Reviews for Restorative Gardens: The Healing Landscape

The average rating for Restorative Gardens: The Healing Landscape based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-03-04 00:00:00 Jarkko Ranta To prospective readers: This book is not a comprehensive survey of the history of Western medicine; this is what disappointed me and why I didn't give it 5 stars. I'm also disappointed that it stops in early 20th century and does not cover the cool advances in medicine in late 20th century and the 21st century ushered by the advent of modern genetics, molecular biology, genomics, high-throughput technologies, and machine learning. There's a gap between biomedical research (which I participate in) and experiences of patients; I wonder what patients think of those new advances. BTW, in the last chapter, which is about quack, many of the 20th century quacks took advantages of the hype around new discoveries; this reminds me of the current hype surrounding deep learning. I wonder if there are quacks in recent years taking advantage of that. But the author himself said this book is a lot about people, and a little about history. It presents many fun facts and great pictures. Moreover, from the blunders in the past, I get to appreciate science more as a blessing, and from the gruesome medical procedures of the past to treat wounded soldiers, I learnt about the horror of war. Because of this book, I'm also getting a bit more skeptical of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which I have been believing in for years. That something has been practices for millennia doesn't necessarily mean it's better than more innovative approaches guided by science, and I don't expect TCM to be much better than its Western counterpart, even though I do appreciate how traditional medicine may make us rethink assumptions in modern biomedicine such as treating the disease vs treating the patient. Biomedical research only cares about the disease. I appreciate this book as an effort to bring a perspective about medicine from art and narratives. I look forward to reading about perspectives from theology.

Review # 2 was written on 2021-02-15 00:00:00 Fredd Sosa This book is exellent, also signed by the author for me, therofore it's very valuable