Main description:

This book explains in full how the emotional, mental and physical elements of Chinese Medicine in illness are an extremely effective therapy in dealing with cases where the alterations of the shen are both obvious and subtle. This book focusses on the psycho-spiritual aspects of patients' conditions and is purposely constructed to facilitate practitioners' formulations of diagnosis and treatment. It reflects throughout on the patient-practitioner relationship, resources and various characteristics of acupuncture, and inherent problems and qualities.

"Shen: Psycho-emotional aspects of Chinese medicine is more than an acupuncture book or a clinical text on how to treat psychological diseases. The authors, by connecting personal clinical experience and through study of classical texts, have created a model that shows how to develop Chinese medicine in the West. This is a very important achievement."

From the Foreword by Volker Scheid
Practitioner of Chinese medicine and
Director of the European Institute of Oriental Medicine (Munich/London).

Offers clinical guidelines for treating people with psycho-emotional symptoms.
Includes researched material and clinical applications concerning emotions and movement.
Describes the causes and progression of psycho-emotional symptoms in terms of etiological and pathological mechanisms, specific symptoms, and classical syndromes.
Features in-depth description of 29 clinical case studies with discussion on points, ongoing treatment, and problematic situations.

Contents:

SECTION I CLINICAL FOUNDATIONS OF SHEN

1. Following the Dao and Nourishing Life

2. Emotions and Movement of Qi

3. Psychic Souls

SECTION II CLASSICAL ASPECTS OF PATHOGENS, SYMPTOMS AND SYNDROMES

4. Constraint

5. Emotions and Heat

6. Irritability and Restlessness

7. Insomnia

8. Mania and Withdrawal

9. Classical Syndromes

SECTION III THERAPEUTIC APPROACHES

10. Main Patterns of Excess-shi

11. Main Patterns of Deficiency-xu

12. Stimulation Methods

13. Notes on the Transversal Use of a Few Points

14. Treatment of Emotions in Classical Texts

15. The Space That is Shared by the Patient and the Acupuncturist

16. Notes on Events Related to Acupuncture

SECTION IV CONTEMPORARY CONTRIBUTIONS

17. Tongue and Shen

18. Stress-Related Conditions: Considerations/Reflections and Clinical Notes

19. Points Used in Serious Psychiatric Pathology

20. Mental Diseases Clinical Aspects

21. Qi Alterations and Somatic Manifestations

22. Hyperactivity and Attention Deficit Disorders in Children

23. Anxiety States: Protocol Applied in a Special Psychiatric Hospital Department

APPENDICES

A The Pulse

B Diagnostic Indications in Conventional Psychiatry

C TCM on the Internet

D Basic Chronology

E Glossary

F Bibliography and Notes on Classical Texts

G List of the Described Points