This is a wonderfully funny book, which appeals to all children -- but has a special magic for families affected by cancer. Bruce is a loveable character, who is embarassed when his antlers fall out. His friends offer lots of suggestions, which result in the ridiculous and amusing, made even more comical by the pop-up illustrations. This book was recommended to us by a social worker as her favorite for reading with her children when she lost her hair during a course of chemotherapy treatment. Humor is healing! This book would also be instructional for children (or adults!) who are embarassed by their appearance for whatever reason.

Louis Allen was a Japanese interpreter in the British Army in the Burma campaign. He has written this book with more of an understanding of the Japanese mindset. The description of the bloodletting of the Japanese armies at Imphal and Kohima give an insight into both the tactics and the attitudes of the, hitherto, undefeated Japanese armies in 1944. It is salutory to read the deprivation suffered by the Japanese as they tried break out from the Pegu Yomas to cross the Salween River and escape into Thailand. It is interesting, almost mandatory, to read this book in conjunction with Slim''s "Defeat into Victory".

It was not all that long ago that radio was king. Turn back the clock and re-kindle your imagination as George Burns and Gracie Allen and special guest Jack Benny guide you through this magical time.

In this classic episode of the Burns and Allen radio show, the Burnes meet Jack Benny for lunch at the Brown Derby. Notoriously stingy, Jack dodges paying the check, but this event reminds the couple that there was a time when Jack was not so cheap! Laugh along as they try to re-awaken the spirit of their old friend, "Generous Jack"!

Collectors and fans of Burns and Allen, Jack Benny and classic radio comedies will be tickled to have this gem in their collection.

A must have for Burroughs fans. Burroughs & Sonic Youth fans alike will enjoy Lee Renaldos interview with Burroughs & Great photos from a visit with Bill at Home in Lawrence , Kansas. Put on the Dead City Radio Cd by William S. Burroughs as you flip thru the pages of this toad calling compendium and as you hit the last page replay Bills Thanksgiving Prayer.

Other than the scary clown hair on the baby on the cover--this is a really helpful guide to a new baby's cognitive and physical development! It's much more practical than some of the other more popular titles that I have read. The information is very clear, concise and extremely well organized. It breaks a baby's developmental stages down into 3-month blocks, which makes more sense to me than the month-by-month formats of other books--since babies all develop at a slightly different pace. I highly recommend this title for all parents who are interested in better understanding how their baby is developing!

This book provides an excellent introduction to the mathematics electronic students need to master. The author uses problems in electronics to illuminate the concepts and techniques of calculus and more advanced mathematics such as Fourier and Laplacian analysis. This is an ideal book for students in an electronics technology program, and would even be of help to a engineering student in need of an intuitive introduction to calculus.

I never realized how much (and how little) our state parks have to offer those of us who have mobility limitations. The Mitchell's have taken the time to visit every park in their book - and it shows. I was especially impressed with the detailed descriptions of trails and points of interest. Now I have a very good idea of whether I will be able to enjoy each park. Most importantly, I know which parks I do not want to miss. Thanks for your efforts and awareness of the needs of wheelchair users and others with limitations.

Chet Bitterman is the All-American boy. He has a great sense of humor, a strong work ethic, the ability to love deeply and a strong dedication to his faith. However, his biggest asset is his heart. Chet Bittterman is a giver. He wants to help others and finds himself in Colombia with his linguist wife and two young children. Somehow, the M-19 terrorist group considers Chet and his group of linguists a threat and kidnap him. This young man, who had so much potential sadly is killed when the M-19 demands are not met.

Steve Estes writes a great book. He went to school with Chet and does his homework in writing this manuscript. Estes understands Colombia and will surprise anyone with a special competence in Colombian affairs with his knowledge of the political and economic landscape. "Called to Die" is a tragic book. It is such a pity that a fine young man who posed no threat to anyone and is in Colombia to help the Indians is killed. This book is a tribute to Chet Bitterman. He will never be forgotten.

"Caring For Patients," by Allen Barbour, MD
A Book Review
By Vincent J. Felitti, MD

"Caring For Patients" by Stanford physician Allen Barbour is an important medical book which addresses issues critical to routine
medical practice. An uncommon treatise like this could shape the future of one's medical practice as well as the economics of
medical care.

Barbour points out that experienced physicians have been trained to diagnose and treat organic disease although most patients seen in any
given medical practice have illness caused by personal distress; many patients who come for help are not well accommodated by the
biomedical system of diagnosis and treatment. Many diagnoses are deferred indefinitely, and evaluations are commonly extended and
futile. A major component of the soaring costs of modern medical care, "high-tech" diagnostic procedures are often ordered when
seeking a disease-based explanation for what are really unrecognized functional disorders. In the organ-based specialties, physicians rule
out conditions instead of ruling them in, leading to both dilution of responsibility and collusive physician anonymity. The author recalls
Eugene Stead's famous comment: "What this patient needs is a Doctor."

Barbour considers several common functional disorders worth listing because they are frequently misrecognized and misrepresented:
anxiety, depression, fatigue, weakness, obesity, anorexia, impotence or anhedonia, disturbed sleep, headache, backache, constipation,
diarrhea, indigestion, bloating, abdominal pain, musculoskeletal chest pain, and chronic pelvic pain. Although 87% of all emotionally
based illnesses manifest as "medical" symptoms, functional symptoms are evaluated for organic disease as though the opposite were true.

Emotional expressions are inherently physical: they have evolved to unify mind and body in a common purpose, and great overlap can be
seen between functional and organic expression. In organic disease, biologic determinants predominate; however, long-term psychosocial
aspects of human life are the factors which actually determine morbidity and mortality. Indeed, much disease results from attempts to
control the forces which initially led to illness. Thus, for example, endocarditis may result from intravenously administered drugs used to
feel better by someone who feels profoundly bad. That is the core problem. Barbour quotes Stead's comment: "If one doesn't know what
is actually going on, then one doesn't really know how to handle it."

Commonly, each possible organic disease is ruled out before the physician considers functional disorder as the diagnosis. This practice is
improper and destructive: both varieties of diagnosis should be considered from the outset. Psychosomatic disorders can be detected only
as a result of positive diagnosis and not by default. Personal situations which correlate with increased morbidity and mortality from
physical disease include degree of parental deprivation, quality of childhood experience, and quality of social support. The author
references a 7000 person study in which middle-aged men with the fewest interpersonal connections had three times the mortality rate of
a matching group with the most interpersonal connections.

Feelings are either expressed or suppressed; they cannot be obliterated through containment. If suppressed, they emerge either as
physical symptoms or as unfocused emotional expression such as anxiety, depression, or other psychiatric syndromes. Because most
emotionally distressed persons are only dimly aware of the source of their distress or are overwhelmed by it, their tension mounts until
physical symptoms result or until anxiety or depression increase to a level triggering a psychiatric diagnosis. Indeed, unconscious
suppression of emotions and failure to understand their link to symptoms is the rule in medicine: by focusing on symptoms instead of
their underlying personal problems, people define themselves as sick and thus seek relief from doctors. Complaints about symptoms
trigger the medical model.

In general, pain is usually and incorrectly thought to be primarily caused by organic disease. Barbour studied 400 consecutive Stanford
University Medical Center outpatients and found that in 174 of them, pain was the dominant symptom. However, when these 174
patients were thoroughly evaluated, the pain was found to be due to psychophysiologic reaction in 28%, somatoform disorder in 39%, or
organic disease in 33%.

As an example of the diverse origin of pain, the three most common causes of recurrent anterior chest pain are cardiac, esophageal, and
psychogenic. Unfortunately, exclusion of a cardiac cause typically discourages further diagnostic or therapeutic steps from being taken.
This practice is unsatisfactory from the patient's viewpoint because lack of diagnosis equates with lack of knowledge: if the doctor
doesn't know what is going on (i.e., doesn't confidently apply a diagnostic term), why should the patient trust the doctor's opinion of
what is not going on? This failure to resolve the problem is expensive, partly because it virtually assures future visits to find an answer.
In a large study of patients in a headache clinic, for example, the dominant concern for 77% was explanation of their illness, not pain
relief. Barbour elsewhere describes chronic backache as "an illness in search of a disease." In this regard, Barbour points out that CAT
scans showed herniated nucleus pulposus in 10% of asymptomatic volunteers aged <40 years; 27% of asymptomatic volunteers aged 40
years, had a herniation. Chapter 13 includes interesting, scholarly, well-referenced discussions of fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome,
pelvic pain, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic abdominal pain, and various types of headache.

Because the biologic focus is currently so strong, depression has come to be viewed as a disease instead of a response to problems of the
human condition. According to Barbour, the biology of depression is the resultnot the causeof feeling depressed. Genetic factors in major
depression act not by initiating, but by accentuating intensity of the depressive response. Tricyclic antidepressants are not particularly
specific: their effects occur at both ends of the anxiety-depression spectrum. Of little use in mild depression, they are often effective for
reversing the biologic dysfunction of more advanced depression. In situations where antidepressants are not effective or are refused,
physicians must contribute more time, energy, and personal commitment than most are willing to give. Sufficient time does exist, given
the large amounts of time typically ultimately spent prescribing for symptoms one at a time instead of exploring central issues. (This
phenomenon is easily observed from patient records.)

Barbour points out that in personal illness, outcome is determined by the physician's concept of care, i.e., whether care is limited to
"ruling out" a particular condition or whether it expresses a more general concern for clinical judgment, helping, and healing.
Unfortunately, efforts to understand the patient as a person are most often relegated to psychiatry, a field which itself seems to have
abdicated that goal. This problem is compounded by patients who do not consider personal growth to be their responsibility.

Ultimately, how illness is explained to a patient is a pivotal issue determining subsequent events. In psychosomatic illness, it is always
helpful to explain that the illness is a common response to distress and that the illness fortunately does not result from disease. Naming
the illness is critical; an illness without a named diagnosis will not attract an adequate response from the patient. A useful explanation that
the severity of stress-induced illness is often greater in irritable bowel syndrome than in cancer, that the pain of fibromyalgia typically is
worse than in rheumatoid arthritis. Saying only that "nothing was found so it must be stress-related" is the mark of the therapeutically
destitute and is doomed to failure because it fails to fully acknowledge that something is wrong. The crowning achievement for any
clinician is to make the correct diagnosis and, with the patient, to reach an understanding of the underlying problem.

In selecting and abstracting some of Allen Barbour's words and ideas, I hope that I have done justice to "Caring For Patients." The
entire book is highly readable, eruditely written, and meticulously referenced. This uncommon triad of qualities, combined with the
author's extensive clinical experience, creates a work of great merit such as comes along once in a decade or longer. Although Dr.
Barbour died just before its publication, his book carries the contemporary banner for ideas developed by George Engel, Richard
Magraw, Michael Balint, and Walter Alvarez in their important, earlier books about

CARING FOR THE WHOLE PERSON is a very powerful testimony of a committed medical doctor-cum-theologian, who has not only succeeded in marrying medecine and theology but also in demonstrating how members of a congregation can, in fact, use their collective varied talents in caring for the whole person. I commend this book to all medical and health professionals, theologians and leaders in the churches who are serving the poor, the sick and the hurting throughout the world.