The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders

by John E. Sarno

Here is the program I want you to follow: If you have not already done so, read the entire book you are using a bit at a time (Healing Back Pain or The Mind-body Prescription). After that, read the psychology or treatment chapter every day. Pay close attention to what you read, especially when you see things that remind you of yourself. Set aside time every day, possibly fifteen minutes in the morning and thirty minutes in the evening, to review the material I am about to suggest. Unconscious painful and threatening feelings are what necessitates the pain. They are inside you; you don’t feel them. Make a list of all the things that may be contributing to those feelings. Write an essay, the longer the better, about each item on your list. This will force you to focus in depth on the emotional things of importance in your life. There are a number of possible sources of those feelings: a. Anger, hurt, emotional pain, and sadness generated in childhood will stay with you all your life because there is no such thing as time in the unconscious. Feelings experienced in the unconscious at any time in a person’s life, including childhood, are permanent. Physical, sexual, or emotional abuse will leave large amounts of pain and sadness. But not receiving adequate emotional support, enough warmth and love will also result in anger, sorrow, and pain, maybe never felt as a child, but always there in the unconscious. Such things as excessive discipline or unreasonable expectations will a...