Whether it is the binding of shattered bones or the creation of herbal remedies, human agency is a central feature of the healing process. Both archaeological and anthropological research has contributed much to our understanding of the performative aspects of medicine. The papers contained in this volume, based on a session conducted at the 2010 Theoretical Archaeology Conference, take a multi-disciplinary approach to the topic, addressing such issues as the cultural conception of disease; the impact of gender roles on healing strategies; the possibilities afforded by syncretism; the relationship between material culture and the body; and the role played by the active agency of the sick.

Whether it is the binding of shattered bones or the creation of herbal remedies, human agency is a central feature of the healing process. Both archaeological and anthropological research has contributed much to our understanding of the performative aspects of medicine. The papers contained in this volume, based on a session conducted at the 2010 Theoretical Archaeology Conference, take a multi-disciplinary approach to the topic, addressing such issues as the cultural conception of disease; the impact of gender roles on healing strategies; the possibilities afforded by syncretism; the relationship between material culture and the body; and the role played by the active agency of the sick.

Focusing on the wealth of information emerging in the area of energy medicine, this unique resource explores mechanisms by which mind and body processes influence the body's healing and performance potential. Content draws on an extraordinary range of sources to explore theories of human energy - from physiology and biophysics, to examples drawn from the realms of "spontaneous healing," cutting-edge athletic and artistic performance, the martial arts, and various contemplative and spiritual practices. Providing new insights and theoretical models, it offers ways to apply these concepts directly, practically, and clinically.

Clowns are not just the stuff of backyard children's parties anymore. These days, clown doctors see patients--especially children--to introduce humor and imagination into an anxiety-filled and painful experience. The origins of medical clowning can be traced to the Big Apple Circus Clown Care Unit at the Infants and Children's Hospital of New York, established about thirty years ago. Since that time, the practice has developed extensively and medical clowns now work in hospitals around the world. Over the past ten years, the number of scientific studies on medical clowning has increased, with findings showing the important contribution of medical clowns to children and adults suffering from mild to incurable illnesses. Medical Clowning is the first guide to this phenomenon, summing up decades of research, education, and practice to give readers a comprehensive look into this innovative field. Amnon Raviv analyzes the performance of medical clowns, looking at research and case studies, and goes on to propose a training and evaluation model, including hands-on exercises to train experienced clowns for work in hospitals.

"Helpful advice for healing digestive disorders"--Cover.

In covering the subject of Chinese medicine, this book addresses topics such as oracle bones, the treatment of women, fertility and childbirth, nutrition, acupuncture, and Qi as well as examining Chinese medicine as practiced globally in places such as Africa, Australia, Vietnam, Korea, and the United States.

While the writings of early modern medical practitioners habitually touch on performance and ceremony, few illuminate them as clearly as the Protestant physicians Felix Platter and Thomas Platter the Younger, who studied in Montpellier and practiced in their birth town of Basle, or the Catholic physician Hippolytus Guarinonius, who was born in Trent, trained in Padua and practiced in Hall near Innsbruck. During his student years and brilliant career as early modern Basle's most distinguished municipal, court and academic physician, Felix Platter built up a wide network of private, religious and aristocratic patients. His published medical treatises and private journal record his professional encounters with them as a healer. They also offer numerous vivid accounts of theatrical events experienced by Platter as a scholar, student and gifted semi-professional musician, and during his Grand Tour and long medical career. Here Felix Platter's accounts, many unavailable in translation, are examined together with relevant extracts from the journals of his younger brother Thomas Platter, and Guarinonius's medical and religious treatises. Thomas Platter is known to Shakespeare scholars as the Swiss Grand Tourist who recorded a 1599 London performance of Julius Caesar, and Guarinonius's descriptions of quack performances represent the earliest substantial written record of commedia dell'arte lazzi, or comic stage business. These three physicians' records of ceremony, festival, theatre, and marketplace diversions are examined in detail, with particular emphasis on the reactions of 'respectable' medical practitioners to healing performers and the performance of healing. Taken as a whole, their writings contribute to our understanding of many aspects of European theatrical culture and its complex interfaces with early modern healthcare: in carnival and other routine manifestations of the Christian festive year, in the extraordinary performance and ceremony of court festivals, and above all in the rarely welcomed intrusions of quacks and other itinerant performers.

Performance and medicine are now converging in unprecedented ways. London's theatres reveal an appetite for medical themes – John Boyega is subjected to medical experiments in Jack Thorne's Woycek, while Royal National Theatre produces a novel musical about cancer. At the same time, performance-makers seek to improve our health, using dance to increase mobility for those living with Parkinson's disease or performance magic as physiotherapy for children with paraplegia. Performance, Medicine and the Human surveys this emerging field, providing case studies based on the author's own experience of devising medical performances in collaboration with cancer patients, biomedical scientists and healthcare educators. Examining contemporary medical performance reveals an ancient preoccupation, evident in the practices of both theatre and healing, with the human. Like medicine, theatre puts the human on display in order to understand and, perhaps, alleviate the suffering inherent to the human condition. Medical practice constitutes a sort of theatre in which doctors, nurses and patients perform their humaneness and humanity. This insight has much to offer at a time when established notions of the human are being radically rethought, partly in response to emerging biomedical knowledge. Performance, Medicine and the Human argues that contemporary medical performance can shed new light on what it means to be human – and what we mean by the human, the humane, humanism and the humanities – at a time when these notions are being fundamentally rethought. Its insights are relevant to scholars in performance studies, the medical humanities, healthcare education and beyond.

Heart Assisted Therapy (HAT) is a dynamic, integrative, humanistic, and mindfulness-enhancing approach to psychotherapy that integrates energy science. HAT uses the influence of the heart-brain-hands connection in concert with cognition, emotion, sensation, and a stabilizing breathing treatment while overlapping hands are placed over the heart ("heart-breaths"). HAT is a holistic mind/body/energy approach that uses "Awareness Streaming" in concert with the body's innate electro-physiology and respiration throughout the process. The HAT approach merges traditional psychotherapy components involving thoughts, feelings, and sensations with a novel use of hands over the heart to facilitate shifts in emotions, beliefs, behavior, and physical comfort. HAT engages the physical energies of the heart-brain-hands connection to orchestrate and synthesize these shifts. While this book is written primarily for mental health care providers, there are chapters devoted to the use of HAT, and the companion HAT self-regulation protocols (HAT-SR), by educators, physicians, nurses, dentists, and laypersons in general. "In his long-awaited book, Dr. Diepold presents HAT in a clear, thorough, and concise manner that is intended to playfully spark curiosity, break new ground, and deepen clinical awareness. HAT complements any theoretical orientation, and can be employed throughout the diagnostic spectrum. HAT is a powerful, efficient, and gentle cutting-edge treatment that is easy to use and is both therapist and client friendly. It is also highly efficient for any type of performance enhancement and is appropriate for use with all ages. It is my belief that HAT will create a paradigm shift in how presenting issues are conceptualized and addressed. This is a book that the curious clinician may want to read more than once " Dr. Roger PoirE, Psychologist, Gilford, NH "After studying this visionary book, I can emphatically report that I have come to the conclusion that this one-of-a-kind book deserves to be considered as required reading for anyone involved in psychotherapy applications and research, whether you are a seasoned practitioner and / or academic, or you are a student just learning the art and science of psychotherapy. You will learn that HAT is a relatively simple - yet conceptually sophisticated - therapeutic technique that can be (1) integrated within a wide variety of psychotherapies, and (2) applied to a large variety of clinical conditions. The author not only provides details regarding the HAT procedures and its applications so that new as well as seasoned psychotherapists can learn to use the technique, but he also provides extensive clinical case examples that illustrate how HAT can assist and enhance success in therapy. This book is both serious and fun. What a delightful combination of information and writing. My sense is that Heart Assisted Therapy is a seminal book, and it has the potential to become a classic. This is a book that cannot only change our minds, but it can change our hearts as well. My recommendation is, "be prepared to be enlightened...." Dr. Gary E. Schwartz, professor of Psychology, Medicine, Neurology, Psychiatry and Surgery, and Director of the Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health at the University of Arizona.