Reviews: Books, Films, Music

Journal of Religion and Health, Vol. 38, No. 4, Winter 1999

Reviews

Books

RELATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE BODY. By Lewis Aron and Frances Som-mer Anderson. 334 pp. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press, 1998, $49.95.

Early on in Relational Perspective and the Body, Lewis Aron recalls a jokefrom his training days: "If you told a Freudian supervisor about a case orga-nized around problems related to intimacy, then you would be told about themeaning of this in terms of the patient's conflicted sexuality. If, on the otherhand, you told an interpersonal supervisor about a case in which the patient'ssexuality played a central role, then you would likely be told to look at theunderlying difficulties in the patient's capacity for intimacy" (p. xxiii). Aron'swords remind us that analytic listening is often influenced by theoretical con-structs, or, as he says succinctly, "What is surface for one analyst is depth forthe other" (p. xxiii). Indeed, it was out of theoretical and experiential influ-ences, and in the search for viable integrations of psychoanalytic wisdom,that relational psychoanalysis developed its comparative approach. In factthe term relational suggests a link between the traditions of interpersonalrelations and object relations, thus integrating advances in self psychology—particularly intersubjectivity theory and social constructivism—into mixed-model methodologies inclusive of gender theory and feminist hermeneutics.Accordingly, in the meeting of these different strands of theory and perspec-tive, the qualities and constraints of human bodies and their impact on thecontextual shaping of human experience take on new meaning. This book isan important contribution to the emerging tradition of relational psycho-analysis in particular and psychoanalytic theory and practice in general.

Central to the creative and changing notions of the self is fascination withthe dimensions of relationships with significant others, especially in the wayindividuals develop a sense of self that enables an optimal expression of allthe parts of being. These essays call for relational theorists to attend to theplace of the body and somatic experience in their models. Freud's adage that"the ego is first and foremost a bodily ego" is not only explored in terms ofhow a person's self-representation originates in bodily sensations and bodyimages, it is also considered from a relational paradigm, stressing "the mu-tual impact of the mind and the body on each other as the psychoanalyticsituation entails two individuals jointly processing, experiencing, and re-

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fleeting on psychosomatic phenomena" (p. 3). Aron captures well the overalltheme of the book when he notes, "It is by creating a shared skin-ego orbreathing ego, a 'potential space' where one does not have to decide if anexperience is subjective or objective, by maintaining a dialectical position be-tween self-as-subject and self-as-object, and by both patient and analyst en-gaging in a psychoanalytic form of 'playing' with multiple selves and multiplerelational configurations as these configurations are passed back and forthintersubjectively between patient and analyst" (p. 30). Hence, as Aron makesclear, intersubjectivity is always embodied.

In these essays, discussions of the body, in particular the psyche-somaintegration, reveal the disruptive effect that traumatic experience wields onthe development of self-reflexivity—"the very capacity to experience, ob-serve, and reflect on oneself as both a subject and an object" (pp. 3-4). Forexample, Aron argues that the construction of a bodily self requires self-reflexivity, noting that such self-reflection is one psychosomatic processthat individuals use to regulate their states of awareness. Adrienne Harriscontends that the body is a "complex imaginary construction," interpersonaland fluid, while Muriel Dimen is critical of theories that overvalue cultureover the influence of nature. Harriet Kimble Wrye looks at the preverbalbody and the body beyond words. Linda Gunsberg and Issac Tylim addressthe pregender body and the effect of the preoedipal parent's influence on achild's inner life. Kerstin Kupfermann writes of a psychoanalytic treatmentof Munchausen Syndrome, a powerful story of trauma and recovery. In addi-tion, Barbara K. Eisold discusses her work with a young woman who suffersfrom "a sex-linked genetic anomaly that resulted in stunted growth"—inparticular her work with shame manifestations that created in the patientan alternative self-state for relief and recreation. Further, Barbara Pizertalks about her experience of breast cancer, and the effect of body-altering,life-threatening encounters. The last section of the book, which grew out ofa body study group, explores the impact of psychosomatic disharmony whenit is "rooted in the child's relationship to the mother's body and thereby, tothe mother's own psychosomatic dissociation" (p. xvii). Constructive aggres-sion as a healing force is suggested in powerful case material. Accordingly,the "absence of aliveness" is connected to the traumatic experience of thebody and memory becoming "dis-membered," split off from living experi-ence. Anderson concludes the book with a dramatic account of a psycho-analytic treatment of musculoskeletal back pain, the power of bodily imag-ing, and the analyst's active participation in reliving and containingdissociated affects in the patient. By experiencing these dissociative affects,the relief of physical pain can be observed in place of medical and physicalinterventions alone.

All the essays in this fine collection underscore the dangers of dichotomiz-ing mind and body, and encourage analysts to "overcome intellectual preju-dices toward the body and to attend to kinesthetic and sensory cures in the

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relational matrix" (p. xvi). The authors help us rethink the place of body andbody experience in the psychoanalytic process and thus contribute to furtherdevelopments in conceptualizing a self in need of another, and the nature ofhuman relating as it affects mind, body, and spirit.

Claude Barbre

COUNSELING PEOPLE WITH CANCER. By Jann Aldredge-Clanton. 176 pp. Louis-ville: Westminster /John Knox Press, 1998, $17.

Jann Aldredge-Clanton's book defies the assumption that a cancer diagnosisis necessarily a death sentence. Although some cancers resist cure, Aldredge-Clanton demonstrates how pastoral caregivers can facilitate life-affirmingpersonal and spiritual growth in the midst of ravaging disease—and evenagainst overwhelming odds. With a strong foundation in psychodynamic prin-ciple, her approach is refreshingly non-clinical as she relies on the use of"sacred stories" as the frame for her interventions and guidance. She sug-gests that a caregiver can act as "Divine midwife," aiding patients to givebirth to new and imaginative stories which seek to integrate personal experi-ence and the Biblical story, giving hope and spiritual sustenance on the jour-ney of coming to terms with cancer. She unapologetically asserts that somefolks "seem to be better off if they believe that they can do something to keepthe cancer from coming back, even if this belief is disconfirmed . . . evenillusions of control can be essential for coping." Hope is more life-giving thanalmost anything else—even at the expense of reality.

Chapter by chapter, this compact, easy-to-read book covers a wide range ofissues and concerns faced by someone with cancer, including the difficult feel-ings of rage, powerlessness, despair, the ways families and communities mightrespond, the process of decision-making about treatment, and the agonizingquestions of where God is and how life can be lived when the reality of limitedtime is so acute. Anecdotal and verbatim case material provide clear maps ofhow a caregiver might help another navigate the theological and spiritual terri-tory that has become and arid dry into richer, more nourishing fields of livingrelationship with the Divine. For example, when the image of God as punish-ing becomes a stumbling block to feeling comforted, the author may suggest animage of God as Wisdom, caring mother, or living water, as an alternate routeto spiritual and psychic healing. Openness to new pictures of the Divine andthe self is central, as it ought to be in any pastoral counseling work.

One question that remains unanswered is how one's personality or predis-position prior to a cancer diagnosis might play into one's receptivity to thisapproach. Is one's ego strength or so-called natural outlook on life a factor?Despite the inspirational stories presented here, clearly there are still no magicanswers to the day-to-day struggle of coping with such a disease as cancer.

Reviews: Books


Listening for creative possibilities and being present to uncertainty, confront-ing the angst of mortality and questions of life's meaning and purpose withhope are the exciting challenges for caregivers in partnership with their pa-tients—even with the specter of death there can be a discovery of new life.Counseling People with Cancer will assist many in that process.

Ann M. Akers, M.Div., NCPsyAPsychoanalyst in private practice, Brooklyn, NY

THE DEVIL, DISEASE, AND DELIVERANCE: ORIGINS OF ILLNESS IN NEWTESTAMENT THOUGHT. By John Christopher Thomas. 247 pp. Sheffield, England:Sheffield Academic Press, 1998, $21.95.

By examining New Testament teachings about healing, forgiveness, and thedemonic, Thomas seeks to bring some clarity to the confusion about diseaseand deliverance in the Pentecostal tradition. The finding of his exegeticalstudy is that the New Testament supports more than one theory on the originof illness. In a brief outline of Pentecostal healing theologies, Thomas illus-trates the theoretical discrepancies that exist in this largely oral tradition. Atone end of the spectrum, all disease is viewed as demonic in origin. At theother end is a position purporting belief in God's power to heal, but hesitantto prescribe prayer for healing. The median group consists of those who be-lieve "while ultimately all disease is from the devil, not every individual sickperson is ill as the results of Satanic attack" (p. 14).

After nearly 300 pages of very thoroughly referenced literary analysis,Thomas concludes that the New Testament writers vary in their theologies ofillness, God, and demonic forces. As a group, these writers identify three pri-mary causes of illness—God, the devil or demons, and natural causes. Withthe lone exceptions of Mark and Matthew, New Testament writers believeGod is the "direct or indirect source of infirmity" (p. 297). Thomas finds thatthey ascribe a variety of reasons for God's use of illness. In some situations,God causes illness for pedagogical purposes, such as teaching about healingin James 5 or Saul's conversion. Secondly, God uses disease or death to pun-ish, as in the James 5 story of the man at the pool of Bethesda who is warnedthat the "continuation of sin might result in a worse physical calamity" (p.299). Thomas also finds evidence of a belief that God causes illness to furtherthe spread of the gospel, as in the case of the man born blind in John 9.Finally, citing analyses of Paul's thorn in the flesh as told in 2 Corinthians12, Thomas describes a fourth category of affliction from God—for sanctifica-tion. In Paul's case, the thorn has been interpreted as a way to keep Paulfrom becoming too conceited.

Other examples of his findings spring from the fact that the writers of Mat-thew and Luke-Acts attribute infirmity to the devil and demons. Specifically,

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they distinguish between demonic affliction and demonic possession. Con-cerning sin and forgiveness, Thomas finds that Mark—unlike James, Paul,and John—"does not directly attribute certain illnesses to sin . . . althoughboth forgiveness and healing occur in close proximity in Mark 2:1-12, there islittle evidence that Mark intended a connection to be made" (p. 160). Appropri-ate responses to illness described in the New Testament are those of prayer,confession, intercession, and discernment of the origin of the illness. Althoughthe book of Acts contains references to exorcism, Thomas did not find descrip-tions of exorcism in the New Testament. The use of medicine is also described,as in 1 Timothy 5:23 where Timothy is "admonished to take a little wine for hisstomach's sake on account of his frequent illness" (p. 309).

In drawing conclusions from his research, Thomas does not try to formulatea majority stance by melting discrepant viewpoints together. He does attemptto articulate a cohesive theology of disease and healing in the New Testa-ment, and further specifies implications for Pentecostalism based on his find-ings. In eloquently sorting through vast amounts of literary analysis, he alsodemonstrates the value of his method for historical inquiry.

Lynne Hirschman, M.S.Manual Physical TherapistIndianapolis, IN

THE AGE OF SPIRITUAL MACHINES: WHEN COMPUTERS EXCEED HUMANINTELLIGENCE. By Ray Kurzweil. 388 pp. New York: Viking Press, 1999, $25.95.

In The Age of Spiritual Machines, Ray Kurzweil makes the argument thatthe human species is simply one evolutionary step toward a rapidly approach-ing era when machines may become the dominant species. We are at the dawnof the robotic age. Kurzweil, a brilliant inventor of speech-recognition tech-nologies, makes an elegant and compelling case for the positive effects of hu-man-machine synthesis. In this award-winning book, he leads the reader to afuture when machines will learn from experience. The advent of molecularcomputer chips only hastens the time when machines will achieve the abilityto think, plan, intuit, and respond in ways that are beyond human capacity.

I was not as interested in these predictions as I was drawn to the title. Asan artist with thirty years of experience working with new technological me-dia, I know what it is like to interact with machines, to guide them throughmy esthetic sense while communicating observations about the world aroundme. From avid reading of cyberpunk fiction, my view of the future has becomedystopic, almost painfully at odds with Kurzweil's benign prophecies. Indeed,one can often take machines as partners for granted. From the earliest daysof video, artists have named their tools and have come to know the bound-aries of their personalities. Like a Shintoist, I know there is spirit in objects,

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especially the open architecture systems that can be molded through person-alized programming and software mix. Even the Dalai Lama has said that hebelieves a scientist could be reincarnated as a computer.

In contrast, Kurzweil's generalist approach provides a limited overview ofthe soul of the machines. The son of a musician, he has experimented withStevie Wonder and others in ways to use the computer to make interestingsounds. He has also developed a relaxation-response project in which userscan go into a meditative state, activating the "God-module," a tiny locus ofnerve cells that are commonly tickled during religious experience. It is thiskind of reductionist tendency that is troubling. Kurzweil says nothing aboutspirituality and mysticism beyond this hypothesis: "Machines will believethat they are conscious. They will believe that they have spiritual experi-ences. They will do as their human progenitors have done—going to real andvirtual houses of worship, meditating, praying, and transcending—to connectwith their spiritual dimension."

In Kurzweil's narrow picture of the future of religion, there is no noise, nodissonance. The spiritual experience is explained as a stimulation of a brainsector, a feeling code. It does not relate to the struggle, the doubt, the faiththat one wrestles with throughout life, in order to achieve harmony and unitywith the oneness of creation. By ticking off changes chronologically, Kurzweilglosses over the dense realities of contemporary existence. His view is elitist,academic. There is a story that crosses many religions concerning why Godcreated evil. The Zen answer is "to make things more interesting." Certainly,we cannot know what is good without its opposite. Will machines make moraldistinctions? Will they foresee their own demise? Will they suffer doubts?How does a machine behave when it is uncertain? I am not sure if we reallywant these questions to have answers.

In the end, Kurzweil's book is poorly named. He describes a future, in thebest of all possible worlds, in which harmonious relationships with machineswill increase and benefit many, especially those in need of sensory or physicalappendages or amplification devices. I am impressed by the smartness of themachines I currently live and travel and work with, and have no doubt thattheir intelligence and intuitive responses will grow—as long as the electricitystays on. And the batteries do not run out. Or the drought does not worsen; ora new epidemic is not unleashed. After all, it is only the human that recog-nizes the soul in things. Who is conscious of suffering. What is the machine'sprocess of communion, of seeing the light, of finding faith?

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Shalom Gorewitz, Ph.D.Professor of Media ArtsSchool of Contemporary ArtsRamapo College, NJ

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FREUD, CONFLICT AND CULTURE: ESSAYS ON HIS LIFE, WORK AND LEG-ACY. Edited by Michael S. Roth. 274 pp. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998, $12.95.

The controversy surrounding the exhibit devoted to Freud's life and workmounted by the Library of Congress seems to have provided a most appropri-ate title for both that exhibit and this group of essays collected by MichaelRoth, the curator of the exhibit—Freud, Conflict and Culture. SigmundFreud has been nothing if not a person—and now a symbol—who both gener-ates and identifies conflict within our culture and among its individual mem-bers.

This is a collection of eighteen essays, grouped under four headings, deal-ing with various aspects of Freud's life and work. The essays cover a broadspectrum, both in content and focus, as well as in amicability or hostility toFreud and his legacy. Roth provides a short introduction to each of the sec-tions, and I found these as instructive and insightful as the essays them-selves. One pair of essays, by John Towes and Jose Brunner, considers therelevance of Freud's oedipal theory on, respectively, the development of mo-rality and the dynamics of political life. Essays by Frank Cioffi and AdolfGrunbaum represent an ongoing genre of philosophical criticism to whichFreud and his theories have consistently been subjected. I found their essaysinteresting object lessons: their abstruse style reminded this reader that themost persuasive thing about Freud's work is the fact that he wrote well andclearly. Oliver Sacks's "The Other Road: Freud as Neurologist" reviews Freud'spre-psychoanalytic career in neurology, twenty years in fact, wherein he mademany significant contributions. The feminist critique is ably represented byHanna Decker and Muriel Dimen. The former briefly reports on Freud's case of"Dora," which she critiqued in her earlier book, Freud, Dora, and Vienna 1900.The latter presents a brief history of the feminist critique of Freud and thendraws on Marx's social theories to suggest indications for the mutual enrich-ment of feminism and psychoanalysis. Edith Kurzweil and Robert Coles tracethe history of psychoanalysis in America. I found the Kurzsweil essay espe-cially refreshing for its straightforward and dispassionate reporting.

All in all, this is a good and fair presentation and exploration of Freud'sideas and legacy. It will be useful and instructive to both the Freud scholarand the interested novice. At the end of this book, as in our culture, Freudremains controversial and evocative. He cannot be ignored.

Reviews: Books

Frederick A. Drobin, Ph.D.Psychotherapist in private practiceNyack, NY

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ENCOUNTERING BIGOTRY: BEFRIENDING PROJECTING PERSONS IN EVERY-DAY LIFE. By Philip Lichtenberg, Jannekevan Beusekom, and Dorothy Gibbons. 192pp. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1997, $29.95.

In Encountering Bigotry, the analytic theory of projection is presented as a wayof both understanding and dealing with the socially provocative expressions ofracism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, classism, and other forms of ha-tred that unfortunately surface in daily life. The authors underscore pro-jection as a particular form of perceiving oneself and others around one. Ac-cordingly, projections enable a person to perceive emotional intensity withoutowning the particular feelings that have been stimulated.

Throughout the book the terms "invitation" and "invitee" are used to stressthe point that it is impossible to remain a neutral observer once one has beeninvited to share a projection. This is to say that once an invitation is launched,a listener becomes an invitee, a willing or unwilling participant in a relation-ship. The book seriously grapples with ways to respond to such an invitationand the ways of encountering strong reactions to projection.

Part One explores the complex questions about the process of projectionand the necessity of the collaboration of others to complete the process. InPart Two, the authors endeavor to develop ways of handling projection andoffer guidelines to good-enough handling of this very complex process. Thefour principles of faulty projection set the tone for this intellectual and yetpractical discussion of projection, namely: 1) projection is partly a social phe-nomenon; 2) projection enables a person to avoid awareness of possessingcertain characteristics in the self, by placing these internal qualities outsidethe self; 3) a projection helps the person establish a sense of distance betweenthe self and the disowned parts; 4) finally, projection creates a fusionbetween the projecting person and the other, even though the denial of anyconnection is central to the projection. In addition, the ability of the projectingperson to place the unwanted feeling inside the other, while simultaneouslynegating the feelings in oneself, and using the projection to differentiate selffrom other, is central to the process of creating distance that gives an illusion ofsafety within the projecting person.

The authors significantly strike at the heart of present-day societal diffi-culties, noting that "persons become confluent with one another not by an-nouncing and resolving their difficulties with each other, but by putting dif-ferences in the outgroup formed by projection." Throughout this book, thedaily invitations to collaborate with projections are clearly articulated andthe difficulties that we all face of either joining the person around the origi-nal projection or distancing from the individual are explored in depth. Theimportance and the challenge involved in being an empathic, differentiatedself in the midst of powerful invitations to collaborate with a projection, withinthe context of social relationships, make this book both exciting and challeng-ing.


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The factors within the transactions that enable the process to continue—namely, intimacy, safety, and surprise—set the stage for collaboration withthe projection. The authors skillfully present the daily struggles of collabora-tive invitations that are presented, not only by strangers, but by family andfriends. Readers can easily identify with the ways they have not handledprojections properly, though the book makes the point that even if "all goodhandling" is unrealistic, "good enough handling is a very real possibility."

This is a rich and very interesting book, a must read for therapists andstudents of therapy. However, if the intent of the writers was to make pro-jection easily understandable for the everyday reader, it misses the mark inits over-use of complex sentence structure and difficult theoretical construc-tions that make the reading quite laborious at times. That being said, I highlyrecommend this book and applaud the intention to present a very complexanalytic understanding of projection and generalize this material to fit seri-ously provocative social situations.

Beverly A. Musgrave, Ph.D.Assistant Professor, Fordham University, NYCPsychotherapist in private practice, NYC

ON THE OTHER SIDE OF LIFE: EXPLORING THE PHENOMENON OF THENEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE. By Evelyn Elsaesser Valarino. 353 pp. New York:Insight Books / Plenum Publishing, 1997, $29.95.

Although the Christian belief in life after death is to be taken on faith, it isinevitable that one will also seek evidence for that faith. For the past fewdecades, that evidence has focused on "near-death" experiences, the narra-tives of those who spent some minutes dead by one or another definition ofdeath. It can be assumed that these kinds of experiences have been commonto human beings since the beginning of the species. It is only in recent de-cades, however, that medical intervention has been able to bring back peopleon the brink of death in numbers large enough to make possible a systematicinvestigation of their narratives. It was through Raymond Moody's book LifeAfter Life (1975) that intense interest in such experiences was awakened inthis country. Because spiritualism, in the form of "spiritual sciences" such asRudolf Steiner's anthroposophy, has been more accepted there, Europe has asomewhat longer tradition of investigation in this area. There too, however,such investigation has just hovered on the edges of scientific and academicrecognition.

These experiences are obviously open to a wide range of interpretation.Enthusiasts such as Moody unabashedly claim that such experiences are validtastes of life after death; he has devoted his life to actually facilitating commu-nication with the dead. At the other end of the spectrum are those who denyany significance to such experiences and would see the rise of reports of such

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experiences as evidence of nothing more than the power of suggestion. Whileserious researchers would see Moody's move into the occult as misguided,most would also see some significance in these experiences, if nothing morethan to provide new information about brain functions in situations of ex-treme distress.

This book, first published in Europe in 1995 and here presented in a veryreadable translation, attempts to give a complete and balanced overview ofthe current state of interpretation of near-death experiences (NDE). The au-thor, Evelyn Elsaesser Valarino, is a legal librarian at the University of Ge-neva. Although she says that her interest in this subject was sparked by a"search for existential answers," she has done a remarkable job of presentingfairly and fully a spectrum of views without allowing her existential concernsto intrude (a problem which has marred more than one previous attempt todeal with this subject). She begins with an overview of the literature andthen moves to a meticulous analysis of published NDE narratives, outlining31 areas in which there is significant similarity and difference among thenarratives. More than two-thirds of the book consists of the edited transcriptsof her interviews with nine leading scientists, physicians, philosophers, andchurch leaders who have themselves studied NDE. Here we once again seethe great range of views and are left with the feeling that it is impossible todraw hard and fast conclusions at this point.

It may be unnecessary to read a 350-page book to come to the conclusionthat we should best keep an open mind on this subject and not draw any hardand fast conclusions. Let me say that the book itself is quite enjoyable. Fur-thermore, as it is inevitable that pastoral professionals will be approachedwith questions on this subject, I can think of no better source toward which toturn for intelligent response.

Daniel Liechty, Ph.D., D.Min., ACSWAssistant Professor of Social WorkIllinois State UniversityNormal, IL

THE HEALING POWER OF FAITH: SCIENCE EXPLORES MEDICINE'S LASTGREAT FRONTIER. By Harold Koenig. 331 pp. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1999,$25.

According to Harold Koenig, physician and Director of Duke University'sCenter for Religion/Spirituality and Health, "we are on the brink of a greatnew era in medicine; a time when health professionals will help people regaincontrol of their lives by providing them spiritual foods to maintain health andwellness, and thus enable them to take maximum advantage of the healingpower that faith can give us all." This faith factor is not merely a matter ofabstract faith, but scientific study. Although we cannot scientifically study

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the reality of God in the laboratory, today medical researchers can analyzethe relationship between beliefs and behavior and health outcomes.

Koenig's book reviews and analyzes the most recent research on the bene-fits of religious practice for health and well-being, much of which was done byhis own center at Duke University. While Koenig recognizes the reality ofdysfunctional and unhealthy religious life, the benefits of religious commit-ment far outweigh the risks entailed by unhealthy religion. Recent researchindicates the benefits of intrinsic religious commitment, that is, religious ac-tivities which are grounded in seeing worship and spiritual growth as ends inthemselves rather than means to a personal end (for example, good health orprosperity). Compared to non-religious persons, religiously committed personshave lower blood pressure, fewer instances of hospitalization or of depressionfollowing surgery, lower alcohol use, more stable families, and greater life sat-isfaction. Persons of faith cope more creatively with serious illness, bereave-ment, and tragedy.

For a variety of reasons, faith appears to make a difference in persons'overall mental and physical health: 1) the impact of community support, 2)the power of belief (the placebo effect), 3) sense of meaning and purpose toone's life, including failure and illness, 4) a sense of perspective, 5) trust inthe ultimate care of God. Based on the research, Koenig concludes that "itwould be beneficial to increase your religious practices if this is compatiblewith your personal faith." From this perspective, faith and religious activityare important components of any preventative medicine program.

Koenig's book is a well-balanced presentation of current research in healthand medicine. He attempts to separate his research from his own personaladvocacy. Koenig believes that faith makes a difference and he provides prac-tical guidelines for those who wish to integrate "the healing power of faith"into their own lives. Faith is not a panacea, but is, according to Koenig, es-sential to a good and healthy life. Koenig has proven his point!

Bruce G. EpperlySenior Protestant ChaplainAdjunct Professor of Theology and MedicineGeorgetown University, Washington, DC

NIETZSCHE AND DEPTH PSYCHOLOGY. Edited by Jacob Golomb, Weaver San-taniello, and Ronald Lehrer. 364 pp. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999,$27.95.

This is an important volume which makes a significant contribution to bothNietzsche scholarship and theoretical aspects of psychotherapy. Inspired inpart by Graham Parkes's study, Composing the Soul: Reaches of Nietzsche'sPsychology, the contributors consider various aspects of Nietzsche's life and

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thought in relation to philosophy, psychoanalysis, and psychology. The valueof their book lies precisely in these interdisciplinary connections, as well as inthe intersection of historical, philosophical, religious, and psychological view-points, perspectives, and insights which cut across Nietzsche's personalityand ideas.

After an introductory essay in which Golomb considers how Nietzsche"freezes" his desires in order to understand them in psychological terms,after which he deploys those desires as an enticement toward the attainmentof positive power and authenticity, the book is divided into three sections.Part One deals with psychological aspects of Nietzsche's work, and includesgeneral orientation (James P. Cadello and Daniel Chapelle), Nietzsche's atti-tude toward women (Rochelle L. Millen) and racism (Weaver Santaniello), histheory of emotions, as well as intriguing studies of Nietzsche's theoreticaldevelopment. Part Two relates Nietzsche's thought to psychology and psycho-analysis, including his contemporary Paul Ree (Robert C. Holub), Freud andAdler (Ronald Lehrer), Jung (Graham Parkes), and Rank (Claude Barbre).These are valuable historical studies, some of which raise important theoreti-cal and practical considerations. Finally, Part Three grapples with contempo-rary perspectives from which to engage and attempt to evaluate Nietzsche'slife and thought. Deborah Hayden's informative essay on "Nietzsche's Se-crets," which raises unanswered questions about Nietzsche's life, and ClaudiaCrawford's striking interpretation of Nietzsche as a self-conscious religiousmartyr in "Nietzsche's Psychology and Rhetoric of World Redemption," aretwo of the most provocative and valuable contributions.

One slight criticism: there is a lack of consideration of the viewpoints ofinfluential Continental interpreters of Nietzsche, such as Martin Heidegger,Gilles Deleuze, and Pierre Klossowski, apart from a couple of dismissive com-ments by Solomon. In addition, there is some slighting of Freud in compari-son with Nietzsche, where Freud's insights are seen as derivative from andless powerful than Nietzsche's. Blondel's essay is an exception, for he pointsout that Nietzsche in his grandiose magnanimity fails to laugh at himselfwith self-critical humor, while Freud constantly pokes ironic fun at his owntheoretical speculations and psychological impulses. Nevertheless, this re-mains a rich collection of insights, information, and points of view detailingcomplex relationships between Nietzsche and others.

Barbre's excellent essay on Nietzsche and Rank includes a personal reflec-tion about one of his patients who constructs a paper airplane. He introducesthe metaphor of "reversing the crease" as a way to counter some of the rigidpreconceptions which interfere with effective therapy. Nietzsche's thoughtspressure us to reverse the crease, to fold our most profound ideas back onthemselves to generate affirmative ideas in a process of self-overcoming, evenas he unsettles all of our comforting notions in a highly disturbing manner.Readers of all types should be grateful for such an illuminating work on this

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most enigmatic of thinkers whose life and ideas continue to haunt us a cen-tury after his death.

Clayton Crockett, Ph.D.Adjunct Professor of PhilosophyWesley College, Dover, DE

THE ACTIVE SIDE OF INFINITY. By Carlos Castaneda. 288 pp. New York: Harper-Collins, 1998, $25.

"'I am Juan Matus,' he said, sitting down on another freight box, a few feetaway, facing me. 'This is my name, and I voice it because with it, I am mak-ing a bridge for you to cross over to where I am.'" With these words, Cas-taneda introduces don Juan, the Yaqui Indian shaman who has figured as histeacher in at least eight other books. Carlos claims that he apprenticed him-self to don Juan for a period of 13 years under the guise of doing anthro-pological fieldwork. In his dedication to his present work he states that hemay have failed to fulfill the spirit of anthropological fieldwork because hewas "swallowed up" by a "greater force, which shamans call infinity." In TheActive Side of Infinity, Castaneda writes more directly than ever before, care-fully defining terms used by the sorcerers in don Juan's lineage. At the sametime, he proposes a highly abstract and mysterious system of knowledgethat can only really be understood experientially. In reading this book, webecome don Juan's apprentices through Carlos, who seems willing at last togive up the vestiges of "clear-cut social scientists' propositions," to surren-der himself to his teacher and his shamanistic teachings.

According to Castaneda, The Active Side of Infinity was written in responseto a directive from don Juan to collect a warrior's album of memorable events,memorable in that they changed things for him. We should not think for amoment that the album is anything like what one would normally think of asphoto album or scrapbook. The memorable events don Juan wants Carlos torecollect are "affairs that will stand the test of time because they have noth-ing to do with him [Carlos specifically] and yet he is in the thick of it." In anattempt to alleviate Carlos's confusion, though he may possibly be adding toit, he says, "The memorable events we are after have the dark touch of theimpersonal. That touch permeates them. I don't know how else to explainthis," As always, Carlos struggles, but eventually succeeds in grasping whatdon Juan wants and its relevance in the scheme of things.

Throughout The Active Side of Infinity, one senses that Castaneda is finallygoing to reveal the full scope of don Juan's shamanistic teachings. There is anair of excitement not previously felt in his books, a sense of moving full speedtoward some final destination or denouement, which indeed seems to be hisaim. In this book, Castaneda describes the definitive journey as the goal of

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shamanistic knowledge. I do not want to say more about the definitive jour-ney because I want readers to discover what this is at the point where Cas-taneda chooses to reveal it. However, after having read The Active Side ofInfinity, I still wondered if Castaneda had had some premonition, and wastrying to forewarn his reading audience of his impending death. What a richlegacy he has left generations to ponder!

April S. Katherine Lynch, M.S.Clinical Consultant, Professional Assessment of IndianaIndianapolis, IN

COUNSELING LESBIAN PARTNERS. By Joretta L. Marshall. 192 pp. Louisville:Westminster / John Knox Press, 1997, $18.95.

This book fills a gap in pastoral-counseling literature. Intended for the gen-eral practitioner, it offers a from-the-ground-up primer on the special needs oflesbian women in relationship, without resorting to axe-grinding or politicalrhetoric. Her approach and concerns extend beyond the individualism that isoften associated with counseling, because homosexuality is such a sore spotfor so many in our society, including religious institutions. Lesbian issuesoften involve conflict with the culture, therefore, and a sensitive pastoralcaregiver needs to appreciate the larger context in order to be effective andtrustworthy.

Marshall argues for a "distinctiveness of women's relationships." Lesbiancouples might be entangled in differences over how public they will be aboutthe relationship. Partners may differ on how one identifies oneself as gay.There are struggles with family acceptance, etc., etc. The author affirms thegeneral notion that women's sensibility will add strength to the possibilitiesof working through problems.

One chapter debunks myths such as that lesbian women do not hit, or thatwomen are gay because of a history of sexual abuse, or that women do notabuse alcohol or drugs. The lesbian community is not immune to all the kindsof problems that afflict the general population. Still, the pastoral caregivermight serve a couple better with sensitivity to the negative self-images thatwomen internalize and then act out against the women they love.

Marshall bases her discussion of healthy relationship on the principles oflove, mutuality and justice. She eloquently discusses partnerships makingdistinctions between contracts and covenants, a discussion heterosexual cou-ples counseling would do well to heed. She calls the caregiver to assume anexpanded role, to become a prophetic "link between communities of faith andcommunities at the margin." She does not say how, however.

Counseling Lesbian Partners is much needed for practitioners who are notparticularly comfortable dealing with lesbians and may shy away from work-ing with them. Marshall blends individual psychodynamic theory and sys-

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tems theory with a feminist method that nudges traditional ways of perceiv-ing women. Her straightforward, empathic approach will embolden manywho might otherwise turn away people who desperately need help.

Ann M. Akers, M.Div., NCPsyAPsychoanalyst in private practice, Brooklyn, NY

INNER PASSAGES, OUTER JOURNEYS. By David Cumes. 208 pp. St. Paul, MN:Llewellyn Publications, 1998, $12.95.

David Cumes personally reflects here about the wilderness and how a forestcan become a sacred place where the inner self can find therapeutic healing.Born and raised in South Africa, Cumes is a specialist in urologic surgerywith a private practice in Santa Barbara, California. He talks about his per-sonal journey, from leaving the "bush" to further his education and to begin asuccessful career in California, to experiencing the United States as a form ofculture shock. A wilderness traveler most of his life, Cumes realized that hemissed not being able to head off into some remote region to recharge andrestore his psyche. Thus, he says, "I undertook my own search to find thatpart of myself I thought was settled somewhere in the dust of Africa. I real-ized I had a self, a soul and that I was duty bound to find it" (p. 11). InnerPassages, Outer Journeys is the story of that search.

Inner Passages, Outer Journeys invites us to link the wilderness practicesof Kundalini yoga, Bushmen practices of the Kalahari, and Peruvian Sha-manism in Peru to more familiar therapeutic wisdom. By making brief refer-ences to scholars such as Carl Jung, Abraham Maslow, and Rachael and Ste-phen Kaplan, Cumes incorporates aspects of religious tradition with medicaland psychological insights. For example, he responds to the question, "Doesthe wilderness have a special quality that's more spiritually profound beyondan encounter in a church, synagogue or mosque?" with a vivid illustration:"Prison inmates who can see trees from their cells seem to have fewer stress-related problems than those who do not. Also there is evidence to show thatpatients who have had major surgery and have views of trees from theirrooms recover faster and need less pain medicine than those with a view ofa brick wall" (p. 9). Although Cumes's theology may create controversy withconservative readers and Jungian scholars alike, the healing potential ofwilderness experiences remains an important guide to the integration ofmany models of growth and development.

Brenda Shaw, M.A.Marriage and Family TherapistChristian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis, IN


SHELTER BLUES: SANITY AND SELFHOOD AMONG THE HOMELESS. By Rob-ert Desjarlais. 307 pp. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997, $20.

At the center of psychological, sociological, political, and ethical debates aboutthe condition of homeless, mentally-ill individuals lies an experiential worldthat may seem horrific and irremediably alien to anyone who lives outside ofit—even to those who work with these men and women. Anthropologist Rob-ert Desjarlais argues that in public discourse the homeless mentally ill aretypically caricatures "writ large, serving as figureheads of despondency, va-grancy, insobriety, madness, or moral failure" (p. 4). To counter the publichorror that accompanies such suffering, Desjarlais sketches "the intimacies ofhomelessness, illness, and abjection" (p. 6). He draws on ethnographic field-work, interviews, and observation of the everyday lives of more than fortypeople living in Boston's Station Street Shelter. Desjarlais turns away fromdebates about policy and the efficacy of different regimens of treatment. In-stead, in this moving book he offers a richly detailed phenomenological ac-count, fashioned in large part from the words of the shelter's residents them-selves, describing how it feels to be homeless, poor, and sick.

In his conversations with shelter residents, Desjarlais found that they con-fronted similar challenges and shared many experiences while "strugglingalong" (p. 19), a phrase one woman used to describe her daily life. Residentsgrappled with symptoms such as hearing voices, being unable to remember orthink clearly, and suffering delusions. They attempted to interact sociallywith other residents and caregivers, often with limited success. Still, theysurvived in the street, finding temporary safe havens when by definition theywere people without fixed "places" of their own; they dealt with the effects ofpowerful pharmaceuticals that allowed their deinstitutionalization on a mas-sive scale, and they sought to withdraw from the overwhelming influx of sen-sations that characterized life in the street. Many doctors working with thementally ill, as Desjarlais describes the encounters, tend to assume that all oftheir experiences, like their deviant behavior, are a result of their psychiatricailments (p. 124). In contrast, Desjarlais examines the environments and po-sitions in which the homeless who are mentally ill find themselves, demon-strating how many of the experiences that shelter residents described arosefrom their existential situations as well as their psychological conditions.

For example, Desjarlais carefully details the experiential impact of thehomeless shelter itself as an architectural, institutional, and social space.Housed in the Massachusetts State Service Center, a half-finished complexdesigned by "brutalist" architect Paul Rudolph, the shelter was, as one psy-chiatric intern put it, "a crazy place to put crazy people" (p. 50). The centraltower initially planned to anchor the complex architecturally was left insteada gaping hole. Like the identical surfacing on internal and external walls, theabsence of a central focus for the sprawling complex tended to disorient allvisitors. Flowing stairwells, harsh corduroy-textured concrete walls, un-

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marked entrances, and shadowy alcoves created an architectural space thatmany observers likened to the psychological interiors of some of its residents.Desjarlais argues that constructed spaces contribute to distinctive forms ofconsciousness, including those forms deemed pathological. Similarly, thestreet itself exacerbates many mentally-ill individuals' conditions, Desjarlaissuggests, because they live "on the margins of language, communication, andsociability" (p. 122). As he writes: "For many the sensorium of the street in-volved a corporeal existence in which a person's senses and ability to makesense soon became dulled in response to excessive and brutal demands onthose senses" (p. 127).

Desjarlais's book is part of a broader movement among anthropologists todescribe different phenomenological realities in a language that remainsclose to the experience of those that live within these worlds. Desjarlais ad-vocates a "critical phenomenology" to "examine how patterns of sensation,forms of agency, or a sense of personhood come about in specific social inter-actions" (p. 28). His analysis bridges the daunting gap between the phenome-nological and the political, demonstrating how the experiential worlds of thehomeless mentally ill are conditioned by political, social, economic, and evenarchitectural arrangements. "Struggling along," Desjarlais argues, is a way ofbeing that undermines even the assumption that "experience" itself is a uni-versal category (p. 22). His description of the analytical category of "experi-ence" is a straw man, created by collapsing uncritical academic and popularuse of the term. Nonetheless, his detailed portrayal of the lived worlds ofshelter residents should serve as a potent warning both to those who wouldentirely medicalize their conditions and to those who do not adequately re-spect the diversity of experiencing subjects. Loosely structured and mean-dering at times, like the conversations discussed in it, Shelter Blues is astunningly original contribution both to discussions of mental illness in theUnited States and to psychological anthropology.

Gregory Downey, Ph.D.Society of Fellows in the HumanitiesDepartment of AnthropologyColumbia University, NY

WHEN DOCTORS SAY NO—THE BATTLEGROUND OF MEDICAL FUTILITY. BySusan B. Rubin. 191 pp. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1998, $24.95.

In spite of the media attention focused on physician-assisted suicide (PAS),there still remains a tendency to overlook what is actually a more poignantand pressing concern within America's hospitals, "medical futility." Medicalfutility arises when a treatment being proposed or administered is deemed bythe physicians involved to be useless or not promising enough to be worth theexpense and effort. This is a daily event in every hospital across the country

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and does not become an issue so long as patient and family agree with physi-cians' judgments. Where disagreement occurs, however, a plethora of issuesspring up, which are the focus of this book.

The questions surrounding such cases are even more complicated than thosepertaining to PAS. Should physicians be allowed unilaterally to discontinueor refuse to provide what they deem medically futile treatment? Should hos-pitals set policy in this regard? Should physicians' judgments about futility beinfluenced by pressures from insurance or managed care? Should physiciansshade their statements about their judgments knowing that insurance andmanaged care representatives are listening in? Should treatment continue iffamily or patient agree to pay for it out of pocket? Who finally calls the shotsin concrete cases of medical treatment? How are legitimate pressures to placelimits on medical treatment impacting the problem of futility?

Rubin systematically explores these issues and then attempts to revisionthe debate so that accepted meanings of medical futility are called into ques-tion and the focus is brought back to the basic issues of therapeutic communi-cation among physicians, patients, and families. For those who follow her inher deconstruction of the distinctions between physical and evaluative futil-ity, Rubin makes a strong case for rejecting physicians' rights unilaterally todiscontinue or refuse medical treatment. Even granting her social construc-tionist frame of reference, however, one must conclude that her case is stron-gest where treatment is already in progress and weakest where treatment isproposed.

Physician expertise is sanctioned by society and relied upon at every levelof the current system. I do not feel that Rubin has made an adequate case forwithdrawing social sanction for physician expertise in just this one juncturewhile maintaining it elsewhere throughout the system. At the same time,Rubin has made a strong case to remind us all of the importance of extra-medical factors in situations of concrete clinical decision-making. In theircare of patients and families, therefore, physicians would do well to lean onpsychosocial and spiritual-care support staff as a matter of course, long be-fore a crisis situation of medical futility occurs.

Daniel Liechty, Ph.D., D.Min., ACSWAssistant Professor of Social WorkIllinois State UniversityNormal, IL

THE FAITH FACTOR. By Dale A. Matthews. 320 pp. New York: Penguin Group, 1998,$24.95.

For centuries, the broad gap between medical science and religion has con-tributed to the neglect of research and the practice of what Dale A. Matthews,M.D., calls the "faith factor." The significance of this factor of health and

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spirituality has been vastly overlooked since ancient times, when medicineand religion were united. The scientific revolution created a separation of thetwin healing traditions through the work of philosophers like Descartes, Hume,and Locke, who sought knowledge with new methodology. Often the notion ofGod was not included or recognized as a part of the new scientific method, andthus religion was gradually removed from medicine.

Dr. Matthews sees the unfortunate consequences of splitting religion andmedicine as evidenced in the modern medical community's neglect of the spir-itual needs of patients during personal and family illness and loss. Matthews'book adds to the notion that the power of spiritual belief can activate physicalhealing, which is supported by clinical evidence through the efforts of re-searchers such as Herbert Benson and Larry Dossey. Faith and religiouspractice, including prayer, are shown to have valuable health results by Mat-thews with amazing well-documented case histories and research statistics.An argument is made that religion benefits mental and emotional health, andscientific studies also point to the role of spiritual beliefs in the prevention ofillness, the recovery from illness and a longer life.

Matthews believes people should maintain a course of action that exploresfaith or a belief system. He quotes Dr. Herbert Benson in his Timeless Heal-ing: "Our brains are wired for beliefs and expectancies. When activated, thebody can respond as it would if the belief were a reality, producing deafnessor thirst, health or illness." Benson's studies of healing reflect a direct cor-relation between beliefs and health. A patient's belief system can change thecourse of an illness or the effects of a drug. Matthews documents many exam-ples of faith's profound impact upon medical outcomes, such as the womanwho was told that she was given the drug ipecac to help reduce vomiting, theopposite of the drug's purpose. She believed in the medication, and because ofher belief, the medication actually had the intended reverse effect upon herbody.

Dr. Matthews considers prayer, scripture, study, and participation in aspiritual community as basic to a spiritual program. He does not go so far asto create a personal theology, though, as both scientist and a physician, heexplains how patients have benefited by religious affiliation. The Faith Factormerges scientific evidence with religious involvement and faith in ways thatreach past centuries. Physicians and patients should take a critical look atthe "faith factor" as a major resource in promoting physical and emotionalhealth.

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Marsha Tucker Hutchinson, MAPCCChristian Theological SeminaryIndianapolis, IN

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THE COLOR OF ANGELS: COSMOLOGY, GENDER, AND THE AESTHETIC IMAG-INATION. By Constance Classen. 234 pp. New York: Routledge, 1998, $21.99.

James Joyce writes of the "ineluctable modality of the visible," and there islittle doubt that among the senses contemporary Western civilization privi-leges sight, with hearing perhaps a close second. Touch runs a distant third,despite recent gains ("Reach out and touch somebody," says the ad, though itis actually hearing, vis-a-vis the telephone, which is being promoted); tasteand smell trail the pack, the last as much something to be eliminated (ananxiety which is the chief selling point of underarm deodorants and femininehygiene products) as augmented.

It was not always so, as Constance Classen convincingly argues in her mostrecent book, The Color of Angels. Aptly subtitled "Cosmology, Gender, and theAesthetic Imagination," this collection of six essays examines the politics ofsensory aesthetics from an unabashedly feminist perspective. Students oftheology should not fail to read her first two chapters, the first an explorationof the multisensory insights of a polymath abbess (Hildegard of Bingen), avisionary Lutheran shoemaker (Jacob Boehme), and a Utopian socialist(Charles Fourier), all of whom experienced their universe in synestheticterms.

The many visions of Hildegard, who lived in the twelfth century, were richin the emblematic thinking of the waning Middle Ages: virgins in Heavenwear white and gold robes, transparent shoes, and crowns which make musicin resonance with the voice of the Lamb. Jacob Boehme, born in 1575, sawthe cosmos as a kind of metaphysical chemistry lab, governed by seven spirits:Astringency, Sweetness, Bitterness, Heat, Love, Sound, and Nature. It willcome as no surprise that Boehme was also keenly interested in alchemy.

Fourier may seem an odd companion with these two religious mystics, buthis vision of a world in harmony is a multisensory one too. For example, hehails the sense of taste as "the first and last enjoyment of man"; in the har-monious age, people will eat five times a day, medicine will be supplanted by"hygienic gastrosophy," and diseases cured by such simples as hot sugaredwine and candy. Even the ocean will turn to lemonade (of which Fourier wasvery fond). The sense of touch ranks high in Fourier's earthly paradise as thebasis for social and sexual bonding furthered by a revision of the medieval"courts of love." Common to all three visionaries, writes Classen, is the way inwhich "all spiritual values are manifested through sensory signs."

The second chapter is an engaging discussion of the odor of sanctity attrib-uted to holy men and women whose bodies were said to be sweet-smelling inlife and uncorrupted after death. Lydwine of Schiedam, Teresa of Avila, andBenoite of Notre-Dame du Laus all had olfactory visions; the dead bodies ofthe three were said to have exuded ravishingly sweet odors. Classen writesof their ecstasies and miracles in fascinating detail, concluding with a survey


Reviews: Books

of olfactory theology, biblical and popular, now all but evaporated in our secu-larized world.

Three other essays address issues of gendered senses, particularly the mas-culinization of sight to the prejudice of the other four faculties. In "The ScentedWomb and the Seminal Eye," Classen discusses female loquaciousness and itslink to uterine humors, and describes a sensory bestiary in which eagles andstags embodied the nobler male senses of sight and hearing, tortoises andspiders were emblems of touch, and taste was represented by apes—all threeanimals associated with "feminine" qualities of homeboundedness, seductive-ness, gluttony, and fiber arts. Witchcraft, she argues, was a constellation ofsensory transgressions: insatiable appetite, hyperacute hearing, a keen senseof smell, lust-provoking and toxic touch, and the ability to harm through the"evil eye."

In "Pens and Needles," Classen tracks the shifting of medicine from femaleempiricism to male science, and the enlightenment dilemma of the femalewriter. One who succeeded was the seventeenth-century Margaret Cavendish,with the enthusiastic support of her husband, the Duke of Newcastle. "Sym-bolist Harmonies, Futurist Colors, Surrealist Recipes" chronicles the way inwhich renegade artistic movements turned the signification of the sensesfrom "a mythic framework for understanding the cosmos to ... inspiringartistic alternatives to mainstream culture," and how their strategies, whilenot explicitly feminist, facilitated the deconstruction of conventional notionsof gender and traditional sensory order.

Classen's final chapter, "A Feel for the World," challenges the primacy ofsight by exploring the world of the blind and the ways in which the arts havebeen made accessible to sightless people as both consumers and producers.Copious notes follow (48 pages of them, more than a fifth of the book), as wellas an exhaustive bibliography. Although the index fails to do justice to a workof such painstaking scholarship (e.g., strings of undifferentiated page num-bers bedevil major headings), it is better than no index at all and is the onlyweak point in what is otherwise a very strong book.

Nick HumezAdjunct Professor ofClassics and General HumanitiesMontclair State University, NJ

PRAYER MEDICINE: HOW TO DANCE, CRY, SING, MEDITATE, WRESTLE LOVEAND PRAY YOUR WAY TO HEALING. By Louis Savary and Patricia Berne. 176 pp.Barrytown, NY: Station Hill Press, 1996, $12.95.

At first glance, one might think that this is yet another pop-psychology orreligious self-help monograph. With further study, what is provided by Sav-

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ary and Berne, who come respectively from spiritual and psychological back-grounds, is a blending of emotional and physical self-healing activities inte-grated with prayer as a guiding focus. According to these authors, prayer canbe both "a healing medicine and a preventative medicine." Their book pro-vides tools for both attitudinal and behavioral adjustment through the identi-fication of internal physical, psychological, and spiritual energies, and theapplication of a range of activities.

Following an introduction reflecting on common elements of energy drainsand energy sources, "Prayer Medicine and Your Energy" begins with a defini-tion of the concept of "burnout" as a primary descriptive term for energy de-pletion, its symptoms, and the key circumstances that lead up to it. The fol-lowing chapter provides an overview of spiritual energy and the sevenelements or centers of this energy and their significance to the human experi-ence of healing. Referred to as "chakra" in some Eastern belief systems, thespiritual energy centers include Transmitting Life, Self Affirmation andAwareness, Courage, Compassion, Choice Power and Decisiveness, SpiritualAwareness and Meaning, and Transcendent Consciousness. This section con-cludes with a chapter on the elements of relaxation and centering as steps toguiding and focusing spiritual energy for healing purposes.

The next section of the book reflects on prayer as a medicine for healing:feelings located in heart, mind, and body provide a variety of healing activ-ities that are based on a structure of prayer. The reader is guided to identi-fication and ownership of feelings in activities characterizing affects throughdrawing, writing, and oral expression, and in the recognition of despair andfear, which are often at the root of depression and anxiety. In addition, thisbook incorporates some of the common tools of recovery and therapy, includ-ing taking "one step at a time," listing wants, making choices, recognizinglimitations, and journal or letter writing. Interwoven with these healing tasksis prayer, which is recommended as a lead-in for each activity, an instrumentfor discernment, and a way of concluding the process with gratitude.

Among physical means for healing, the book suggests ways of moving en-ergy in the body by "doing" things that are appealing, healthy, and stress-relieving. Dancing, wrestling (both in the imagination and directly, physi-cally), vocalizing (groaning, screaming, weeping), squeezing (an object), andhugging (a person). All offer opportunities to direct and release energy to aidin the physical healing process. Again, prayer serves as the structure formoving through these various actions.

The final chapter of the book, "Prayer Medicine for Your Relationships,"provides an occasion for linking the healing process to the experiences of others.Lending a helping hand or affirming others can prove to be a healing experiencefor the one doing so. Likewise, the sending of caring energy through prayer,helping those in need, or interacting with friends can bring healing to mind,body, and spirit. A healing touch—of self, of objects, of others—is yet anothertool for discerning the sources of pain. This helpful guide is a fine investment


Reviews: Books

for individual use, as well as for professionals in ministry, counseling, andother healing fields.

Norman BrandensteinPastoral Care and CounselingChristian Theological SeminaryIndianapolis, IN

AWAKENING INTUITION: USING YOUR MIND-BODY NETWORK FOR INSIGHTAND HEALING. By Mona Lisa Schultz. 320 pp. New York: Harmony Books, 1998,$25.00.

In Awakening Intuition, Dr. Mona Lisa Schultz presents an extremely inter-esting treatise on the connection between mind and body gleaned from intu-ition and brain science and grounded in the latest research. She presents thematerial with clinical anecdotes, her life story, and accounts of intuitive read-ings. Her aim is to encourage receptivity to intuitive messages and clues fromone's body. The personal stories and testimonies of healing are fascinating.

The author is herself a physician, a neuropsychiatrist and neuroscientist,who has worked as a medical intuitive for more than ten years. She statesearly on that persons can use intuition to make their bodies healthier and lifemore pleasurable. She defines intuition as gut feelings, hunches, internalsenses, even dreams. She says that "intuition occurs when we directly per-ceive facts outside the range of the usual five senses and independently ofany reasoning process" (p. 19).

Schultz organizes her discussion around emotional centers, each one con-taining memories stored in particular areas of the body. There are seven emo-tional centers. The first, for example, contains memories stored in the blood,the bones, the immune system, the spine, and the hips: "The emotions andmemories stored in this center have to do with issues related to family, physi-cal safety, security and support in the world; and to hopelessness and help-lessness" (p. 137). The author believes anyone can learn to read the languageof emotional centers, thus developing enough intuitive power to self-diagnoseand create a healthier and happier life.

The book is a practical guide to self-awareness and body-mind connected-ness, written with humor and sensitivity. Schultz's acknowledgement thatthere is an intuitive and creative power too often neglected and dormantwithin each of us restores to us the possibility of embracing that reality.

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Carolyn Bouchard, S.P., MAPCCChristian Theological SeminaryIndianapolis, IN

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DEPRESSION: HOW IT HAPPENS, HOW IT'S HEALED. By John Medina. 125 pp.Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, 1998, $14.95.

John Medina, formerly a graphic artist, is a molecular biologist at the Univer-sity of Washington School of Medicine. His remarkable background has allowedhim, creatively, to put together this work in such a way that both scholars andnovices will find helpful. Medina begins his book with case studies that high-light different forms of depression. He explains depression as an illness thatbegins in the brain, not as a character flaw. Medina refers back to case studiesthroughout the book to highlight different patterns, characteristics, and condi-tions of depression.

Medina discusses the anatomy and functioning of the human brain and thenervous system and the way different parts of the brain have different func-tions, some of which can be linked to depression. Throughout the book, hetalks about the environmental, chemical, psychological, and genetic factorsthat are linked to the origins of depression in the brain. In doing so, Medinapoints out that our nervous system serves as a transporter of signals or avehicle for communication for the brain. As this communication is disrupted,forms of depression emerge. By describing the biology of the brain and thenervous system, Medina hopes the reader will understand how amenable de-pression is to treatment.

Medina talks in much detail about the physical or medicinal treatments fordepression used by most mental-health professionals. He outlines the specifictypes of medicines and their compounds that will assist the patient in under-standing an illness, the body, and the effects of medication. A discussion oftreatments follows, including the controversial treatment of electroconvulsivetherapy (called "shock" therapy by critics). In contrast, Medina explores psy-chotherapy as a treatment for depression. He discusses three categories oftherapy to be used on a case-by-case basis, depending on what works best forthe client, including exploratory therapies, directive therapies, and finally,experiential-expressive therapies. Medina points out that physical treat-ments and psychotherapy are often used together to treat depression.

Medina also includes information on addressing depression from a religiousperspective, the side effects of certain medications as treatment, where to gofor help when one faces depression, and a book list for further study.

This book is carefully structured, so that even though it contains a tremen-dous amount of information, one can follow along without getting bored orbogged down with data. It should be useful as a self-study guide for the layperson, a reference book for the professional, or even as a supplemental text-book.


Tracy Maureen Ross, M. Div. (Cand.)Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis, IN

Reviews: Films

FilmsAutumn Tale

Dick

The Dinner Game

Run Lola Run

The definitive elements in film all come down to some kind of movement.That is why we call them movies. Everybody on the screen is in motion ormay be at any moment. We are moved by films, as the ads constantly tell uswe must be, to laughter or tears or some shattering fearful reaction. Thesefour films show wonderfully well how moving films can be, without ever fall-ing into the abyss of the advertising agency's delight, the horror epic.

Eric Rohmer's Autumn is the fourth of his tales of the four seasons. Itrepresents not only a time of year but a time of life. Its central characters aretwo middle-aged women—one, Isabelle, reasonably well married and happyto be running a bookstore, the other, Magali, at some ease producing winesfrom a handsome Rhone Valley establishment, but in dire need of a love life.The first woman goes to great lengths to find the second a man, taking out anad in her name in a personals listing and then, when there is a response,posing as her friend. Much in the way of amusing and touching entanglementfollows, involving Magali's son and a young friend of hers. It moves. The set-ting is perfect. The talk, as always with Rohmer, is superb, adult, searching,and probably too much for many viewers. Tant pis.

Andrew Fleming's Dick is moving in a splendidly different way. It is politi-cal satire, built around the figure of President Nixon, whose first name pro-vides the title of the film. With a fine economy of narration and an abundanceof wit, the source of the Watergate story, Deep Throat, is revealed to be twoteen-age Washington high-school girls, giggly, altogether caught up in theirjob as the president's dogwalkers, and in one case wildly in love with Dick.Woodward and Bernstein, their famous interviewers, are revealed as gaucheand self-serving in the great tradition of silent-film comedy and others in theWhite House cast, such as Henry Kissinger, are almost as entertaining intheir walk-on bits. The special achievement of the film is that far from reduc-ing Nixon and friends to fools and culprits, for all the awkwardness and mis-placed guile they display, the film makes them rather sympathetic. But thenthat is something that comedy is designed to do.

In The Dinner Game, Francis Veber demonstrates again his mastery of hisspecial genre, farce-with-purpose. The game at hand is a weekly gathering ofmen in Paris to point with great unrestrained joy to the cons, the nerds, thealtogether out-of-it jerks, they are each commissioned to bring to the gather-

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ing. The film is devoted to a glorious reversal of the formula, in which asophisticated book publisher is clearly the con, and his butt the triumphanthero. The actor who plays this last, Jacques Villeret, is a pudgy comic genius,whose elegant clumsiness makes this film not only funny whenever he turnsup but deeply moving.

The devices in Lola, some for humor, some for suspense, come so fast onemay want to see the film at least twice, as we used to do as children when wewent to the movies. To make that possible, the story of this impossibly ener-getic Berlin chick is told, with suitable variations, three times. It never failsto be engrossing, largely due to Tom Tykwer, the director, who also contrib-uted to the film's script and music, and its star, Franka Polente, a finelywound-up runner. The Berlin at the center of the track events is fresh to theeye—none of the obvious buildings or places, just a striking modern city inwhich the demands of urban life can be met with a young woman's heroicinsistence on being or becoming herself, even if she has to repeat herselfagain and again. Needless to say, it moves.

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Barry Ulanov

Reviews: Music

MusicCharles Chaynes

Many years ago, the French composer Charles Chaynes explained that he gaveprimacy in his music to emotional elements over pure technique. Though hewas a "partisan" of the atonal, he always acted to "safeguard" himself fromany school or system. Nothing was to be "conditioned by a fixed technique apriori." And so it has remained with this gifted and prolific musician, now inhis seventies, much recorded and handsomely received in France but extraor-dinarily little known in this country for an artist of such accomplishment.

There is not much one can get of Chaynes on domestic labels over here, butall of the handful that remain in print are worth the listening, and perhapsbest of all the work that usually is listed first alphabetically, A la recherchedu sacre (Quest for Sacredness), an organ work written in 1885. In four parts,it moves from "First Ritual" and "A Baroque Cult" to "Medieval Mysticism"and "Exaltation of a Recovered Communion," drawing everywhere from thesame set of materials. One hears, as one does in Messiaen, echoes of thecentral organ tradition that reaches back to Bach and beyond, with touches ofa chorale and Gregorian chant, but what is served with felicity is the fullnessof sonorities of the organ before the work ends, in Chaynes' words, after "acyclone of chords ... in a paroxysm of jubilation." That is not excessivelanguage for Chaynes' outpouring of feeling, which springs loose after someguarded moments to conclude the composer's recherche.

In the third movement of the organ work, as the composer speaks of it, thedevelopment is from "Roman cloisters to the mysticism of St. John of theCross." The same exalted source informs Chaynes' superbly organized Con-certo for Organ, Strings, Timpani and Percussion. Each of its three move-ments is a commentary on a verse of St. John and as performed by Marie-Claire Alain and a radio orchestra, in a French recording of many years ago,it is, like the poet-mystic's verses, always new, always alive to the resourcesof inner conversation.

One hears that transcription into the sounds of music of psychospirituallife in many of Chaynes' experimental efforts. It is in the two-act opera thathe made of Federico Garcia Lorca's Blood Wedding. There, playing with par-ticular invention around the dominant symbols of knife and horse, the com-poser moves inexorably to the voices of death of the last scene and a litany oftwo "ravaged" women that concludes the opera.

The textures are drawn, it seems to me, from psyche and spirit once more inPour un monde noir (For a Black World), for voice and orchestra, "a trans-figuration of themes or rhythms from the musics of central Africa," as Chaynesdescribes it. It is beautifully sung by Christiane Eda-Pierre, a black singer of

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unmistakable gifts, in the French recording. She makes especially touching thelast of the four songs, Pour la liberation (For Freedom), on verses by AimeCesaire.

There is in this last, as in so much of Chaynes, a splendid use of percus-sion. He hears, he feels, he makes us hear and feel, the beat of the life of thespirit in whatever setting, with whatever purpose, illustrating a text or not.To listen to his music, however hard to come by, is an experience to which thepsyche must say Amen.


Barry Ulanov

Reviews: Books, Films, Music

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