The Cure Within by Anne Harrington

Last night I finished reading Anne Harrington's The Cure Within: A History of Mind-Body Medicine.

When I wrote about this book last week, I had only read the introduction and was under the false impression that The Cure Within would provide more facts and scientific research than the book actually contains.

Sadly, I was disappointed by this book. While there were portions of it that I found interesting (particularly Chapter Six Eastward Journeys), I found this book largely dry and uninspiring.

It seems to me that the topic, a history of mind-body medicine, was just too ambitious for a book of only about 240 pages of text (and about 90 of footnotes, bibliography and index!).

Perhaps my expectations were simply too high, but I would not recommend this book.

The Cure Within: A History of Mind-Body Medicine by Anne Harrington

I've been reading The Cure Within: A History of Mind-Body Medicine by Anne Harrington and have found it fascinating!

I first heard about this book in Jerome Groopman's New York Times article "Faith and Healing" published January 2008.

Harrington, a professor at Harvard, was the editor for The Dalai Lama at MIT which I would also like to read. I saw the Dalai Lama in 2004 when he visited MIT for a Mind & Life Institute Conference and found him to be intelligent, compassionate, and humorous.

Western science has not been able to fully explain or debunk Eastern medicine and I enjoy reading about studies and experiments that provide definite proof in either direction.

Looking forward to reading more of this book!