Anne you said many good things here. Hard to respond to all your statements. I'll try to answer a few things, hopefully it will clear some things up for some folks.
I've only seen what I've seen, so that's my world, and that comes from my own experience, from deep research, and from talking to TMS practitioners for 12 years. I've only heard about one TMS practitioner who didn't have TMS, Bob Bevan, PhD. All the others have had it that I know of, many seriously, but there could be others I'm not aware of. I personally wouldn't see anyone that didn't have TMS. The Sufi poet wrote, "There are 3 ways to know fire. The first is to hear about it, the second is to see it, and the third is to be burned by it." I was burned, then I went back and saw it. How can a practitioner truly understand TMS without being burned?
You said, "I am quite sure they see it as just part of who I am and they gave up long ago truly trying to cure me, but they like me.." That is common, I was you once, too. They felt bad for me and they liked me. You will break your chains someday. Dr. Sopher and I talked about this concept. He then told me that the TMS patients that the TMS docs were seeing were the ones that their regular doctors had given up on. Their physicians cringed when they saw these trouble healers on their daily charts. But the TMS docs see the larger picture.
My bet, and you're a betting woman, is that when you heal (and you will heal), your doctor will not apply TMS in his practice for various reasons. You mentioned one of them here....time. Years ago they spent more time, with today's healthcare they will have less time because they will soon be getting reimbursed less. I lost my health insurance recently for the first time in my life. It takes a lot more time with a patient to be a TMS practitioner, so things are going to change. But that will have to be worked out in another lifetime, not mine.
When you said your doctor had surgery and healed, there's two things possibly happening there. The first is, that he never had TMS, and so his surgery worked, but I highly doubt it. Chances are that he was fooled by his brain by the powerful placebo. There's a great example of something I went through but I'm too tired to type it out now..lol. I would bet the family farm that he never needed surgery for all the reasons I wrote about; the main one being that his surgery removed him from all his tension for a while, family, patients, etc...and he heals, but not by the means that he thinks he has healed.
I agree with you, Dr. Sarno is a pioneer, and it will take a long time to accept and integrate his ideas. And--as I said earlier here, there are many roads to get there, or flagships to tie your flag to. But--there's a huge caveat, Dr. Sarno found the magic bullet, the unfelt emotions. No matter which path you choose, the Monte route or the Hannibal Schechter route, some will heal, and others will not: because it's all about belief. It is belief in the method that heals, for all the reasons I outlined in my work. Carl Jung said the same thing a hundred years ago.
I can't say anything about Monte's work other than from the little I've seen. He doesn't understand TMS as Dr. Sarno has defined it. He's come up with a way that he thinks works, and if people believe in him, then it will help them, "right or wrong." But it's only your belief in what he's doing that alters your current state. Marc 11 vs 23-24. He's told people that have relayed to me, that Dr. Sarno is the old way, 40 years outdated. But Dr. Sarno's last book came out in 2007, it's still new and it still works every day. I see it working for those who understand it deeply and do the hard work. So Monte has come up with a great marketing plan spring-boarding off of Dr. Sarno's work. When I googled him earlier it came up, "The new-Sarno program." I can tell you that Dr. Sarno does not like that people use his name, and especially to say that he's out-dated and wrong.
So, if his work helps you, or anyone, then that's great. But he doesn't understand Dr. Sarno's work well, and appears to contradict it in the pieces I've read, eg, personality type, repressed emotions, etc.
I spend too much time defending what I know to be true, but it's good to get it out so that others can make their own decisions. What some people do, may work, and I'm glad for them, but be aware of "why" something works for you. Were you desperate at the time and needed something, or someone to listen? Did you need a formal structure to follow because you were in pain and emotionally lost at the time? Did you buy into something that is baseless because it provided a need? And what are the motivations of the people selling things?
You're also correct, the industry need not worry about people healing, as long as there are family problems there will be health problems. As long as ego is controlling our lives there will be physiological responses to words.
Fear is the driver and shame is its passenger.
Steve
Art: "The little lights aren't twinkling Clark."
Clark: "I know Art, and thanks for pointing it out."