In this transcription of the Medicine Rite, the most sacred ritual of the Winnebago Indians, anthropologist Paul Radin captured a poetic source of profound importance to the understanding of mystical experience. Performed by medicine men upon the initiation of a member to their cult, this secret rite recapitulated the mythic origins and heroes of the Winnebago while integrating those present with the ancestral forces.

This book surveys the use of mind-altering plants in eleven societies in the Americas, Asia, Australia and New Guinea, ranging from the hunter-gatherers to complex ancient civilizations such as the Inca, the Moche, and the Maya. Those interested in rituals and religions of traditional societies and folk medicine will find a great deal of information in this concise, illustrated volume. Several themes emerge from de Rios's cross-cultural examination of sacred plants. She argues convincingly that plant hallucinogens, which have been used from time immemorial, influenced human evolution. She discusses religious beliefs, including those of shamanism, which may have been influenced by the mind-altering properties of particular plants. She also focuses on the ways in which hallucinogens have influenced ethical and moral systems.

To abuse or neglect a child, to deprive the child of his or her own identity and ability to experience joy in life, is to commit soul murder. Soul murder is the perpetration of brutal or subtle acts against children that result in their emotional bondage to the abuser and, finally, in their psychic and spiritual annihilation. In this compelling, disturbing, and superbly readable book, Dr. Leonard Shengold, clinical professor of psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine, explores the devastating psychological effects of this trauma inflicted on a shocking number of children. Drawing on a lifetime of clinical experience and wide-ranging reading in world literature, Dr. Shengold examines the ravages of soul murder in the adult lives of his patients as well as in the lives and works of such seminal writers as George Orwell, Dickens, Chekhov, and Kipling. One hopeful note in this saga of pain is that a terrible childhood can, if survived, be a source of strength, as Dr. Shengold finds in the cases of Dickens and Orwell. Provocatively original in its approach to literature and psychology, unsettling in its vivid portrayal of the darker side of human nature, far-reaching in its conclusions, Soul Murder will stand alongside such works as Alice Miller's The Drama of the Gifted Child as one of the most important studies of the psyche to appear in decades.

Although organ transplantation is the preeminent medical miracle of the last quarter of a century, Many Sleepless Nights is the first book to go beyond the headlines and describe the patients who have embraced this last chance to hold on to life, the intricate medical procedures that can save them, the surgeons and nurses who work in this emotionally charged world, and the ethics which complicate this miracle high-tech therapy. Lee Gutkind was granted unconditional access to the world's largest transplant center - the University of Pittsburgh's Presbyterian-University and Children's hospitals, where there is an organ transplant every eight hours, 365 days per year. For four years he immersed himself in the frantic night-and-day world of transplantation, living side by side with transplant candidates and recipients, jetting though the night with organ procurement teams, monitoring patients with surgeons and nurses, observing in the operating room, participating in the ethical and psychosocial evaluations of prospective patients which help to determine who will receive scarce organs. During his four years at Presbyterian and Children's Hospitals, Gutkind established close relationships with many patients, and his portrayal of them, living and sometimes dying under unbelievable stress, is a moving and dramatic statement about the capacity of human beings to endure. Many Sleepless Nights also outlines the history of organ transplantation and tells the story of the large and complex medical teams behind the operation. It captures the tension of the search for viable organs; the pressure decisions about which patients, among many, will receive them; and the surgery itself.Its vivid portrayal of the transplant pioneer Thomas Starzl - a man obsessed with saving lives - shows how a major innovator in American medicine functions during days and nights of extreme pressure.

Drawing on both Western and Eastern medicine aligned with Quantum physics, Laura Baumann offers a whole-body, whole-mind kind of yoga that is becoming one of the most important contemporary disciplines in the field. This accessible guide is the key to creating the ultimate individualized practice. Quantum Yoga instructs the reader to recognize, construct, and vary dynamic yoga sequences ideally suited to personal needs. Part 1 provides a thorough explanation of the history, philosophy, and varying traditions of yoga, and also outlines the body’s gross and subtle anatomies, the basic principles of Ayurveda, and how the modern insights of Quantum physics illuminate the ancient spiritual teachings of yoga. Part 2 delivers a step-by-step approach, with clear illustrations, to creating a personalized and flexible vinyasa-yoga practice. Quantum Yoga takes into account your body-mind constitution, and how circumstances might be changing around you. Creativity, mental focus, and clear intention are supported through the choice of a theme and peak pose. This is a spiritual system that adopts the holistic approach to health from the ancient Indian healing science of Ayurveda, while embracing the modern insights of Quantum physics to maximize one’s power of conscious manifestation. Develop the skills and enjoy the freedom of finding your own authentic yoga path to health, happiness, and enlightenment.

"A consise 'how-to' guide to enhancing a student's chances for admission to medical school. . . . Sound advice, practical suggestions".--The New England Journal of Medicine.

Winner of a COMMENDED AWARD in the Basis of Medicine category of the 2007 BMA Medical Book Competition. This book is both a lively introduction and a guidebook to those pioneers, most of them surgeons, who attempted to help their patients by extending the boundaries of their own knowledge and experience. In the 16 chapters of the book, an international group of authors have provided something of value to all those with an interest in surgical gastroenterology. Medical students and young trainees will come to understand the principles behind modern gastrointestinal surgery. Researchers will find insights and inspiration for their work and publications. Established surgeons and physicians will be rewarded with information that adds colour to their teaching, either on ward rounds or during formal lectures. Great care has been taken in choosing appropriate portraits and illustrations to bring these remarkable pioneers to life for the reader.

Future Imperfect describes and discusses a variety of technological revolutions that might happen over the next few decades, their implications, and how to deal with them. Topics range from encryption and surveillance through biotechnology and nanotechnology to life extension, mind drugs, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence. One theme of the book is that the future is radically uncertain. Technological changes already begun could lead to more or less privacy than we have ever known, freedom or slavery, effective immortality or the elimination of our species, and radical changes in life, marriage, law, medicine, work, and play. We do not know which future will arrive, but it is unlikely to be much like the past. It is worth starting to think about it now.

Three plays from one of Britain's leading and best loved literary figures: House of Cowards, The Dogs of Pavlov and Pythagoras (Smith). All previously performed in London, these prize-winning plays originate in Abse's preoccupation with personal and public themes. House of Cowards, which won the Foyle Award for the best play produced outside the West End, concerns the willingness of people to surrender their individuality to a charismatic leader. The Dogs of Pavlov, which the Financial Times described as "a work of exceptional merit" and "a superb creation", explores the conditioning of people to perform un-thinking evil. Pythagoras (Smith), which was awarded a Welsh Arts Council Literature Prize, focuses on the relationship between patient and doctor and of medicine and magic. Dannie Abse (b.1923) was born in Cardiff and studied Medicine at Cardiff, King's College and Westminster Hospital. A poet, novelist, playwright, he has also published diaries and autobiography. He has published eleven volumes of poetry including a Collected Poems.

2013 marks Dannie Abse's 90th birthday. In his lifetime he has published an astonishing array of work including poetry, fiction, criticism, plays and autobiography but it is as a poet that he is best known and loved. In Speak, Old Parrot he returns to themes of loss, love, medicine and its moral implications, the nature of creativity, Jewish folk tradition and the passing of time. The poems are observant of the outside world as well as the inner life and emotions but most of all they are a joy to read.

In this poetry collection, the magic of the Jewish folk tradition and the more contemporary scientific magic of medicine complement each other in all their contrasts, and there are playful poems of everyday experience as well as serious poetic explorations of art and all its aspects. At their centre is a strong humanist sense of moral reconciliation, symbolized by the Caladrius Bird in the title poem, which in medieval legend holds the power of life and death over the sick.

Astro Teller currently oversees Google[x] and Danielle Teller is a physician specializing in the fields of intensive care and lung medicine. Together, they bring a fresh and startling perspective on marriage and divorce in SACRED COWS. Drs. Astro and Danielle Teller know better than most that finding the right partner in life doesn't always happen the first time around. Through their own divorces they learned how widely held cultural assumptions and misinformation that nobody thinks to question—what they refer to as "sacred cows"—create unnecessary heartache for people who are already suffering through a terrible time. Do you think, for example, that the divorce rate in the United States is rising? Or that children are harmed by divorce? Most people do, but it turns out that neither of these notions is supported by the data. Combining the rigor that has established them as leaders in their respective fields along with a dose of good-natured humor, the Tellers ask readers to take a fresh look at seven common sacred cows: the Holy Cow, the Expert Cow, the Selfish Cow, the Defective Cow, the Innocent Victim Cow, the One True Cow, and the Other Cow. This is not a book that is "for" marriage or "for" divorce, but "for" the freedom to decide how to live most honestly and happily either as part of a couple or a single person. In the same way that Esther Perel's bestselling MATING IN CAPTIVITY gave couples a fresh perspective on their married life, so SACRED COWS invites readers to question assumptions and conventional wisdom. It offers a smart, insightful, and sympathetic view for those in a marital crisis, marriage counsellors, or anyone looking to gain a fresh perspective on one of our most cherished and misunderstood institutions.

Are we fated to follow in our parents' footsteps? Is what we experienced at home as children automatically transposed by us onto our own children? When do you break the chain? How do you stop personal history from repeating? These are just some of the questions the author tries to answer as she confronts the cancer that killed her mother in much the same way it threatens to kill her. But this is a book of therapy as well. We follow Julie, her husband and children through their journey into fear of the unknown, through diagnosis and missed diagnosis, through successful and not-so-successful operations. We watch her reaction to those miracle medicines that can destroy the patient even as they help cure her disease, and we see how alternative medicines and their practitioners touch her soul while helping her in her fight to reclaim her body.

Focus in the media on the risks posed to ordinary people has become increasingly strong in recent years - particularly on those risks popularly perceived to be posed by the mentally ill. But how justified is this concern? How do we best manage so-called dangerous people? In Will They Do It Again? Herschel Prins considers the issue of public protection within a broad context of risk in society generally, examining the concerns arising in contemporary society from dealing with uncertainty. It is argued that public fear over the danger posed by the mentally ill is at odds with the evidence, and that much of the concern is focused on a small number of high-profile cases. Prins goes on to examine such cases where management of the mentally ill has failed and sets out suggestions for improvements in practice. Will They Do It Again? cuts through popular misunderstanding and media hype over risk to give a clear, unbiased picture of the real risks to society from the mentally ill and how best they can be contained and managed, and will prove invaluable to a range of practitioners involved in the fields of criminal justice and psychiatry.

Almost everything you know about heroin addiction is wrong. Not only is it wrong, but it is obviously wrong. Heroin is not highly addictive; withdrawal from it is not medically serious; addicts do not become criminals to feed their habit; addicts do not need any medical assistance to stop taking heroin; and contrary to received wisdom, heroin addiction most certainly IS a moral or spiritual problem. Based on his experience as a prison doctor and as a psychiatrist in a large general hospital in Birmingham, Dr. Dalrymple argues that addiction to heroin is not an illness at all, and that doctors only make it worse. They deceive both the addicts and themselves by pretending that they have something to offer. In this brilliant, entertaining and provocative book, Theodore Dalrymple explains how and why a literary tradition dating back to De Quincey and Coleridge, and continuing up to the deeply sociopathic William Burroughs and beyond, has misled all Western societies for generations about the nature of heroin addiction. These writers' self-dramatizing and dishonest accounts of their own addiction have been accepted uncritically, and have been more influential by far in forming public attitudes than the whole of pharmacological science. As a result, a self-serving, self-perpetuating and completely useless medical bureaucracy has been set up to deal with the problem. With scathing wit, implacable logic and savage denunciation, Dr. Dalrymple exposes the mythology surrounding heroin addiction. Moving seamlessly between literature, pharmacology, history and philosophy, he demonstrates what happens when the nature of a social problem is so thoroughly misunderstood, and when human beings are regarded as inanimate objects rather than as agents of their own destiny. His scintillating, iconoclastic little book has an importance far beyond its immediate subject matter.

Text: English, Hebrew (translation)

""The Medical Man and the Witch During the Renaissance"" by Gregory Zilboorg is a historical account of the relationship between medicine and witchcraft during the Renaissance period. The book explores how medical professionals, such as physicians and surgeons, interacted with individuals accused of practicing witchcraft and the role they played in the persecution of witches. Zilboorg delves into the cultural and social context of the time, examining the beliefs and superstitions that shaped the attitudes towards witches and the methods used to diagnose and treat supposed witchcraft. The book also examines the impact of the witch trials on the medical profession and the development of medical knowledge during this period. Overall, ""The Medical Man and the Witch During the Renaissance"" provides a fascinating insight into the intersection of medicine and witchcraft during a tumultuous period in European history.Publications Of Institute Of The History Of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University, Third Series, V2.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

The awesome medical breakthroughs today raise perplexing ethical questions for the Torah world. Written for the scholar and general reader alike, this second volume in a series contains a treasure trove of information, such as cloning, stem cell research, hazardous medical procedures, controversy concerning circumcision, and more.