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Summary: Holistic Healing: Enhancing Our Will to Be Well
Review: Two great contributions of this book are Diamond's concepts of "will to wellness" and "art as therapy." Dr. Diamond has a lot of traditional medical experience, and there is no hesitation here in discussing suffering and very serious diseases in patients for some of whom there can be no cure. Yet for each of us (and even for the terminally ill) there is our will to be well, there is our Life Energy, which can always be enhanced. Diamond sees this diminished will as the cause of much of our suffering, something that can occur many years before there are actual physical manifestations of any disease. This is inspiring because it gives each of us a place to turn: to enhance this will, to raise our Life Energy. The purpose in doing this is not only to make our lives fuller and happier, but also to help our bodies ward off disease (and make any treatments received more effective).The second contribution concerns the means of actually increasing our Life Energy. For Diamond, this is primarily achieved through creativity and the arts (especially music). Seeing the arts and the act of creation as having therapeutic benefit offers our culture a new and dynamic way of liberating ourselves from the social malaise and many diseases that increasingly affect all of us. Other means to raise our Life Energy include friendship and love. Diamond elucidates these ideas with anecdotes from his lengthy and varied career in a way that gives fresh and true credibility to concepts that have otherwise become rather trite in our day-to-day world. Facets is written in brief "vignettes" making it very readable. It is a unique format that, for me, was very inspiring beyond the insights and information that Dr. Diamond discusses. A great book for doctors, therapists, but also for each one of us.
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