John E. Sarno Books

In my years at New York University, I began to notice a strange pattern. Patients with severe back pain often had nothing on their scans that explained their agony. They were conscientious, diligent, often burdened by responsibilities — and they suffered profoundly. Through study and clinical observ...

From Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection

Let’s talk about emotions — the hidden ones, the feelings we don’t want to admit even to ourselves. Most people are uncomfortable confronting anger, guilt, or resentment. Society teaches us to suppress them, to be good, caring, responsible people. But when these emotions are pushed down repeatedly, ...

From Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection

Through years of treating patients with back and neck pain, I noticed a recurring pattern: conventional explanations rarely matched the symptoms. People with disc bulges that appeared on X-rays often had no pain at all, while others with pristine imaging suffered immensely. This contradiction prompt...

From The Mind-Body Prescription: Healing the Body, Healing the Pain

In my clinical experience, the most potent emotion underlying chronic pain is anger—often unconscious, often socially unacceptable to express. The human psyche is adept at suppressing rage, especially when it conflicts with one’s image of being good, conscientious, or loving. Yet suppressed feelings...

From The Mind-Body Prescription: Healing the Body, Healing the Pain