[.ca] Why People Don't Heal and How They Can (ISBN 1591794420)

From Amazon.com:
A woman tells you, within minutes of meeting her, that she's in a support group for incest victims. In theory, this woman is trying to recover from her childhood trauma, but in reality, Caroline Myss writes, she's one of a growing army of people who practice "woundology," the use of their pain and suffering to manipulate those around them. Myss first noticed this phenomenon in the late 1980s, and began to analyze why so many people seemed to choose to carry such painful problems so proudly through life, to define themselves by the awful things that had happened to them. She offers a program to use "symbolic power"--a deep, spiritual insight that surpasses any conjured by the conscious mind--to craft a genuine conclusion to the illness or injury.

Not Completely Useless, But ...:
We all know people with legitimate illnesses who seem to wallow in their misfortune. However, we all suffer from illnesses, and we all age -- some of us dwell on our ailments, others are stoic to the point of self-neglect. The author is obviously a charlatan, who has positioned herself as the Camille Paglia of New Age Healers. As others have pointed out,she has no credentials, and isn't even a healer -- she is a professional busy body, telling others where to get off, and it is sad that people have actually gone to her in their desperation. There are plenty of New Age healers who aren't charlatans, who have a genuine gift of love and will to help others. She basically says that some people need their illnesses for attention or whatever, and that others experience spiritual growth through their physical travails. None of this is exactly news. I just worry that people who come down with cancer or whatever will think it's their own fault if they don't heal, as she seems to think. This book isn't really a waste of time -- but it is mean spirited, reduces a complex topic to a formula, and is completely lacking in a spiritual element. Which is ironic, because she is preaching spirituality. Scary.

'Blame the victim for their illness' would be a better title:
These days, people are looking beyond traditional western medicine to realize that there are other systems and traditions of medicine that are also effective. I think this is a good thing, and the more people can become critical about existing methods, and more aware of all of their options, the better. Indeed, one of the common threads among these non-western medicines is the holistic idea that the body and spirit and mind are intertwined and that any of these elements affects the other. Western scientists are repeatedly proving correlations between outlook, attitude and physical wellness. Of course, now that the door has opened to new ideas about medicine, it has also opened far enough to allow frauds and snake-oil peddlers a place to prey. The sad thing is, most of the people that are preyed upon are truly ill, and truly desperate. I'm not going to say Ms. Myss is one of these frauds. She'd probably find a way to sue me. On the other hand, she claims to be a PhD. Has she ever said in what? I've researched it--she is a PhD in Medical Intuition, and get this--from an institution that she started herself! Its not accredited by anyone! She offers this same 'PhD' for others too--after a week-long workshop at her overpriced school. As for her other degrees, I think she has a graduate degree in anthroplogy or something (sorry, I forget). She was apparently given her 'special powers' by a Native shaman woman that she met once. Come on, give the native peoples of this hemisphere a break. Isn't it enough that their land and culture was decimated, that they don't have to continue being exploited with the ridiculous New Age stereotypical ideas. Wanna know what some Lakota people think about Ms Myss? Try this page: http://www.aics.org/war.html I could go on, but in the interest of priority, here is why this book is dangerous: It leads people to beleive they are the cause of their own illness. While a person can grow and empower themselves by analyzing their lives or reading a good, inspirational book; and while it may be good to try to rid oneself of negative thoughts and misconceptions, desparate people do not always have the ability to deal with things like that on their own. People that are truly ill and desperate are not necessarily going to feel better, they might just end up feeling guilty and even less inclined to seek real help. Even Chinese medicine accepts that sometimes people 'just get sick'. And practitioners of these older traditions go through a lot more rigorous training than a few days at some seminar. Don't insult them or the Lakota people by reading Caroline Myss or her ilk. And don't insult yourself either. Find real hope in your life--it exists. Don't get your personal strength from some huckster, find it in yourself. It's there.

You're missing the point of the book:
To say that those who have been through childhood or other types of trauma, shouldn't read this book is stating that you completely missed the point. The victim role can prohibit one from seeing things clearly, i.e., as a victim. If you know and understand the body of work that is Carolyn Myss, getting out of the "woundology" state is a key point in her work.

Self Identification is the only way...:
There has been millions of research to justify everything Caroline teaches. She's not critizing the wounded and neither is she arrogant. Facts are facts, and she delivers the facts in a way that people who are not serious about making some changes will easily get affended, because that's the easy thing to do other than looking at themself and saying, "Hey, I brought this on myself. And I could fix it myself." Carolyn is terrific! But if you are not serious about self improvement, don't bother.

Offers healing but instead blames the wounded ---:
I would not recommend this book to anyone trying to understand and recover from childhood trauma or abuse. She is arrogant, self righteous and critical of the victim. In my opinion, not the voice that anyone needs to hear in order to heal.