Convincing evidence that a specific pattern of behavior is a risk factor, albeit one of many, for certain cancers. Psychologist Temoshok (who's connected to Walter Reed Army Medical Center) and science-writer Dreher (Your Defense Against Cancer, 1988) report on Temoshok's research into the link between behavior and cancer and on the research of others into the mind- body connection, especially the role of the immune system. Working with melanoma patients, Temoshok, who takes a biopsychosocial view of health and illness, has discerned among the most severe cases a common pattern for coping with stress. She calls this pattern ``Type C behavior'' and contends that it's marked by passivity, appeasement, and repression of anger and other strong emotions. According to Temoshok, the nonexpression characteristic of the Type C person weakens the immune system, increasing vulnerability to cancer and infectious diseases. The authors generally are careful not to overstate their case, and they make clear that this effect has not been found in all cancers nor in all age groups. They are also aware that the misinterpretation of the mind-body connection sometimes has led patients to blame themselves for their cancers—and that's just not so, say the authors. After a brief look at the roots of Type C behavior, Temoshok and Dreher offer advice on how to transform it into a more balanced, healthier pattern, first through self- awareness and then by taking action. They go on to give specific advice on becoming more assertive with doctors and nurses, expressing emotions constructively, and securing needed support from others. A well-written, responsible presentation of the evidence that there is a correlation between manageable psychological factors and the development of cancer.
Pub Date: July 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-395-57523-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1992
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
From the national correspondent for PBS's MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour: a moving memoir of her youth in the Deep South and her role in desegregating the Univ. of Georgia. The eldest daughter of an army chaplain, Hunter-Gault was born in what she calls the ``first of many places that I would call `my place' ''—the small village of Due West, tucked away in a remote little corner of South Carolina. While her father served in Korea, Hunter-Gault and her mother moved first to Covington, Georgia, and then to Atlanta. In ``L.A.'' (lovely Atlanta), surrounded by her loving family and a close-knit black community, the author enjoyed a happy childhood participating in activities at church and at school, where her intellectual and leadership abilities soon were noticed by both faculty and peers. In high school, Hunter-Gault found herself studying the ``comic-strip character Brenda Starr as I might have studied a journalism textbook, had there been one.'' Determined to be a journalist, she applied to several colleges—all outside of Georgia, for ``to discourage the possibility that a black student would even think of applying to one of those white schools, the state provided money for black students'' to study out of state. Accepted at Michigan's Wayne State, the author was encouraged by local civil-rights leaders to apply, along with another classmate, to the Univ. of Georgia as well. Her application became a test of changing racial attitudes, as well as of the growing strength of the civil-rights movement in the South, and Gault became a national figure as she braved an onslaught of hostilities and harassment to become the first black woman to attend the university. A remarkably generous, fair-minded account of overcoming some of the biggest, and most intractable, obstacles ever deployed by southern racists. (Photographs—not seen.)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-374-17563-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1992
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