To Touch Is to Live: The Need for Genuine Affection in an Impersonal World Book

The author exposes the pain inflicted by our touch-starved culture, examining issues of modern childbirth practices, affection with children, abuse, healing, sexuality, and spirituality, and offers examples from other cultures that understand the importance of touch. Author information is not given. Annotation c. Book News, Inc.,Portland, OR

Library Journal

Here are two topnotch, emotionally powerful books on touch. Krieger, who with Dora Kunz is considered the creator of therapeutic touch (TT), offers a thoughtful, logical follow-up to her more general The Therapeutic Touch: How To Use Your Hands To Help or To Heal; she rightly deems documentation of developing TT concepts important in demystifying phenomena that may arise from a TT session. Using research findings, she astutely explains the underlying principles of TT for holistic health professionals, describing what is occurring within both TT practitioner and client and particularly how this interaction summons personal and universal transformation. Chapters cover working with subtle energy forces during TT sessions, compassion as a powerful link to the inner self and to TT practice, and the idea that each person's healing capacity is multifaceted and unique so that even advanced TT therapists will have new experiences awaiting them. A special section devoted to novice teachers is notably strong for its workshop tools, exercises, and well-rounded guidance. In this update to her Untouched (1998), Caplan (psychology, California Inst. of Integral Studies) attributes cultural denial of the importance of healthy touching to a basic fear of knowing ourselves spiritually. She powerfully illustrates what happens to human consciousness and community when caring contact is absent, stressing the inhumane and depersonalized environment that can result. Thus, she argues, we need to address our emotional struggles so that, sure of ourselves or not, we muster the courage to reach out to others and bring a numb world back to life. Caplan's book offers a variety of ways to ponder the concept of touch, such as healing through touch, talk touch, and touch through thought and hospitality, as well as less obvious ways. Both titles are highly recommended for psychology and holistic health collections of medical and larger public libraries.-Lisa Liquori, M.L.S., Syracuse, NY