Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing [Paperback]

If you are looking purely for an objective scientific book on women's health then don't bother with this. There is a lot of scientific info but there's a lot of "non-science" as well. Read the lowest reviews first which fairly summarise the weaknesses of this text. I agree that this book comes across as flaky in places however it is a breakthrough work in terms of systematically exploring the integration of mind and body and the effect of this balance on health.

While I applaud the effort to make people realise how their mental state can impact their health, the other side of that sword is that women feel they are to blame for having the "wrong state of mind" which leads to poor health.

For instance in one story a woman became infertile because, in the author's opinion, she didn't feel her husband was the right person to have children with. If you're pragmatic you can hear this story, consider if it applies to you and discard it if it doesn't fit. But some women could develop a guilt complex over something that is upsetting on its own without the added blame.

Ultimately, the problem with this kind of thinking is that it leads to a vicious worry cycle: you worry that you might not have the right state of mind for good health... and then you worry that your worrying risks your health further! But to ignore this altogether also poses risk. Stress does cause disease and an integrated approach to health cannot exist without considering a person's state of mind.

Because this book provides significant medical information, the reader could be lead into taking all the author's opinions as fact. Take the opinions as just that and you will find the book enjoyable. It is informative and thought provoking.

It's a complete, holistic guide to women's health that every woman should read. I bought one for my mother and one for my sister. Both are benefiting greatly.

In skimming through the book, I came across the testimonial of how the author and her sister allowed their bodies to be mutilated (having their fallopian tubes cauterized) and how they overcame their misgivings about the procedure by scheduling their surgeries for the same day, and listening to sappy music and giving each other foot rubs. Later, they overcame their natural grief over not being able to have any more children by reflecting that the command to "go forth and multiply" doesn't apply in our time anyway, because there are too many children. Instead, the author said she and her sister would "go forth and multiply many spiritual children and give birth to ourselves." I am not kidding; this is really what she said.

In another chapter she says that women should only "carry out" their pregnancies if they can be "emotionally available" to the baby. She asserts that prenatal and birth experiences can be remembered, and that babies who pick up on negative maternal feelings while they are still in the womb will remember this and be doomed to a life of "existential depression." To prove her point, she quotes a number of her patients who are certain their mothers never wanted to give birth to them, and this is the root of all of their later problems in life.

When I finally got to the section on toxemia, imagine my surprise to learn that my condition was a result of feeling less attractive, less loved, and more helpless. These negative emotions manifested physically through my autonomic nervous system. No doubt if I only felt better about myself, I could avoid complications in future pregnancies.

It would almost be funny except that there are women who are turning to this author for genuine medical advice, and what they are getting instead is mindless psycho-babble coupled with liberal politics. In my opinion it is this sort of treatment that demeans women and is a true source of oppression!