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Corresponding Address and email)
“Molecules Of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine” is a book written by Candace B. Pert, a molecular biologist having an important role in the discovery of the endorphin molecule. She is also considered as the mother of psychoneuroimmunology, a field of science dealing with different aspects of brain, immunology, and neurology. Her work on the biochemistry of the brain at the National Institute of Mental Health helped in giving new insights about mind and body (Candace Pert, n.d.).
Main theme of the book is that peptides, which are present throughout the body, are “molecules of emotion”. Emotions, which were mostly kept away from the scientific research and medicine, are most important parts of psychoimmunology, and they have an important role in connecting the body and mind with each other. They are involved in several responses of body. For example, it is through emotion-modulating peptides in embarrassing thoughts that blood starts flowing towards face and turns it into red color. I have also found that face turns red in embarrassing situations. Similarly, these molecules of emotion can cause mobilization of immune cells to work against tumor cells. Techniques such as visualization or meditation can also activate those molecules to start working in the body. With the advancements in science, it is increasingly becoming clear that psychological factors are also involved in several diseases such as heart diseases and cancer; therefore psychotherapy can effectively be used in the treatment of these diseases.
The book Molecules of Emotion has a personal as well as professional journey starting in the early 1970s when the author was a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University. The book also tells about the time, when the author was leading a team of researchers in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from the year 1975 to the year 1987. During that time, she found molecules of emotion with her team.
First chapter of the book is important for a reader to understand the rest of the book. This chapter is interesting and has many important concepts for the reader. After the first chapter, the book has presented the life of the author and her discoveries in a way that looks like a modern spy novel, and this is a reason for increasing the interest of a reader in the book.
signaling chemical messengers,
ligands, and
neurotransmitters
in a sufficient detail. It has also provided various well-chosen examples to describe the mechanisms involved in the working of all these things in the body.
In the closing parts of the book, the author has kept her scientific objectivity as well as skepticism aside while accepting some spiritual principles without considering the information she worked so hard to collect in the start of her career. For example, by the last chapter, the author starts mixing scientifically proven facts with her own feelings and experiences. This thing is challenging to thinking as without scientific basis, one cannot work on evidence based medicine. This is also a weakness of the book. The author concludes the book with particular programs helping in emotional, health, and mental well-being of a person.
The book can be considered as a memoir of Pert in which she tells about some of her breakthrough works while giving true insights into different processes and politics involved in the modern science. In the book, Pert describes her research work in a relatively new kind of science. The book has many new findings, speculations, and metaphors. The author presents the new findings of psychoneuroimmunology and applies them to everyday life. She discusses nearly everything related to human body such as diseases, dreams, and drugs.
After reading the book, a reader can find that the present day science is not only based on inspiration and perspiration, but also on politics. This can be considered as a strength of the book as the book is actually trying to tell about not only biological world but also about the political world in science. The book has presented the author as an insider involved in the politics of science; thereby, showing a ruthless competition for awards and money that could reduce one’s ability to search the truth and discover the most useful thing for people.
Pert has also described the involvement and role of different genders in the upper levels of the scientific establishments. She writes about the failures faced by women, and tells why women face difficulties and find it difficult to succeed in the male-dominated scientific field. Therefore, the book can more convincingly grab the attention of women trying hard to excel in science, particularly in the field of mind-body medicine. Pert worked secretly and discovered endorphins while she was a graduate student. Her professor stopped her from working on the topic. However, after the work was completed, her professor got the award and she was left out of the prize. After that incident, she thought it was not good to remain silent about it, and that thinking made her career more controversial (Pert, 2012). This account of the author in the book tells that hard work alone is not important for a person to get a goal in life, but achieving a goal also depends on who he or she knows, who likes him or her, and who is willing to help him or her. After reading the book, a reader can also find that the author’s ego rarely comes in the way of her message.
Pert and her colleagues found that a number of proteins referred to as peptides (including endorphins) had important role in the body as “information substances” and those proteins can influence the mind, immune system, digestion, emotions, and other functions of the body. For researchers, trained to concentrate on one system only without considering other systems in the body, the finding was a kind of shock. These kinds of shocks are often found in the history of scientific research. For example (Pert, 2012);
In the 1980s, Jesse Roth, clinical director at the National Institutes of Health, found that insulin could also be developed in the brain, but his research papers were not accepted by most of the reputable scientific journals.
Similarly, Ed Blalock at the University of Texas found resistance when he found that immune cells could secrete endorphins.
The book has not only described the dark side of the professional journey of the author but also tells about the gratifying career-making highs. Pert and her husband Michael Ruff, who was an immunologist, worked for many years on psychoneuroimmunology to find a potentially nontoxic therapeutic strategy for AIDS. They developed a peptide having an ability to copy the viral segment that could bind to cell receptors and stop the entry of virus into the cell. However, their work was not appreciated by scientific community, just like many other advancements in psychoneuroimmunology. With the passage of time, researchers started showing interest in their work and supported their work.
Pert has broken the complicated and difficult-to-swallow pieces of science into understandable and easy-to-swallow pieces; thereby helping the readers to delve deep into the subject. This can be considered as an important strength of the book. Molecules of Emotion is a simple and clear explanation of the working of peptides in the body and mind, and how they connect with each other. The author has done a very convincing job in describing that brain and body are well-integrated and constitute a finely tuned feedback system. The brain has a number of hormones that are affecting not only the brain but also different parts of the body and mind. Therefore, it can be considered that the whole body can store different memories and can work as an “unconscious mind”. The book also shows that our brains are not the only controlling parts of our bodies, but brain and body work together in a composite system.
Critically speaking, the title of the book is not according to the subject matter. This is one of the most important weaknesses of the book. At first look, a person thinks that the book is about mind-body medicine but actually it is a kind of autobiography telling about the life of the author while considering not only the medicine but also the politics involved in science. This point of autobiographical account comes in front of reader after reading the first chapter, which is mostly showing the life of Pert while giving lectures in different parts of the world. After reading the book, a reader can also think that the world of science is dirty and full of politics. I think it is somewhat true but not in all cases. Some supervisors may try to publish the work of their students without mentioning the name of the students. In my experience, this is not the case. Supervisors are really helpful in moving forward, and good supervisors are a kind of mentors. However, the book still shows a solid effort. Perhaps all those personal accounts of the author have been made to help reader to understand a very complex subject. She has used her own life experiences, theories, and findings to help a reader to understand the way our body processes information and the molecular responses in our body.
One of the most important strengths of the book is that most of the book is based on solid research. With the help of the book, Pert is trying to decrease the gap that is present between the scientific work and the layman. She has presented relatively up-to-date knowledge in the book for the readers including
general public, who want to understand the working of the body, and/or who want to know about their illnesses, and
fellow scientists, who can change the lives of people.
This book also gives an insight into the impact of research on the health of a person. It can change the mind of a person about medicines, drug manufacturers, medical and government research agencies and personnel. Overall, the book has touched almost every topic related to “molecules of emotion”, i.e. every student of biochemistry and physiology would find the information he or she want to know about “molecules of emotion”. Moreover, the book gives a new hope that in the field of healthcare research and management, things might be improving with time; thereby, improving the chances of better health of humanity.
Reference
Candace Pert. (n.d.) Bio. Retrieved from http://candacepert.com/
Pert, C. (2012). Molecules Of Emotion: Why You Feel The Way You Feel: Simon & Schuster UK.
