A wide-ranging, if sometimes-overwritten, study of how people process discomfort.
A chiropractor’s philosophical treatise about the nature and treatment of pain
In this nonfiction book, Cooper (I, Cancer, 2009) discusses different types of pain, from the chronic, physical variety to emotional, psychological, or even romantic discomfort. It also addresses specific pains—such as those experienced by women dealing with sexism and misogyny, or by parents raising fractious children. Along the way, it brings in concepts from various faiths. The author sees chronic physical pain, in particular, as an urgent crisis: “More Americans currently die from doctor-prescribed narcotic pain meds than from illicit heroin and cocaine overdoses combined,” he asserts. In response to this epidemic, Cooper reminds readers that both pain and healing are intrinsic parts of being human: “We are irrefutably among the most marvelous creations of the universe, veritable healing machines.” The core of his treatise asserts that people make their pain worse by mixing emotional grievances into it—a deeply ingrained instinct that he characterizes as “adding insult to injury.” To remedy this, the author concentrates on what he calls the “fire in the belly”—the act of removing cognitive elements from the experience of pain in order to trigger the production of serotonin and dopamine. This method, he says, will “allow you to pass through moments of suffering as innately as does a whale, a lion, or an eagle.” Some sentiments in this book are written in an overblown style (such as “And then there is that molten gut domain, your id, where unfettered atmospheres sporadically manage to flood the banks of your socially correct superego”). Other ideas seem speculative, at best; he provides no scientific support, for instance, for the notion that animals pass through moments of suffering any easier than humans do. That said, the book’s focus on the stress of a “vicious cycle” of negative self-evaluation is valuable, no matter what specific pain one may be enduring. Cooper’s broad-brush approach—which includes not only Christian concepts of suffering and atonement, but also the key Buddhist idea of dukkha—will also give readers a great deal to think about.
A wide-ranging, if sometimes-overwritten, study of how people process discomfort.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5043-9722-3
Page Count: 166
Publisher: BalboaPress
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
A moving, heartfelt account of a hospice veteran.
Lessons about life from those preparing to die.
A longtime hospice chaplain, Egan (Fumbling: A Pilgrimage Tale of Love, Grief, and Spiritual Renewal on the Camino de Santiago, 2004) shares what she has learned through the stories of those nearing death. She notices that for every life, there are shared stories of heartbreak, pain, guilt, fear, and regret. “Every one of us will go through things that destroy our inner compass and pull meaning out from under us,” she writes. “Everyone who does not die young will go through some sort of spiritual crisis.” The author is also straightforward in noting that through her experiences with the brokenness of others, and in trying to assist in that brokenness, she has found healing for herself. Several years ago, during a C-section, Egan suffered a bad reaction to the anesthesia, leading to months of psychotic disorders and years of recovery. The experience left her with tremendous emotional pain and latent feelings of shame, regret, and anger. However, with each patient she helped, the author found herself better understanding her own past. Despite her role as a chaplain, Egan notes that she rarely discussed God or religious subjects with her patients. Mainly, when people could talk at all, they discussed their families, “because that is how we talk about God. That is how we talk about the meaning of our lives.” It is through families, Egan began to realize, that “we find meaning, and this is where our purpose becomes clear.” The author’s anecdotes are often thought-provoking combinations of sublime humor and tragic pathos. She is not afraid to point out times where she made mistakes, even downright failures, in the course of her work. However, the nature of her work means “living in the gray,” where right and wrong answers are often hard to identify.
A moving, heartfelt account of a hospice veteran.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-59463-481-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
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