In our culture, we sometimes think of physical healing as near magic. Take this potion, that magic pill, wave the x-ray wand, blast it with invisible radiation. Voila! You’re better. Our medical treatments are certainly advanced, but such a degree of technical progress can reduce our sense of agency in the process. Participating in treatment can feel analogous to taking the car into the shop for an adjustment.
We would often like personal, mental and spiritual healing to work that way. But, as John Donne said, “no man is an island”; we are intimately connected to others and healing is a relational endeavor. “Ok, that sounds great”, you say, “but what does it really mean?” What do we know about mental development that can help us understand healing?
For a moment, let’s put on our neuroscience lenses (realizing that this information is a generalization; the raw science – well there are whole other books for that!). The way that our brains develop, the very way in which our genes express themselves, is dependent on the type of interactions that we have with others. Read More →