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Book Review
An Intriguing Approach
To Treating Anxiety Disorders
Norm Goldman
The Publisher & Editor of Bookpleasures.com
(This book review was originally published at American Chronicle, AuthorsDen.com, searchwarp.com, Amazon.co.uk, and Bookpleasures.com
on 07 April 2008)
The National Institute of Mental Health (NMH) is the largest organization in the world that is dedicated to research pertaining to the understanding, treatment, and prevention of mental disorders as well the promotion of mental health. On their website they state that approximately 40 million American adults aged 18 and older have anxiety disorder such as panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and phobias such as social phobia, agoraphobia and specific phobia. This represents about 18.1 percent of the total American population in this age group. The question we must now ask is how effective are the traditional methods of treatment of anxiety disorders and here is where a book published by The Process Center, The Triple Process Remedy: A New Philosophy on Illnesses of Stress, Anxiety and Depression comes into play.
According to its website, the Process Center is an international multidisciplinary research group/network working on various subjects based on process philosophy or Ontology of Becoming.
If you are not familiar with Process Philosophy, the Triple Process Remedy informs us that the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, the teacher of Parmenides, has been recognized as the founder of this way of thought. "According to Heraclitus, reality is not stable, materialised substance, but a matter of process reified in fundamental forces and fluctuating activities. Reality is constantly changing and in the process of becoming." It was not until the 20th century that process philosophy attracted the attention of philosophical explorers as James, Bergson, Whitehad, Nietzsche and others. Process Philosophy differs from substance philosophy in that since the time of Plato and Aristotle, philosophers have posited true reality as timeless and based on permanent substance, as processes are denied or subordinate to timeless substance. On the other hand, process philosophy emphasizes becoming and change over static being.
Now you may ask what does this all have to do with anxiety disorders? Dr. William Sun, who is the founder of the Process Center and the principal contributor to The Triple Process Remedy: A New Philosophy on Illnesses of Stress, Anxiety and Depression challenges traditional medical philosophy. Dr. Sun deserves our attention for he offers some incisive insights that may cause us to rethink the present-day treatments of anxiety disorders. His thoughts and findings are based on his own personal experiences and they explore the reasons why he feels the seemingly "scientific" methods are not very effective and why we should give some thought to his method that is based on process philosophy.
However, one caveat, as mentioned in the very first pages, the advice contained in the book is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, prevention or treatment of any illnesses and diseases. It is only intended for informational purposes and it is essential that readers keep this in mind when cooperating with their physicians and health professionals in its possible implementation.
Dr. Sun's unique and innovative approach is presented within seven sections of the book that commences with a general introduction to anxiety disorders, theories and treatments followed by the differentiation between process and substance philosophies. The author then continues with his analysis as why he feels modern medical theories are limited when it comes to the treatment of anxiety disorders and stress which fundamentally he attributes to its preoccupation to three basic assumptions in understanding the nature of human beings and illness, namely: dualism, reductionism, and entitativism.
Dr. Sun believes that these three assumptions contain contradictions and he goes on to emphasize that the deep problems within modern medical theories are the problems of isolation, disconnection, and fixation in conceiving the nature of our body and illness. These are further examined in a detailed analysis of the major problems of medical science.
After challenging these traditional theories, Dr. Sun goes onto explain the three fundamental principles of human life where he asserts that human life is inseparable from nature. As mentioned in the book, "A very common mistake of modern medical science is that it attempts to isolate the mind from the body in order to diagnose any mental problem, or to treat the body's diseases without considering the patients' mental states." According to Dr. Sun there are three basic principles in comprehending human life and health and these he defines as: the wholeness principle, the equilibrium principle, and the fluidity principle.
These are further looked at and explored with the conclusion that "if everything is kept balance and flowing, the body automatically functions by nature: continuing to run, act, grow, self-renew, and self-heal (if problems occur)." A subsequent chapter delves into the mechanisms and causes of anxiety wherein Dr. Sun scrutinizes the standard approach and then goes onto compare it with the process philosophy approach.
The last section of the book is given considerable ink, as readers will learn about the basic ideas of The Triple Remedy Programme™ that basically is totally a natural alternative way comprising the integration of natural process remedy, nurtural process remedy and nutritional process remedy, or as it is termed, "the triple process remedy."
To sum up and what it comes down to is the philosophy advocated in the book bases itself on the conviction that the "human life is organically processual," which means that there is: "a constant interaction, interconnection, interdependence, and transformation of life energies, vital forces and elements within and outside the body. In general, anxiety disorders result from the abnormal changes and disturbances of energetic processes in the brain as well as the whole body that are due to the imbalance of energetic forces and blockage of life flow processes."
The book also includes four case studies, tables illustrating how the Triple Process Programme™ works, a bibliography and further reading. However, there is no index, which would have been helpful and nowhere in the book do we have any mention of Dr. William Sun either as principle author or researcher. I received this information only after I had interviewed Dr. Sun who is the founder of Process Center.
In my view the principles enunciated in the book are not without merit and illustrate astute perception on the part of the author, however, I would have liked to have seen more references and footnotes to back up many of the allegations. Moreover, to be fair to the author, I must admit that he is an interesting thinker and I compliment him on plunging into a topic with a great deal of insight, lucidity and clarity though, I am certain it may ruffle a few feathers within the medical profession.
If Dr. Sun has not entirely changed our belief in the so-called wisdom concerning the principles of traditional medical philosophy, at least he has deepened our understanding of process philosophy and its possible applicability in the treatment of anxiety disorders. Anyone who suffers from an anxiety disorder would do well to read this book and discuss the findings with his or her health professional. Perhaps they will reap the same benefits as Dr. Sun in treating his or her anxiety disorder.
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