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The Anatomy of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face of Illness |  | Author: Jerome Groopman
Publisher: Random House
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $8.74
as of 3/20/2010 06:28 CDT details
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New (5) Used (9) from $3.71
Seller: woodys-books
Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 1625124
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 272
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.6 x 1.2
Dewey Decimal Number: 616.0019
ASIN: B001SARBV2
Publication Date: December 23, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
An inspiring and profoundly enlightening exploration of one doctor’s discovery of how hope can change
the course of illness
Since the time of the ancient Greeks, human beings have believed that hope is essential to life. Now, in this groundbreaking book, Harvard Medical School professor and New Yorker staff writer Jerome Groopman shows us why.
The search for hope is most urgent at the patient’s bedside. The Anatomy of Hope takes us there, bringing us into the lives of people at pivotal moments when they reach for and find hope--or when it eludes their grasp. Through these intimate portraits, we learn how to distinguish true hope from false, why some people feel they are undeserving of it, and whether we should ever abandon our search.
Can hope contribute to recovery by changing physical well-being? To answer this hotly debated question, Groopman embarked on an investigative journey to cutting-edge laboratories where researchers are unraveling an authentic biology of hope. There he finds a scientific basis for understanding the role of this vital emotion in the outcome of illness.
Here is a book that offers a new way of thinking about hope, with a message for all readers, not only patients and their families. "We are just beginning to appreciate hope’s reach," Groopman writes, "and have not defined its limits. I see hope as the very heart of healing."
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 27
 A thoughtful book about medicine, spirituality, and how the mind effects the body. February 6, 2010
JackOfMostTrades (Washington, DC)
I've given this book five stars because it so outclasses other books with similar themes that it is, perhaps, in a class by itself. Had I ranked it within the 'universe' of thoughtful books, I might have given it a four, but no matter; you get the drift. The book does have a small 'hiccup' in terms of its structure. It is in a sense two books; one is the story of a doctor, taking the journey from med student to full fledged physician and discovering how important attitude, belief, hope, and outlook are in prognoses of outcomes for seriously ill people. The other 'book' is about the author's own revelation that after 19 years of seeking a treatment for a bad back, he begins a program that is counterintuitive to what one would think would heal a back that has gone through stress, poor surgeries, and dire prognotistications by various physicians. It is his own healing that inspires him to research the 'literature' on the mind/body connection. However, the two 'books' complement one another. One is an intuitive understanding through a journey treating patients (anecdotal); the other is an investigation (secondary research); talks with researchers, and reviews of the medical literature on the importance of the mind in healing. The two join and interlock into a very sensible thesis. But this is not a goofy new age tome about how you have to believe you'll get well and if you don't get well, it's because you didn't believe hard enough -- the author puts such books and their authors in the uninformed, 'voodoo' category, which is where they belong. It is very rewarding to read a book by an author who knows his stuff, is open to spiritual dimensions, and is willing to interrogate claims of hope and healing because he first, and foremost, seeks the truth; not because he primarily seeks to feel good (although his conclusions would make most feel good). Written in a "middle" style, i.e., not simple-minded nor highly clinical, this book should have a wide readership even though it was written OMG! six years ago--ancient history in terms of science-oriented books. Another virtue of the book, and I bet many readers like books for this reason, although may not admit it, is that the author thinks just like I do. So reading the book for me felt like sitting down at a cafe (with a beer or latte), and listening to a friend talk about the things that make his day and life feel valuable and rewarding. So here's to you Dr. Groopman!
 1% September 27, 2009
M. I. Quraishi (USA)
This book gives some much needed insight into this unexplained world, especially for physicians who are often caught up in the black and white of reality. Dr Groopman explains in a way that even physicians who believe only in statistics can grasp.
I will take a way a sense that we in the medical community do not know everything. We never said we do, in fact, we constantly say we do not - but we feel as if we do. I will take away that if there is a 99% chance of certain death than 1% will not - and maybe, just maybe all your patients will be so lucky...
Eye opening view of importance of "hope" September 11, 2009
Nyla Rich (Morton, WA)
I have been a nurse for 50 years and this opened my eyes to the need for HOPE in our lives. "Never give up"
lost first copy January 17, 2009
Susan Montour
Ordered this at physician request. We lost his copy and got an extra for our Cancer Center. Good reference. All this author's books are well written
 Gross Anatomy August 7, 2007
Melanie Gilbert (Boston, MA USA)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Dissection is the act of "disassembling something to determine its internal structure and the function and relationships of its components."
Dr. Groopman tries to understand the source of hope by dissecting the doctor/patient relationship. The challenge of his approach is that his subjects are still warm and breathing. And the doctor attending to this surgery is also the object of the inquiry. Groopman succeeds at transparency but fails at impartiality and the resulting discussion feels more like a vivisection - painful and of limited value.
Groopman's heart is in the right place and his case studies are exquisite dioramas of people struggling to make physical, emotional and intellectual sense of confusing and complex diseases. And to communicate their hopes, dreams and fears to one another about that process.
Yet, Groopman betrays his bias by closing his book with "science, to my mind, is one of our greatest sources of hope." So it turns out that "how people prevail in the face of illness" is that science gives them that courage. No wonder alternative medicine, healers, roots, herbs, supplements and the like have gained favor in an American public sick of an ivory tower approach to wellness. For Groopman, it's as if there is only one path to health and it runs straight through the lab.
Humility or faith, to my mind, is one of our greatest sources of hope. Science hasn't figured out how to dissect and bottle that magic elixir. For a physician like Groopman, that's clearly the hope that still springs eternal.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 27
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