#12—Dr. John Sarno, TMS, and the Psychological Roots of Chronic Pain

Exploring Kodawari

The topic of this episode is the work of Dr. John Sarno and his theory of TMS or Tension Myoneural Syndrome. This is a diagnosis for people with chronic pain, especially lower back pain, for whom no physical cause or explanation of their pain could be found.

The concept is basically that unconscious emotional issues, primarily anger, manifests itself through the autonomic nervous system to create psychosomatic pain. The research is controversial, but there are many who swear by its effectiveness, including our cohost Yankı.

Yankı has suffered for many years with varying forms of chronic pain, and she found that reading Dr. Sarno's books and following his journaling techniques resulted in a lot of her pain disappearing.

Anyways, it's a fascinating topic, and if you or anyone you know is looking for lower back pain causes or relief from chronic pain, this is definitely worth checking out.

**We are not medical professionals, and the content in this episode is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for the medical advice of a doctor or other qualified health care professional. Always consult a doctor for medical advice.**

Timestamps

• [02:54] Disclaimers
• [06:52] Defining TMS and its different names
• [09:49] The Divided Mind (conscious vs. subconscious) and how TMS could be an evolved mechanism
• [12:58] The branches of the autonomic nervous system
• [16:45] Implicit vs. explicit memories and repressed anger
• [21:00] Experiencing pain can become a learned habit
• [24:40] How Yankı found Dr. John Sarno
• [36:00] Why you shouldn't automatically associate abnormalities (for example in an MRI) with pain.
• [39:11] The rubber hand experiment
• [43:46] Subjectivity vs. objectivity (is pain without a physical cause real?)
• [52:37] Chronic pain and inner peace
• [01:00:00] Phenomenology
• [01:12:09] Dr. John Sarno's symptom imperative and how pain can change locations.
• [01:15:33] Treatments
• [01:18:40] Summary

Links Discussed:

• Dr. John Sarno & Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS) Explained
• Interview with Dr. John Sarno on his book The Divided Mind
• Alan Gordon's TMS Recovery Program
• Dr. Howard Schubiner, Neural Pathways, and Mind-Body Syndrome
• Dr. John Sarno Methodology Lecture
• Rubber hand experiment

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