The Body Speaks: Therapeutic Dialogues for Mind-Body Problems [Hardcover]

James Griffith (Author), Melissa Griffith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 18, 1994 | ISBN-10: 0465007163 | ISBN-13: 978-0465007165 | Edition: 1

For decades, health care providers have worked as though there were a monolithic wall dividing the ailments of the mind from those of the body. Theorists on either side developed separate languages and philosophies to explain symptoms. This distinction has left many clinicians unable to treat successfully patients whose symptoms—such as headaches, conversion paralysis, and seizures—arise from the place where mind and body meet. In this book, the authors describe a powerful narrative therapy, one that relies on the wisdom and everyday language of patients’ real-life stories instead of the expert knowledge and professional language of the clinician. This approach can be used across all categories of somatic symptoms, from factitious ones to medical illnesses such as asthma or migraine headaches.The authors show how somatic symptoms are often related to unspeakable dilemmas, as in the case of a child who, after discovering a parent’s marital infidelity, is afraid to disclose the secret and begins having blackout spells for which a neurologist can find no physiological basis. These dilemmas can be understood only if a clinician creates the kind of relationship in which privately held stories of fear, shame, and threat can be told safely. Detailed case studies and numerous brief examples vividly illustrate techniques for helping patients escape the dilemmas that bind their bodies by finding new language and stories that can free them.In an innovative section, the authors rethink the current ideas and practices of psychopharmacology. Rather than “treating” a brain disease, a clinician uses medications to recalibrate brain systems that register alarm, thereby opening new possibilities for therapeutic change through speaking, listening, reflecting, and relating.This book offers all clinicians—psychiatrists, social workers, psychologists, nurses, physicians, and family therapists—a way to use language to help patients resolve bodily symptoms. It avoids the stigmatization that patients and families so often experience—and the frustration clinicians feel—when struggling to find answers for mind-body problems.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

James L. Griffith, M.D. is professor of psychiatry at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine. Melissa Elliot Griffith, M.S.N. is director of the Family Therapy Program at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine. They have made their treatment approach for somatoform disorders the focus of numerous journal articles and popular workshops. James L. Griffith, M.D. is professor of psychiatry at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine. Melissa Elliot Griffith, M.S.N. is director of the Family Therapy Program at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine. They have made their treatment approach for somatoform disorders the focus of numerous journal articles and popular workshops.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; 1 edition (May 18, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465007163
• ISBN-13: 978-0465007165
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,172,813 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Had to buy again, July 15, 2008

By 

DrExistingMindfully (IL, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Body Speaks: Therapeutic Dialogues for Mind-Body Problems (Hardcover)

I read this book as an undergraduate for the fun of it. As a PhD student in psychology, I realized I had to add it back into my library after loaning it out. This is a definite must have to any conscious therapists bookshelves!

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars very ineresting, August 28, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Body Speaks: Therapeutic Dialogues for Mind-Body Problems (Hardcover)

This book points out some very important conection in a very understandable way, both for professionals and non - professionals. It takes out some very common symptoms and illnesses and points out possible connections between body and mind which should indeed be common knowledge among all health professionals

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely the best book I have ever read., November 27, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Body Speaks: Therapeutic Dialogues for Mind-Body Problems (Hardcover)

Beutifully written and thought provoking.
I've read this book three times, learning new
things and new understandings of myself
everytime. I recommend this to anyone who
has been diagnosed with a mind-body
problem or anyone who works with such
problems. It is simple to understand yet
profound. Afbsolutely fantastic! I truly
hope I can someday meet these wonderful
people that have helped me so much.
If the authors are reading this please let me
know at [e-mail]