Bodymind Energetics: Toward a Dynamic Model of Health

This is an extremely well written book that explains the dynamics of acupuncture and energy medicine in a way that is easily grasped. The material is original, thought-provoking and clearly extensively researched. The book is appropriate for acupuncturists, acupuncture students, energy/body workers, psychotherapists, massage therapists or anyone in the healing arts who wishes to gain a better understanding of mind/body medicine from both an Eastern and a Western perspective.

Dr. Mark Seem is a well known and respected Acupuncturist and founder of Tri-State Institute of Traditional Chinese Acupuncture in Stamford, Connecticut. The book presents theoretical foundations of the Acupuncture technique as practiced and taught by the author. I read Bodymind Energetics about a year ago as part of my medical acupuncture study. It is a good introductory text for someone interested in Acupuncture and Energetic Medicine. The book is accessible and well written; yes, as mentioned by the previous reviewer, it is repetitious at times, but I don't hold it against the author because the ideas advanced in the book are new for the majority of readers, and these concepts do require multiple different angles of presentations to make them clear. One of the reviewers complained about the angry tone of the book. There is some truth in this observation. One thing we need to remember, though, is that the author of the book has Ph.D. in French Philosophy. I am not making a disparaging remark. Au contraire. What I am saying is that the author is a very intelligent and sensitive person (otherwise he wouldn't achieve what he has achieved and wouldn't be doing what he is doing!), but, judging by his (very elegant otherwise) writing style, the author's intellectual roots are undoubtedly Gallic with all the applicable stereotypes (see Monty Python and the Holy Grail or read Mark Twain's ramblings on the subject). Just remember that there is plenty to learn from this book, and you will do much better paying attention to the content of the book, rather than tone with which it is written. The one weakness of the book, in my opinion, is its cover: the picture of black human figure surrounded by energy field lines is somewhat misleading. I suspect that this picture scared off a lot of intended readers. Don't pay any attention to the cover: the book has nothing to do with Blavatskaya/Astral Body/Distance Healing/etc.

Mark Seems Bodymind Energetics addresses the issue of our understanding of the "physical" and "psychological" aspects of health. Seem covers some of the historical background to the "body-mind" split in western thinking and the practice of medicine. He uses models of thought taken from studies of the early pioneers of psycho-somatics, and models developed from ancient Chinese medical texts to discuss this 'split'.This is an extremely interesting and thought provoking work on the subject.