Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine

Why do we feel the way we feel? How do our thoughts and emotions affect our health? Are our bodies and minds distinct from each other or do they function together as parts of an interconnected system?

In her groundbreaking book Molecules of Emotion, Candace Pert — a neuroscientist whose extraordinary career began with her 1972 discovery of the opiate receptor — provides startling and decisive answers to these and other challenging questions that scientists and philosophers have pondered for centuries.

Her pioneering research on how the chemicals inside our bodies form a dynamic information network, linking mind and body, is not only provocative, it is revolutionary. By establishing the biomolecular basis for our emotions and explaining these new scientific developments in a clear and accessible way, Pert empowers us to understand ourselves, our feelings, and the connection between our minds and our bodies — or bodyminds — in ways we could never possibly have imagined before. From explaining how there is a scientific basis to popular wisdom about phenomena such as "gut feelings" to making comprehensible recent breakthroughs in cancer and AIDS research, Pert provides us with an intellectual adventure of the highest order.

The journey Pert takes us on in Molecules of Emotion is one of personal as well as scientific discovery. Woven into her lucid explanations of the science underlying her work is the remarkable story of how, faced with personal and professional obstacles, she has grown as a woman and a mother and how her personal and spiritual development has made possible her remarkable scientific career.

Molecules of Emotion is a landmark work, full of insight and wisdom and possessing that rare power to change the way we see the world and ourselves. Pert's striking conclusion that it is our emotions and their biological components that establish the crucial link between mind and body does not, however, serve to repudiate modern medicine's gains; rather, her findings complement existing techniques by offering a new scientific understanding of the power of our minds and our feelings to affect our health and well-being.

ed to the discovery of the brain's opiate receptors and their vital connection to human well-being. A stunning combination of clear, accessible explanations of complex material and surprising answers to eternal questions, "Molecules of Emotion" is an intellectual adventure of the highest order, as well as a blueprint for individual health.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [354]-358) and index.

Candace B. Pert, Ph.D.,

is Research Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where she also conducts AIDS research. She was featured in Bill Moyers's book and PBS series Healing and the Mind, and lectures extensively throughout the country.