Review of
Instaread Summary of A Mind of Your Own The Truth About Depression and How Women Can Heal
Their Bodies to Reclaim Their Lives by Kelly Brogan with Kristin Loberg
Two out of five stars
I am no fan of
Big Pharma, being well aware of their manipulations of the markets and attempts
to suppress research indicating that their medications are not necessary.
However, in the field of mental health I have also seen people experience
dramatic improvement when taking the proper medication.
Much of the content
of the book being summarized has appeared in many other venues, exercise,
meditation and other components of a holistic life style will improve your
health. The additional material about managing the personal biome of your
intestines is also becoming more prominent as a component of having a healthy
body. Yet, that is not new as well, for years yogurt has been touted as health
food for your digestive tract.
The major
problem I have with the summary is the blanket and largely unsubstantiated key
takeaway 7. “Inflammation is the primary cause of depression and other chronic
diseases including cancer.” I am unaware of no research backing up this claim.
The explanation of this statement takes up only one page in the Kindle version
and does not back up the claim.
The second
problem I have with the summary is the argument from a specific case to a
general conclusion. This is done in key takeaway 10, where the example of
Mariel Hemingway is used. “Hemingway is
living proof that no one’s fate is absolutely predetermined by their genetic
makeup.” This is far too absolute for reality.
A third
difficulty is the manufactured anecdote that is most of the content of key
takeaway 9. It starts with “If a young woman has been persistently restless,
fatigued, and melancholy for weeks, she might seek an explanation for what has
changed within her.” The discussion ends with the specific example of Food
blogger Rachael Abel, a person that cured their depression with diet.
Every person
that follows medicine knows that some people are spontaneously cured of even
the worst diseases. Science cannot explain it, but it does know that one must
be very careful in generalizing from these miracles. That care is not taken in
this summary.
This book was made available for free for review
purposes.
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