Book Review: Spontaneous Healing

By Portia Meares
Published on April 16, 2010

• Andrew Weil, M.D.
• Alfred A. Knopf, 201 E. 50th St.,
• New York, NY 10022, 1995.
• Hardbound, 281 pages, $23. ISBN 0-679-43607-3.

Spontaneous Healing is Andrew Weil’s fourth book devoted to natural healing. Like his earlier books, this one treats healing as a compendium of therapies, including herbs, lifestyle changes, and beliefs that hinder or help healing. Weil asserts that “the body can heal itself” and that the physician’s role is to help that healing take place. He calls upon Greek mythology to distinguish between conventional medicine and alternative healing approaches. To Weil, the differences between Asklepios, the god of medicine, and his daughter Hygeia, the goddess of healing, epitomize the differences between curing and healing.

Weil is an articulate, convincing proponent of Hygeian medicine. He brings his enthusiasm for its role into the current political debate about how to cover the costs of medical care, suggesting that “there has been no argument about the nature of medicine or people’s expectations of it, only about who is going to pay for its services.”

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