The Mysteries Within : A Surgeon Explores Myth, Medicine, and the Human Body

Rating:
Summary: A History of Medical Thought and Lore
Review: "The Mysteries Within" is a book about the myths that have developed in medicine over the last several millenia. In it Dr. Nuland discusses the evolution of thought concerning various organs. He also goes into detail describing where some modern words and expressions have come from. Interspersed with these histories are an occasional jewel from his career as a surgeon. Overall it is a good book, although it seems slightly slow at times.

Rating:
Summary: A History of Medical Thought and Lore
Review: "The Mysteries Within" is a book about the myths that have developed in medicine over the last several millenia. In it Dr. Nuland discusses the evolution of thought concerning various organs. He also goes into detail describing where some modern words and expressions have come from. Interspersed with these histories are an occasional jewel from his career as a surgeon. Overall it is a good book, although it seems slightly slow at times.

Rating:
Summary: A great read, and a great addition to Nuland's work
Review: Dr. Nuland's way with the English language is as eloquent as the topic of discussion in his newest work.

This book is not so much an exploration of "The Body," as it is an exploration of the actual ways Medicine has sought to explore its own discipline.

It is a fantastic, but all too short trip into the great minds of Medical thinkers, including Nuland himself, and the ways in which they have accelerated its progress; indeed, it also makes light of the ways, doctors, have stifled it.

It is, very much, vintage Nuland -with its prose, and offerings of philosophical insight. But it is not like his other books -he doesn't deal with life and the body as in his other achievements. But, if you like Medical history; if you like knowing about the ways some of our most sacred accomplishments in the field came about, then buy this book.

Rating:
Summary: Not What I Expected, But Still Good
Review: I come from a medical family (Dad, a surgeon; Mom, a nurse; Little Sister, a pediatrician). Unfortunately, I hit the limits of my scientific education in high school biology. So, I picked up this book in hopes that it would reveal some of the mysteries of their professions and give me some insight into the reasons why people treat often treat physicians as magicians.

Nuland's book doesn't strip away the mystique of the surgeon's work, nor does it really capture the nature of a modern surgical practice. Instead, it provides an overview of many of the structures that a surgeon encounters in his day to day work (stomach, spleen, liver, etc.) and describes the mythology that accompanies each organ. He also provides tales from his own cases about where these myths have broken down and ultimately posits that science should triumph over mythology.

Nuland tells a good story, both anecdotal and historical. His writing is clear, although he tends to use two words when one might do. The organzation of the book is clear and he does a fine job a translating medicine into layperson's terms.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: I heard Diane Rehm interview this author Sherwin Nuland, and it sounded interesting, so I went and found his book and started reading. I must say it was very disappointing. Nuland is heavily locked into the mechanistic, reductionist paradigm of the human being. I can understand his reason for being that way; being a surgeon means he's intensely focused on doing what he does a certain way and excluding anything else. But it would be arrogant to present that as the very last word in medicine.

The worst part was where he dismissed all herbal medicine as "mumbo-jumbo" and denied it any "scientific" validity. He is unaware, perhaps willfully, of the advances in herbal and other alternative medicine going on these days. This attitude is unfortunate because it cuts off possibilities of healing that his mechanistic approach to medicine cannot cover. (Dr. Andrew Weil is a welcome antidote to this.)

A more profound difficulty with this book: Nuland insists that modern reductionistic science is superior to the sciences of traditional civilizations because it doesn't have a comprehensive holistic framework and is full of gaps that haven't been filled in. This allows for the growth of scientific discovery. It does that, but what is missing? Non-Western or premodern sciences connected the human being to the whole of reality. Reductionistic science cuts off the human being and breaks it down into molecules. What are the implications of this severance for our inner selves? Where is our sense of wholeness in life? Reductionism cannot connect us to any larger whole; it can only sunder. How much alienation has resulted in modern people from this? There has to be something more. A synthesis of frontier science with a holistic worldview is on the horizon.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant concept, but poorly executed...
Review: I love Nuland's writing, and could spend hours meandering through his explanations of medical phenomena. But this particular book was either poorly conceived or shoddily edited, because I found it much more difficult to get through than his usual lively mix of clinical experience and academic background.

There's just no balance here. That usually-delightful mix is completely absent, traded in for clumps of one or the other. He'll give a couple of tantalizingly tabloid case histories, some personal information about his own medical training, then chapters and chapters of academic detail. It just doesn't work for me.

Still fascinating as a glimpse of where medical thought is coming from, and as usual, Nuland is brilliant at pointing out the vestiges of old ideas and anachronisms even within modern medicine. But as the title suggests, this really is a surgeon "reflecting," with seemingly no particular direction, intention, or goal.

Too bad, though, because there's a lot of fascinating potential here.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant concept, but poorly executed...
Review: I love Nuland's writing, and could spend hours meandering through his explanations of medical phenomena. But this particular book was either poorly conceived or shoddily edited, because I found it much more difficult to get through than his usual lively mix of clinical experience and academic background.

There's just no balance here. That usually-delightful mix is completely absent, traded in for clumps of one or the other. He'll give a couple of tantalizingly tabloid case histories, some personal information about his own medical training, then chapters and chapters of academic detail. It just doesn't work for me.

Still fascinating as a glimpse of where medical thought is coming from, and as usual, Nuland is brilliant at pointing out the vestiges of old ideas and anachronisms even within modern medicine. But as the title suggests, this really is a surgeon "reflecting," with seemingly no particular direction, intention, or goal.

Too bad, though, because there's a lot of fascinating potential here.

Rating:
Summary: Terrific!
Review: This book is a fascinating study of the history of rational thought. Dr. Nuland traces the evolution -- the victories and the failures -- of various thinkers in history. He successfully avoids the condescending spirit of the modernist approach to history.

It is very informative, and his anecdotes could not be better.

This book will definitely appeal to anyone who is interested in the history of science or medicine.

I disagree with some of Dr. Nuland's conclusions -- namely, that religion is not a form of superstition and that science will always be intertwined with religion. This, however, does not detract from the fine quality of this work (as other readers may form their own opinions on such matters).

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Summary: A Nuland Winner--For Those Interested in Medical History
Review: This book may be disappointing to previous readers of Nuland, who might be expecting disclosures of exciting medical procedures and interesting anecdotes of the workings of the human body; but those who are interested in the evolution of medicine will feel he has produced another winner.

Nuland undertakes this historical medical journey by exploring the evolution of knowledge of the stomach, liver, spleen, heart and uterus.

During antiquity matter was considered to be composed of fire, air, earth and water. Galen taught that the body contained four associated humors blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm-and to maintain good health a proper balance was to be maintained by them. The source of each of these humors was the heart; liver; spleen and stomach; and brain.

Through the course of history as medical instruments became available an iconoclast, with keen observation, was able to shatter previous myths and new insights were uncovered.

With the advent of the modern scientific method the details of the individual body processes are uncovered. Gaps in knowledge are acknowledged. No answer is considered final.

The medical practitioner during most of history was considered a "magician". He knew all about the workings of the body and how to treat illness. His treatments-in most instances of no value and sometimes even harmful-were frequently successful because the body naturally fights to restore itself to health; and it is aided in that fight by the placebo effect. Many of today's questionable treatments still benefit from the resistance of the body and the placebo effect.

Medical knowledge has been a reflection of the contemporary culture. From antiquity, myths (medical knowledge) were created by unrestrained speculation. Such myths however were based on observed experience consistent with the prevailing philosophical and religious beliefs.

Rating:
Summary: Thriller Mystery And Medical History
Review: This is a remarkable book written by a gifted surgeon, who wields a pen perhaps a touch less brilliantly than a scalpel. The only reason I say less, is that after reading one specific part of the book, I was overwhelmed with what can happen in an operating room. This is why I used the word thriller for the book, but other sections are as mysterious as Holmes versus Moriarty, and the historical perspective is brilliantly shared and summarized without losing the cadence of the book.

Dr. Nuland with his third work, "The Mysteries Within", brings a view of medicine unlike any I have read before. He takes you through a procedure that he claims brought dumb luck to the operating table for both he and his patient, luck that saved a life that was almost a guaranteed loss. He shares the inspiration that Residents and Interns bring with their youth, and calculated daring. Do you know what a bezoars is? I didn't until I read this book. And if the detective work that solved this enigma does not leave you marveling at just how wide and varied a surgeon's skills must be, I don't know what will. The example for you is perhaps in another section of the book.

He and the men and women he speaks of are remarkable, yet he always puts what is known and observable into relation with less tangible ideas. Whether it is religious faith, or faith in the Doctor or a pill, or hope in the unproven, he is never dismissive. The only intolerance he shows is for those who lack the openness of mind that welcomes all possibility, or deals in absolutes. His statements on religion and science and how they legitimately coexist, are not incongruous, and perhaps essential to each other, is stated as eloquently as I have ever heard the issue summarized.

It is rare person who can reach inside the ill, the broken bodies, and the lives that should end but do not. The pressure they operate under is explained, but I believe true understanding is left only for those who are the participants. Hopefully most will never need the skills and the "luck" that you will experience in this book. However in the event you or someone you care for does, hope that it will be a surgeon like this man, the men and women he learned from, or perhaps those he has taught.

Unconditionally recommended!