A PERSONAL CANCER CURE

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Before therapy, and older than her years

In MOTHER NO. 54, we learned of Dr. Harold Manner's successful laetrile/nutrition treatments for
cancer. Now, Dore Deverell—who has used these and other techniques—reports on ...

When I learned-in 1972-that I had cancer of the breast, groin, stomach, pancreas, and liver, I immediately started to research the physical causes of the disease. But—since I maintain that most illnesses stem from psychological sources—the emotional causes concerned me even more.

I also knew that the effects of nutrition on cancer would be of prime importance to me . . . since I had—20 years earlier—used nutrition therapy as a self-cure for an extreme case of hemorrhaging and edema.

In fact, I've never believed in the treatment of symptoms instead of causes, and I had decided years before that—if I ever had cancer—I would not submit to the brutal surgical, radiation, and chemotherapy treatments I had watched a close friend endure.
My friend had first gone through a complete mastectomy, then had both of her healthy ovaries removed to prevent the production of female hormones. She suffered through a long series of cobalt treatments and became horribly ill from the side effects of chemotherapy . . . only to eventually die of lung cancer.

THE CANCER PERSONALITY

When I had to face my own illness, I finally acknowledged that I fell into a category known as "the cancer personality''. I had first heard of this "type" of person through Dr. O. Carl Simonton, a young radiologist from Fort Worth, Texas,

Dr. Simonton wanted to help cancer patients with something more than radiation, and he developed a biofeedback system that employs the power of the mind to change the body's processes. (Biofeedback works ... it is widely used in many applications today.) But, when the doctor taught this technique to his patients, he discovered that it also put them in direct contact with feelings that had been repressed for years, and that the cancer victims who faced and worked out these negative emotions were the ones who eventually recovered. With that knowledge, the radiologist began to prescribe private and group psychotherapy for his patients.

There are (according to Dr. Simonton) three main attributes of the cancer personality: First, the person has a poor self-image . . . his or her identity is bound up in seeking the approval of others. Second, the typical cancer victim-even before the onset of disease—feels sorry for him-or herself, because that person is apt to be living in latent despair. And, finally, the "cancer type" is unable to forgive and forget, and is, therefore, unlikely to have long-term successful relationships.