The Healing Journey: Overcoming the Crisis of Cancer

Robert B. MacIntyre is the Head of the Psychoeducational Clinic at the
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

This informative little book lays out in a straightforward and
understated manner a variety of approaches to recovering from cancer and
other possibly life-threatening diseases. The author, with a background
in cell biology and psychology, has been actively working with cancer
patients for the last 10 years, and has been engaged in immunology
research for the previous 20 years. He presents the benefits and limits
of Western medicine, and discusses the lack of empirical support for
“alternative” approaches that depend on drugs, diets, or other
external agents. These chapters are dispassionately based on scientific
criteria, and the data and arguments presented should be helpful to
patients and their families in planning and undergoing treatments.

Equally useful, and less common, is the author’s presentation and
discussion of various approaches to self-healing, which comes from
within. Again, the style is objective and low-key but the data are more
anecdotal. As a scientist, Cunningham notes the lack of scientific
double-blind studies on self-healing, but points out that double-blind
studies are not done for surgical treatments either. He presents a
framework for understanding cell biology as an energy system working
within—being influenced by—larger energy systems. This framework
provides a rationale for interactions between mental activity and
cellular changes, and for the use of self-healing approaches as part of
a cancer-recovery program. It also allows for the introduction of a
spiritual dimension and, in turn, a more holistic conception of healing.
The author does not oversell the effectiveness of these approaches, and
he carefully avoids blaming the victim for getting sick (a tendency seen
in some recently popular books). The appended list of further readings
allows the reader to expand on the tight presentation in this book.