Outskirts Press, INC.

Is There Really Such a Thing as “Mind Over Matter”?

Ever wondered about the connection between psychological and physical illness? We sense that the mind and the body don’t exist in separate spheres, that at some deep level they are fused and interrelate constantly in our daily lives. Finished Business takes our curiosity about this reality to a new level with a passionate focus on two psychosomatic phenomena: fibromyalgia syndrome and an eating disorder. The roots of these conditions are examined in one person’s experience of complex childhood trauma. Employing the interdisciplinary lens offered by the powerful new method of Neuropsychoanalysis, this volume confronts head on the realities of early abuse, lost love, identity dysregulation, and physical illness. Reaching beyond, it forges a means for repair, a healthy autonomy, and an experience of recovery. The memoir of Part One opens up wounds from the past and confronts the demons of childhood. Part Two describes a post-therapy period in which the examined life yields the first fruits of a recovery. Part Three engages some of the most exciting, cutting-edge knowledge of the brain available today and connects critical issues concerning trauma and health with a nascent neuroscience of the whole person. Part Four, titled “Afterthoughts,” deals with memory reconsolidation, epigenetics, dissociation, and the creative unconscious. Finished Business will appeal to those who know the rigors of mind/body challenges, to clinicians, researchers, and indeed, to anyone who has pondered the enigmas of our mesmerizing body/brain/mind existence.