Customer Reviews

Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine

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"Molecules of Emotion" was certainly not what I expected from the jacket blurbs. Yes, there is some discussion of the scientific discoveries regarding emotion, but only in the first half of the book, and even there, it's a small minority of the content, couched in a personal narrative more centered on Candace Pert's viewpoint of her own career.

Yes, the saddening politics of paper publication, awards selection and grant approval in the world of government- and industry-funded biological research is quite an interesting read for an outsider. It even got my blood boiling to think of the promising therapies that are possibly being ignored due to their lack of profit potential (though this wasn't a new idea to me). It's too bad this ends up being the high point of the book.

From the very beginning, Pert's own ego comes to the fore in places in a way that detracts from the information that I (and presumably some others) bought the book for in the first place. There is something about the way she describes her personal experiences (more extensively and less modestly than might have seemed appropriate for a presentation of important scientific information) that made me wonder how much differently other people must perceive her than she perceives herself (even before she admits as much later on).

Unfortunately, this is not the worst of it. The early content is clearly scientifically validated, and describes in some detail (just enough for plausibility) the experiments that were conducted and the meaning of the results. But by the second half of the book, she seems to have thrown scientific inquiry to the wind in favor of unfounded speculation, including extensive quotations of flighty lunchtime conversations she's had with psychics and others, with no foundation or evidence to back up any of the wild ideas that spring forth. It degenerates into such drivel that I stopped reading entirely 50 pages from the end (and I rarely fail to slog through the last pages of even the dreariest tome).

Not that it isn't a bit fascinating what this woman believes (some of which is entirely plausible, insightful, and well founded, while some is just the opposite, with seemingly little discrimination between the two extremes), but I didn't have much interest in paying money and spending time on someone's not-very-interesting life story or wild speculations.

In sum, the first half of the book is reasonably interesting, both in terms of the science and the politics of science. The second half is only interesting as a personality study of a scientest appearantly so frustrated with the politics of science that she to a large extent rejected science itself, no longer discriminating between theories backed by experiment or other evidence and those that are not.

Fans of alternative healing, particularly those just savvy enough to be impressed by passing references to terms like "quantum mechanics" and "information theory" (in close association with "chakra" and "subtle energy", a supposed force beyond those of electicity, gravity, etc. invented to explain the power of love) but not sophisticated enough to actually understand what they really mean, will eat up the second half of this book, as will insecure psychologists threatened by successful drug treatmenets for depression.

Don't get me wrong: I have nothing against self-help books, spiritual healing or holistic approaches to a healthy body and mind. (And some of Pert's later musings are perfectly valid wise words for how to live a good and happy life.) But this book ends up in a VERY different place from where the jacket summary and testimonials would suggest.

Reading this book was a saddening experience. I don't believe that true personal or planetary healing will ever occur so long as our brothers of the animal kingdom are being killed and mutilated in our search for better health. I found Candace's justifications for experimenting on animals patronizing and arrogant. Refusing to kill animals in the name of science isn't about being squeamish, it's about being compassionate. Monkeys brains really didn't need to be put in a blender to discover the obvious - that there are strong emotional links to disease. And women don't need to be as cruel as their most heartless male collegues to 'prove' anything to them. It's going to take some people with great hearts as well as great minds to make the big steps needed for the healing of humanity.

Allen Hobson's <<The Chemistry of Conscious States>> is a far, far better introduction to this subject than <<Molecules of Emotion>> is. Unfortunately, it's out of print, since Dr. Hobson didn't include a lot of New Age baloney in his book to make it sell better.

Pert's book does include a few pages of useful information, layered here and there among the thick slabs of self-congratulating autohagiography and the limp pieces of Chopra-inspired spiritualism. But you have to plow through a lot of junk to get to it.

As I read this book I could not help comparing Pert to Newton. Opiate receptors may be a breakthrough. But Per was seduced by new-age mumbo jumbo, just as Newton was by alchemy. How can a bio-chemical scientist, Ph.D. and all, endorse homeopathy and all the other quackery that goes with. Could Richard Dawkins please examine this one.

After I tried to read this irritating, unfocused book, I went looking for a book that really did explain what scientists have learned about the brain-mind's neurochemistry in recent years.

This week, I found it. For the mainstream reader, I heartily recommend Dr. Allan Hobson's "The Chemistry of Conscious States: How the Brain Changes Its Mind", which was published in 1994.

The Amazon.com page for "The Chemistry of Conscious States" includes a nice, long synopsis and review to get you started.

"The Chemistry of Conscious States" is out of print, but the Seattle Public Library has a copy. You can borrow it through interlibrary loan while you're waiting for Amazon.com to locate a copy for you to buy.

"Why I Feel the Way I Feel" might have been a better subtitle. Focuses primarily on the author's unsuccessful struggle to gain the upper hand in an extremely competitive and cutthroat research culture, along with her reasons for giving it up and becoming one of a holistic-medicine guru's more prominent followers. Of more interest to the true believer than to the mainstream reader. Rather short on scientific explanation.

I sought out this book because I was looking for a layperson's introduction to the topic of its title, written by an expert in the field.

What I got was a repellent mishmash of personal and professional bitterness mixed with superficial counterculture spiritualism, with occasional nuggets of experimental brilliance tossed in like raisins in a halfbaked pudding.

I'm glad I only checked this book out from the library, because I will never purchase it. Instead, I will track down Pert's original journal articles in Current Contents, and slog my way through them. It will be slower going, but at least I'll know the material underwent peer review before it was published.

"The Double Helix" it ain't.

Molecules of Emotion by Candace Pert Ph.D. reads like a high tech medical thriller. The fact that it's autobiographical non-fiction never detracts and it proves an intriguing and surprisingly entertaining read. An often controversial and brilliant research scientist, Candace Pert has been on the cutting edge since the early 1970's, particularly in biomolecular medicine. She has contributed enormously to the paradigm shift in scienctific research that lead to proof of the mind-body connection in the laboratory. Her book takes the reader along on her often rocky journey in a burgeoning field and reveals the inside politics of the "old boy" club modern science has yet to outgrow today. Pert makes complicated science seem easy to understand and dishes it up in palatable bites. The plot alternates between a front row seat at one of her popular lectures and the wider view of her life as a scientist. From Ph.D. candidate at Johns Hopkins, controversial NIH insider to extensive lecturer, she shows the dark side of her professional journey as well as the gratifying career-making highs. She touches on her roles as a wife, mother of three and decidedly feminine woman in an alpha male field. What many will find truely thrilling about this book is the revolutionary science behind mind-body medicine and the promise of a brighter future for all humanity as the science is put into practice. A "must read" for nearly everyone. Of particular interest to women embarking on a career in the sciences or mind-body medicine advocates.

When I was first recommended this book, the title made me very uncomfortable - too New Age for me. I thought it would be another book that would claim to find the bridge between mind and body, to point some unscientific pseudofacts that we should all be aware of. However, after the third recommendation I bought the book and delved into it.

Dr Candace Pert is a neuroscientist and she speaks biology, which is a recognised territory for me, since my wife is a scientist as well.

At the beginning of her book (which is, more than anything, a novel, a very good novel and very well written) Candace unfolds her scientific history and experience, mainly from a biological point of view but also from an autobiographical one. I was excited to enter her lab, when she invited me in, with her enthusiastic approach towards science and with professional knowledge phrased in words I could understand. Very gradually, she draws you into the basics of information-substances, which create the core of information flow in our bodies, communicating with the outside world and the inner one. With regard to facts - the book is full of them. If you are looking for scientific approval of complementary medicine, of hypnotherapy or any mind-body approach, you will surely find references for it there.

It is so heart-warming to find a western scientist who not only acknowledges the unity of mind-body (the body is the unconscious mind, she says), but also further serves the public in the endeavour to shift the old paradigm of separation and move towards a new, integrated one.

Candace's future flows right into her past (since information and metaphors are boundless in terms of space and time), creating a shift in her language. She stands on the edge of a new paradigm, explores her own boundaries, with beauty, love, excitement and humble humanity. Personally, I found a lot of the knowledge in the first part of the book irrelevant - when a paradigm changes, it needs a new language, new metaphor, but I acknowledge that we are on the threshold of an exciting shift. Hence, the old language is gradually twisting itself, until barely recognised, before finally moving forward to the new one. Speaking more languages is always better, having more choices is what we aim for - as humans, and as therapists.

She takes the reader in a shamanic journey of self-exploration, through the realms of her private life, through the realms of science, as she shapes it with her knowledge. I found myself joining her journey, holding her hand and showing compassion in her difficult moments, happy in her growth, always from within. You really ought to read this book.

I have loaned Dr. Pert's book and the cassette version to so many friends that this review is from memory. This is a significant book about the human experience, the chemistry of our emotions and the "chemistry" of politics. If you plan on doing important research in any field, read this book. "The ivory tower" of scientific discovery is a political institution whether at the National Institute of Health or your local university. This is a brave and very personal account of the many challenges facing women who enter the exciting and demanding world of research at the cutting edge of knowledge. This book is much more than a detective story about the discovery of endorphin and its receptors in the brain and elsewhere. It is also about the arena where laboratories fiercely compete for the next breakthrough and the eventual money that goes with it. Read the entire book and you will see why she feels the way she does about the politics and personalities of discovery. You will also learn why you feel the way do because of the neurotransmitters that circulate in your body. Yes, she got a little spiritual near the end of the book. As a biologist I know just how difficult that transition can be. I have never met Dr. Pert. Just in case you read this review, Candice, I wrote this little poem in the back of my copy of your book:

The soul is cellular, it lives in every cell.
It is who we are, our story to tell.

It floods our tissue beyond the brain.
It is our happines; it is our pain.

This sacred fluid, beneath the skin;
A raging river with levees thin.

It made the jump from an ancient sea,
But can it leap into eternity?

From the soon to be published, "In and Out of Time ,Poems and Art for the Moment" by Tom Herren and artist Melanie Gottlieb.