Hidden Within Us offers a pioneering understanding of the relationship between emotions and health, one rarely considered by physicians, patients, and research psychologists.
Nearly all mind-body research and publications focus on the emotional distress we consciously experience, with limited results in terms of understanding and treating medical illnesses. Hidden Within Us brings attention instead to the burden of emotions kept from our conscious awareness by repression.
Case histories and published evidence will convey to readers the rarely recognized value, and harm, of repression: Its value as an overlooked cornerstone of emotional resilience in many of us. Its harm in the unrecognized impact of repressed, unfelt emotions on our health, with relevance to many highly prevalent yet still inadequately explained and treated medical conditions.
Our ability to repress emotions is a vital gift of evolution, but, silently, the emotions we've repressed do persist and can affect our health. This recognition can lead to new pathways to understanding, treatment, and healing.
Dr. Mann is a Professor of Clinical Medicine at NY Presbyterian Hospital - Weill Cornell Medical College.