What is the current "best" TMS book?

H

had

Peer Supporter
I have read 3 of Sarno's books,, and Schubiner's. I am wondering if there is anything else out there highly recommended. I tend to get a lot of benefit from the "book cure" phenomenon, and also can experience the opposite when it's obvious someone is selling BS or is overly intense/motivational speakerish in a psychologically based book because it makes me not like/trust the author because it feels more like marketing/cultish than helpful. Sarno's were all good but it felt light on action and heavy on stories and convincing the reader. One of the reasons I like Schubiner's book is he clearly explains the physiology, there is no woo there at all, and no victim blaming like "you aren't ready to heal if its not working" or the intense "RAH RAH" sort of stuff I find in a lot of self help books and even from some TMS advocates. But since I have read his book multiple times I am looking for more.

Also is there a list of resources, books etc here somewhere I don't see? I looked in all subforums and around the menus but may have overlooked it if it exists.
 
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Have you read Hanscoms Back in Control. And if you want to just expand your general brain knowledge I enjoyed Doidges books on neuroplasticity
 
Marls said:
Have you read Hanscoms Back in Control. And if you want to just expand your general brain knowledge I enjoyed Doidges books on neuroplasticity
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I haven't. Is it centered on back pain due to the title or general TMS? Would you say it's more or less detailed than Sarno and Schubiner if you can compare?

I can't say I am interested in a deep dive into neuro issues really...just a TMS booster, and I do better with the more medical/practical stuff, and less motivational woo sort of books. I know some people love and get a lot from things like Tolle etc but it's never helped me and I find it a slog. I've read Schubiner's Unlearn Your Pain so much I feel I know whats coming on each page, and need something new to shake things up.
 
I haven’t read Schubiner, for no reason in particular, and the Doidge books were just easy to read and I wanted to know more about just how powerful the brain is and learn ways of “harnessing “ it perhaps. I refer mostly to Hanscom which starts about back pain but expands to how to help yourself to help yourself. I see myself as a TMSer and also enjoy staying open to slightly differing theories. I learned a lot from Explain Pain (Moseley and Butler) Too hard to buy electronically and expensive in hard copy so I borrowed a copy.
 
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Marls said:
Words alone won’t heal you.
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That's the thing...I've had far more success with reading the words than journalling. meditation, therapy etc. Not everything is TMS, and not everyone responds to the common advices when it is. I get really frustrated and what I see as victim blaming when the zealots DO act like you just are not "loving yourself" enough or "believing" it. The words help me to believe...I am not one who can CHOOSE belief...because that is faith and I can't do that...I need to truly believe.
 
If you liked Unlearn Your Pain, I recommend Schubiner's new book: Abbass & Schubiner, Hidden from View: A Clinician's Guide to Psychophysiologic Disorders. Abbass wrote the last half of the book; he is a psychiatrist, so I don't know if you would care for that. But Schubiner wrote the first half, and that gives you his latest thinking. As the title suggests, it is written for physicians and other healthcare providers, but given your familiarity with Unlearn Your Pain, you should have no trouble understanding it.

I am a big fan of something Marls mentioned, namely, Butler & Moseley, Explain Pain (the second edition, not the first). It is heavy on neuroscience but is presented in an entertaining and easily understood way. Much of what Schubiner says is grounded in neuroscience (his talk of "neural pathways"), but Butler & Moseley do a better and more impactful job of explaining the neuroscience of chronic pain, in my opinion. Hanscom's second edition of Back in Control goes into neuroscience, too. I have great respect for Hanscom, but Moseley, who has a PhD in pain neuroscience, is unequaled at explaining the neuroscience of pain.

Sarno's books enabled me to overcome more than two decades of chronic low back pain--completely. Then I experienced various forms of the symptom imperative and dealt with that successfully to some extent based on Sarno's books. But then I found Butler & Moseley, and that really got me over the hump. Among other things, I have even been able to overcome pain that was structural rather than psychophysiologic with the help of Butler & Moseley's work (including a more recent book than Explain Pain) and related neuroscience research. What I am saying is, don't sell well-done education about the neuroscience of pain short. That just might be what you need in order to "truly believe" what you have to truly believe to succeed.
 
I know where you’re coming from Had because the TMS basics haven’t worked for me. Working on shrinking the brain pain map and working through the Explain Pain workbook I think have helped because not all my issues are TMS, they just seem to be bound together. I too get comfort from the words in the recommended books and on this site, maybe because they are written by those who truly know and care.
 
Yeah the two different Explain Pain books I can find are both absurdly expensive. Not paying that much for an e-book either...especially since reviews say its a poorly formatted PDF shoved into a kindle format. Frustrating.
 
Moseley is pretty well known worldwide so might be in a local or hospital library? I borrowed from the pain clinic at the hospital. His style worked for me so waited a couple of months and borrowed it again. He’s done a few YouTubes to see if you like his approach.
 
had said:
Sarno's were all good but it felt light on action and heavy on stories and convincing the reader.
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Hi had,

I might mention that in fleshing out Dr. Sarno's work, Forest put this together. A gleaning out of all actionable work from Dr. Sarno's books. This is in response to the "lack of what to do."

http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/section-1-introduction.4628/#post-28646 (Official Thread - Section 1 Introduction)

In some ways, the deeper you go into pure Sarno, the cleaner it is.

I think what you're doing is great. My advice is to keep going until all your questions are answered. And if you run into stuff which contradicts other stuff then go with what removes doubts and is supportive, dispense with what does not resonate --deeply-- with your experience. Sounds like this is what you're up to.

I love the new book by Schubiner and Abbass. Abbass is so direct to state that all mind-body stuff is caused by conflict between the rage of the child at the parent, and guilt/fear/counter force that it isn't OK to be rageful toward the parent figure. To me this tension is so basic in our makeup.

Andy B
 
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Hi had

Have you read Steve Ozanich’s Great Pain Deception? It resonated strongly with me (after reading Sarno) as it’s his first person story of how he put the theory into practice and what he learned along the way.
I find Steve’s other little book Back Pain Permanent Healing a good one to keep at hand too because he lists through the main pitfalls (as he sees them) to healing. He’s really great at directly challenging some of the ways we get stuck (because he’s been there too), one of which can be the desire to arm ourselves with more and more information about TMS! One I’m definitely guilty of!
Good luck

Rx
 
Andy B said:
Hi had,

I might mention that in fleshing out Dr. Sarno's work, Forest put this together. A gleaning out of all actionable work from Dr. Sarno's books. This is in response to the "lack of what to do."

http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/section-1-introduction.4628/#post-28646 (Official Thread - Section 1 Introduction)

In some ways, the deeper you go into pure Sarno, the cleaner it is.

I think what you're doing is great. My advice is to keep going until all your questions are answered. And if you run into stuff which contradicts other stuff then go with what removes doubts and is supportive, dispense with what does not resonate --deeply-- with your experience. Sounds like this is what you're up to.

I love the new book by Schubiner and Abbass. Abbass is so direct to state that all mind-body stuff is caused by conflict between the rage of the child at the parent, and guilt/fear/counter force that it isn't OK to be rageful toward the parent figure. To me this tension is so basic in our makeup.

Andy B
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Literal rage at your parent? Or the child mind raging at the ego/parent mind?
 
had said:
Literal rage at your parent? Or the child mind raging at the ego/parent mind?
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There is not a lot of difference. The two levels you speak of are not so far apart; both live in our mind/body. There's the literal rage of a three year old at one's parent and the implicit understanding that it is not safe to be rageful toward one's love and survival source (parent). This is everyone's past. Presently we might know this conflict between full expression and the danger of this expression in our inner and outer relationships. We treat ourselves with self-hate or avoidance, playing out "Inner Child vs superego" as you suggest. We treat others (our bosses, other drivers on the road, partners) with resentment, fear, passive aggressive behavior, rage. It all goes back to childhood. Those early experiences "don't change," and they still run us today, at least part of the time. For some, reading and understanding this and connecting it to TMS theory is enough. For most, this work requires really feeling/exploring in order for understanding to emerge.
 
Free of Fear said:
Explain pain is fantastic, and you can get a good PDF of it here: http://gen.lib.rus.ec/search.php?req=Explain+pain&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def (Library Genesis)

Try the different mirror links (they look like [1], [2], etc.) and you'll get to one that works.

(no, I'm not a bot!)
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Looks like I spoke too soon...have you seen it anywhere else in a better quality? Those are low resolution scans further reduced in quality being stiched into PDF copies and the text is so blurry I can't read things like that without severe eyestrain/headaches. Was all ready to read it tonight and hadn't opened it to check quality. If it were a resonable price I'd just buy a paper copy but as you know it's mentally priced...even higher somehow on eBay...and the Kindle Version is another bad quality PDF according to reviews (probably the same file from libgen formated to AZW) and its 35usd! Really frustrating at how inaccessible this is. No local libraries have it either.
 
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Andy B said:
There is not a lot of difference. The two levels you speak of are not so far apart; both live in our mind/body. There's the literal rage of a three year old at one's parent and the implicit understanding that it is not safe to be rageful toward one's love and survival source (parent). This is everyone's past. Presently we might know this conflict between full expression and the danger of this expression in our inner and outer relationships. We treat ourselves with self-hate or avoidance, playing out "Inner Child vs superego" as you suggest. We treat others (our bosses, other drivers on the road, partners) with resentment, fear, passive aggressive behavior, rage. It all goes back to childhood. Those early experiences "don't change," and they still run us today, at least part of the time. For some, reading and understanding this and connecting it to TMS theory is enough. For most, this work requires really feeling/exploring in order for understanding to emerge.
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This is wonderful! I seem to be doing well with feeling and experiencing, acknowledging the rage. Now I just need to find the way to let it go....which I'm discovering takes continued practice and patience.
 
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