The Divided Mind Quotes

“For example, if surgery is employed to relieve back pain due to TMS, it will prove to be only a placebo “cure,” and similarly, if Prozac is used to treat depression, it will prove to be only a chemical “cure.” In both cases, the patient will soon develop new symptoms. The TMS and the depression are not disorders in themselves; they are symptoms of unconscious conflicts and must be treated with psychotherapy to avoid the inevitable return of new”
― John E. Sarno, The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders

“First, a sad paradox. Medical research has become more laboratory oriented in the last fifty years. To be sure, this shift has produced some impressive results. But at the same time, human biology is not exclusively mechanical, and there are limits to what the laboratory can accurately study. The laboratory study of infectious diseases has been magnificent—it is very straightforward. But its very success has deflected attention from the influence of emotions. As a result, medical research has failed abysmally in many areas.”
― John E. Sarno, The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders

“Strange as it may seem, people with an unconscious psychological need for symptoms tend to develop a disorder that is well known, like back pain, hay fever, or eczema.”
― John E. Sarno, The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders

“The decision maker in the brain has decided that the overt expression of unbridled rage would ruin the person’s life, and to prevent that from happening, it automatically initiates physical symptoms in the body without consulting the conscious, rational mind.”
― John E. Sarno, The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders

“THE CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS MINDS There is a section in Studies on Hysteria entitled “Unconscious Ideas and Ideas Inadmissible to Consciousness—Splitting of the Mind,” written by Breuer. Today, we would substitute the word emotions for ideas, but that disagreement aside, the concept that we humans have two minds is very important to an understanding of TMS. It is clear that we are two different people—one of them conscious and the other unconscious.”
― John E. Sarno, The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders

“Put another way, painful or otherwise distressing psychosomatic symptoms are designed for self-preservation, not self-flagellation.”
― John E. Sarno, The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders

“to see that the danger and emotional pain remain contained. My experience with TMS has convinced me that the purpose of this repression is to protect the individual, to prevent the painful, dangerous feelings from coming to consciousness and causing even greater distress. The psychosomatic symptoms that accompany this repression, while sometimes extremely distressing, are not some form of punishment but are generated to distract the conscious mind and therefore to assist the process of repression.”
― John E. Sarno, The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders

“It’s all in your mind” is almost insulting, implying there’s something strange or weak about you or that the symptoms are in your imagination. This is most unfortunate, since the symptoms are very real, the result of a very physical process.”
― John E. Sarno, The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders

“TMS is a strategy of the brain to keep unpleasant thoughts and emotions from rising from the unconscious into the conscious mind. The brain, through established physiologic pathways, creates pain as a distraction. By focusing our attention on physical symptoms, we keep these painful thoughts and emotions repressed. This is a very effective strategy, as there is an absolute epidemic of mindbody disorders in our society.”
― John E. Sarno, The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders

“It is appropriate to designate Freud as the grandfather of psychosomatic medicine since his genius introduced us to the world of the unconscious mind, a contribution to medical science of inestimable importance. Psychosomatic processes begin in the unconscious and, though it has yet to be widely appreciated by either physical or psychiatric medicine, unconscious emotions are a potent factor in virtually all physical ills.”
― John E. Sarno, The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders

“After many years of experience it is our impression that not more then 10 to 15 percent of the population would be willing to accept a psychosomatic diagnosis.”
― John E. Sarno, The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders

“diligently on their homework and making good progress,”
― John E. Sarno, The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders