I suspect that a lot of folks are like me. When purchasing a book from Amazon.com, we will add that additional item to the shopping cart so that the purchase exceeds $25.00 and qualifies for free shipping. I know that my daughter fell to this ploy when she purchased a book for me for my birthday. Since she is family, I can't extrapolate that to "a lot of folks" and maintain the validity of my statistical analysis. One needs to be cautious when one's study population consists of two closely biologically related subjects. The resulting research findings may not reflect the general human condition, but simply be indicative of isolated genetic aberration or even a cultural trait masquerading as a genetic expression.

Despite the machinations of its purchase, the "filler" for a recent purchase of mine has been a good read. The filler is The Instinct to Heal by David Servan-Schrieber. The author is a psychiatrist and a member of the group that I like to call Inter-Planetary Association of Post-Psycho-Pharmacological Dudes and Dudettes. (In catchy short-hand, that will be IPAPPPDD or the IPA Triple P Double D.) The group membership is open to dudettes, even though I have yet to find a dudette to offer a lifetime membership in the group and the honorific, yet enviable, status of Career Diplomat in Post-Psycho-Pharmacological Mechanics. Honorary degrees in Humane Letters with a variety of subspecialties are also available. Dues and fees are based on an individual "ability to pay" and determined by a group of one's peers motivated by unknown and unseen forces and with total disregards for the future, let alone the good name, of the organization.

Despite my feeble attempt to make light of the perspective of this author, this is serious business and a point of view with which I am comfortable supported by my own professional experience. Folks with this orientation move beyond the mind-body distinction so characteristic of the physical health/mental health divide. They simply reject it as a legitimate parsing of the human condition; this rejection is supported by the observation of practitioners and by formal studies. The methods employed to restore and promote health and well-being also reflect this integrated approach.