Product Description

This is the first book to provide a complete overview of the burgeoning field of energy psychology. Written by major proponents of the field, the chapters cover a wide range of cutting-edge treatment applications, including Thought Field Therapy (TFT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Energy Diagnostic and Treatment Methods (EDxTM), Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), Tapas Acupressure Technique (TAT), and more.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #528596 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 432 pages

About the Author
Fred P. Gallo is a clinical psychologist and the author of Energy Diagnostic and Treatment Methods.

Customer Reviews

Pseudoscience and delusions
After close examination of this text, I conclude that from a Chinese/western medical perspective that this book is an attempt to make pseudoscience look convincing in order to support the marketing campaign of the authors. From a position of Chinese medicine and medical physiology expertise, they have failed.

Energy therapy is based largely on false assumptions about the brain. It uses a "thought field" approach as the main background theory. However, thought fields do not exist. The book explains energy as in positive or negative terms. However there are no physical similarities or correlates between normal energy and thought energy. Any physics scholar will know that energy does not work that way. There are know known physical correlates with new age notions of thought energy. The book makes feeble attempts to argue for the existence of these spurious and non recordable energy fields.

It steers clear of paranormal claims that are usually associated with energy medicine, but it is still pseudoscience

Qi is more accurately conceptualized as a philosophy, not a science, and its physical existence is not empirically supported. The book is completely unconvincing in arguing otherwise. In addition, they note that while acupuncture, a procedure used to correct the flow of chi, has been shown to provide some minor analgesic effects, its utility has not been demonstrated for treating illnesses or diseases. Chinese medicine uses a combination of treatments that work together.

The authors' proposed mechanisms of action are all spurious pseudoscience. There are simpler far more plausible reasons that may explain the few cases of success with the energy therapies techniques. These include placebo effects resulting from the mere expectation for improvement, demand characteristics, therapist enthusiasm and support, therapist-client alliance, and effort justification (i.e., the tendency to report positive changes in order to justify the effort exerted), and psychological manipulations such as distraction, suggestion, acceptance, and dissociation. These reasons are dismissed by the author, in preference for erroneous notions about meridians, thought energy, and the flow of Qi. The authors even claim that when the techniques fail it is because a negative person has "undone" them.

Considering that these techniques may potentially distract the patient's attention away from a serious illness such as cancer, and that the energy therapists in general do not cater for this eventuality, sensible consumers need to think more than twice before embarking on this pseudoscientific treatment. The book may convince you to open your mind for a while. However, please do not be so open minded that your brain falls out.

Regards
Dr Lee

A Classic Forever
This book brings the field of Energy Psychology all together, with chapters by major contributors to the field. If you want to know what these approches to therapy are about, this is the book to read and enjoy: one-stop shopping. The editor's (Gallo) introduction places the field in context and nicely sets the tone for the rest of the book. Then an amazing assortment of chapters follows on the major approaches, integrating Energy Psychology with EMDR and hypnosis, biofeedback, etc.