Update to Post Below

In the first page of the book we are granted the documentation of Dr STW Simeon's credentials - in other words what qualifies him as an authority on the subject at hand.

Acknowledgments

We learn from this paragraph that Dr Simeon's relied on several well versed Dr's and other authorities to put this book together in a manner that would be understood by non medical readers.

Foreword

Dr Meerloo wrote the foreword, he was a Dutch doctor and a psychoanalyst. This book was published in 1961 - as of this year, this makes this book around 47 years old. Even during the time frame that Dr Simeon's wrote this book, Dr Meerloo mentioned that Dr Simeon's knew he had to write it in a different way than his colleagues would write publications, in other words, he would have to write it so that anyone could understand it. This may prove a little too simplistic to some, but to the masses, this book was written for "us".

He explains that although there were things that he found himself challenging in the writings, he did appreciate the simplicity of the book. In reading this book ourselves, this is something we must endeavor to realize. We do NOT have to adopt the ideas that he presents in his writings, just like Dr Meerloo didn't. This book is intended to make us think.

What is interesting to me is that we have close to 5 decades of experience since this book was written that we can fall back on - they say hind site is 20 / 20 - I have to ask myself, what would Dr Simeon's have to say TODAY if he were alive with all the information that is available today? He was a pioneer, in a world that was still relatively new to technology.

So although we all might have different ideas about "evolution" and "creationism" I feel we can still read this book with determination on the underlying thought - there is a relation between mind and body. Plain and simple.

Preface

What an incredibly humble man Dr Simeon's was! In his preface, he explains that "psychosomatic disorders are to a great extent subjective" - that his work was to provide a "platform, albeit a flimsy one, on which a more satisfactory patient-physician relationship ... can be worked out", he even calls this book "highly speculative"! And one more thing he says - "It is meant to be read merely as a possible point of view" - well that about says it all eh?

In the final paragraph of the preface, he asks us to agree to two conventions:

"First, that assertive statements be read as meaning: Such and such a clinical fact might be tentatively interpreted as suggesting such and such a hypothetical explanation. The second convention is that the work of others who have expressed similar or identical ideas and who have contributed relevant scientific data be taken as being acknowledged."

In other words - he explains himself here:

"The author in his turn will uphold no claims for the originality of his facts or his views."

Introduction

Very interesting! What did you all think of the connection he placed on the Asiatic Cholera epidemic and fear? Now in his simple words, he made it so that I could understand that there is a relation between some diseases and the the mind. I also totally appreciated how he excluded the psychosomatic illnesses from those deemed hereditary, environmental, lack of vitamins, climatic extremes, nutritional extremes, genetic or lack of oxygen or sunshine. He also excluded birth defects, congenital conditions, some blood disorders BUT he said that diseases that are hereditary like diabetis and obesity may still be included! HA! Also, he touches on the fact about Cancer and suggests that even during his time, there was already some slight evidence that the mind plays a part.

I found it interesting as well when he says that we are all falling victim to self destructive process such as colitis, ulcers, high blood pressure, coronary disease. WOW - these are self destructive, in other words we should be able to change the effects of these diseases by changing our mind set. Agree or disagree?

So this leads us into the Part One, Chapter One, SubTopic One:

The Science of Animal Evolution

In this sub topic, Dr Simeons explains how the Science of Animal Evolution has come about. He brings out the fact that just a few decades before this book the world was basically in agreement with the Creation Theory, and then Darwin was the one that changed all that with his theories on evolution.

Personally, my belief system lies in Creationism, so this subtopic just provided me with the sequence of events on how all these different sciences came into play within the decades before Dr Simeon's wrote this book. He explains in his introduction that "the present study is an attempt to analyze this disharmony (speaking of brain and body) and to evaluate it's role in psychosomatic disease.

Others may prefer to believe in evolution, and we grant them their belief system, just like we would expect them to grant us our belief system.

So now ... let's discuss!!!

Biz