The Healing Paradox : A Revolutionary Approach to Treating and Curing Physical and Mental Illness

Why does Western medicine fail to cure chronic physical and mental illness? Why do so many treatments and drugs work only for a limited time before eventually losing effectiveness or producing harmful side effects? Dr. Steven Goldsmith's answer is at once counterintuitive and commonsensical: the root of the problem is our combative approach. Instead of resisting and fighting our ailments, we should cooperate with and even embrace them. We should look for and apply treatments that are integrated with the causes of illness, not regard illness as an enemy to conquer. This "hair of the dog" principle is already widely evident in practice. Take, for example, vaccines and inoculations, which are small doses of the microbes that cause the diseases being prevented; the use of the stimulant Ritalin to calm and ground people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; and radiation, which is both a well-known cause of cancer and a well-known method of treating it. These are just a few of Goldsmith's many examples, which he relays in clear, evocative, and thought-provoking language. Perhaps most compelling of all, he explores reasons why this clearly effective principle is ignored by Western medicine. Drawing on fascinating case studies and personal experiences from his forty-year career as a medical doctor and psychiatristas well as abundant clinical, experimental, and public health data that support his seemingly paradoxical assertionDr. Goldsmith presents an exciting, revolutionary approach that will change the way you think about medicine and psychotherapy.

Why does Western medicine fail to cure chronic physical and mental illness? Why do so many treatments and drugs work only for a limited time before eventually losing effectiveness or producing harmful side effects?

Dr. Steven Goldsmith's answer is at once counterintuitive and commonsensical: the root of the problem is our combative approach. Instead of resisting and fighting our ailments, we should cooperate with and even embrace them. We should look for and apply treatments that are integrated with the causes of illness, not regard illness as an enemy to conquer.

This hair of the dog principle is already widely evident in practice. Take, for example, vaccines and inoculations, which are small doses of the microbes that cause the diseases being prevented; the use of the stimulant Ritalin to calm and ground people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; and radiation, which is both a well-known cause of cancer and a well-known method of treating it. These are just a few of Goldsmith's many examples, which he relays in clear, evocative, and thought-provoking language. Perhaps most compelling of all, he explores reasons why this clearly effective principle is ignored by Western medicine.

Drawing on fascinating case studies and personal experiences from his forty-year career as a medical doctor and psychiatrist-as well as abundant clinical, experimental, and public health data that support his seemingly paradoxical assertion-Dr. Goldsmith presents an exciting, revolutionary approach that will change the way you think about medicine and psychotherapy.¶

This revolutionary treatment philosophy challenges our fundamentally combative approach to treating physical and mental ailments. Instead of thinking of illness as an enemy to be vanquished, Dr. Goldsmith suggests a total paradigm shift, in which both practitioners and patients work to cooperate with, and even embrace, ailments. Though seemingly counterintuitive, Dr. Goldsmith provides an array of evidence as to the logic and efficacy of this alternative approach, meanwhile addressing some of the most burning questions currently forefront of medicine Questioning reality The hair of the dog Good/bad Resistance and the side effect Putting resistance on the couch Modern medicine : a health report Psychotherapeutic paradox Loops Dialectics Paradox within the home The staying-with-it principle Immunization and immunotherapy A little poison is good for you The strange obsession of Dr. Hahnemann From gods to genes RPM Such stuff as dreams The attack of the evil things Becoming well.