly interact and influence one another
- Engel G L. The need for a new medical model: A challenge for biomedicine. Science 1977; 196: 129–36, Medicine's crisis stems from the logical inference that since ‘disease’ is defined in terms of somatic parameters, physicians need not be concerned with psychosocial issues which in these terms lie outside medicine's responsibility and authority. A professor of psychiatry puts forward a biopsychosocial model, examining its clinical implications and demonstrating its use as a rigorous clinical and research tool
- Horder J. Summing up. Br J Holistic Med 1984; 1: 93–5, A past president of the Royal College of GPs draws together the threads of BHMA's inaugural conference in 1983
- Ornstein R. The Psychology of consciousness. Pelican, London 1975, One of the best attempts to bring together different maps of consciousness, not only psychological and psychotherapeutic but also from the many spiritual traditions
- Well wood J. Awakening the heart-east-west approaches to psychotherapy and the healing relationship. New Science Library, London 1983, The contributors propose a meeting between the western psychotherapeutic approach and the more eastern meditative tradition which emphasizes a larger kind of awareness and equanimity as a continuously available source of clarity and health
- Cunningham A J. Information and health in the many levels of man. Advances. Journal of the Institute for the Advancement of Health 1986; 3: 32–45, It is one thing to say that the mind effects health but quite another to devise a coherent explanatory framework encompassing both biological and psychological factors. This is the critical challenge Cunningham confronts in his article
- Bennet G. The wounded healer in the twentieth century. Br J Holistic Med 1984; 1: 127–30, In contemporary practice the doctor who acknowledges ordinary human vulnerability and who does not effect to have all the answers to the patient's problem enables the patient to participate to some extent in the healing process. This stands in contrast to the usual pattern in high technology medicine where patients are denied much chance to help themselves. The paper describes how the idea of the ‘wounded physician’ can be reformulated and applied to modern medicine
- Pelletier K R. Mind us healer, mind us slayer. George Allen & Unwin, London 1978, Pelletier describes the many forms of stress, against a background of practical research and statistical evidence. The value of this book is its affirmation that the negative effects of stress can be overcome. Surveying a wide range of potential remedies from biofeedback to meditation, it offers a wealth of practical advice on how these various techniques can best be practised
- Doll R. Prospects for prevention. Br Med J 1983; 286: 445–53, Sir Richard Doll gave the Harveian Oration at the Royal College of Physicians in 1982, explaining that in future our greatest opportunities for preventive medicine will lie in the modification of individual and social lifestyles
- Black D, Morris J N, Smith C, Townsend P. Inequalities in health: The Black report, P Townsend, N Davidson. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth 1982
- Sachs H. Can patients influence health decisions'. J Roy Coll Gen Pract 1982; 32: 691–4, A survey of 400 patients' perception of their needs and of their impact on the outcome of consultations
- Baht M. The doctor, his patient and the illness. Pitman Medical, London 1968, A seminal work on the interface between the doctor's thoughts, feelings and impulses and those of the patient. A book to validate listening. caring and intuition as tools in healthcare and to make practitioners more curious about the personal/professional boundary
- Firth-Cozens J. Emotional distress in junior house officers. Br Med J 1987; 295: 533–7, In a study of 170 junior house officers the estimated prevalence of emotional disturbance was 50% with 28% of the subjects showing evidence of depression. The more empathic and self-critical doctors appeared to be more prone to emotional distress. (Note author's forthcoming book on distress amongst healthcare professionals. Firth-Cozens J., Payne RL. (eds). Stress in the health professions. Chichester: Wiley, 1987.)
- De Vries M. The redemption of the intangible in medicine. Institute of Psychosynthesis, London, Well known for his research into spontaneous remission of malignancy. the author, a psychoanalyst and professor of pathology. assesses the need and prospects for profound change in our approach to medicine and our understanding of disease. He suggests ways in which we can contribute to the development of ‘medical synthesis’