Articles on Illness | Dr. John Diamond

Book: The Veneration of Life

An inspiring new perspective on Alzheimer's.

Video: Singing and Surgery

Dr. Diamond discusses using the power of music, innate in us all, to help transcend traumatic experiences such as surgery.

Based on these insights, Dr. Diamond has written a remarkable book of the same title, to encourage others to view surgery as a spiritual, transcendental experience, rather than one rooted in fear and anxiety.

“Your Heart: Friend or Enemy?”

The cardiologist proclaimed that his most important role was to allay each patient’s fear of his heart – of being attacked by it.

I’ve long advised suffers to listen to their hearts – and give thanks.

“The Painting’s Title and the Patient’s Diagnosis”

“What’s the title of your painting?”, they ask me. Well, it’s like when I’m asked for a diagnosis. To me, the diagnosis is the sufferer’s name.

“Georg Groddeck and the Tao”

The great physician and psychoanalyst Georg Groddeck believed that in his unconscious was the patient's desire for disease – as well as for health. And he also believed that in his own unconscious was his desire for the patient's health to then actuate the patient's desire.

But what of the Tao – or whatever Groddeck would have called It? I'm sure, him being as he declared “wild,” he did so believe, but chose to not say lest he be deemed “too wild.”

Video: Pain vs. Hurt

Australia’s greatest psychiatrist, Ainslie Meares (1910-86), asked the wise man of Kathmandu, “Do you feel pain?” He said, “Of course I do, but it doesn’t hurt.” Dr. Diamond discusses how we too can live in this enlightened state.

See more videos by Dr Diamond on his YouTube channel.

“A Tribute to Dr. Louis Cholden”

Louis Cholden died at the age of thirty-eight in an automobile accident. He had been on his way to moderate a panel of the 1956 convention of the American Psychiatric Association. The loss was ours, as he would have become one of the greatest leaders in psychiatry and psychoanalysis. His writings are among the mere handful in the field that truly proclaim love.

“The Wonder Drug”

Many years ago, I worked in the back wards of a psychiatric hospital. These housed the high-security, dangerous, quasi-murderous patients, and the wards were kept locked. The inmates were often there with court certificates because they had beaten people up, and far worse. Before I worked on those wards, the doctors went in only when a flag was raised by the nurses to signal that it was safe. I decided that if it was safe enough for the nurses, it must be the same for the doctors. So I started going in frequently.

“A Commentary on Psychosomatic Medicine”

Who can ever establish when a case of heart disease really started? Was it with the first change in electrical activity, was it with the first symptom of pain in the chest, or was it when subtle biochemical changes occurred or when there were subtle pathological changes in the blood vessels of the heart, perhaps many years before the patient ever had a complaint?

“The True Cure”

When a doctor approaches a patient he must think not only of the mechanics of the physical cure, but also of aiding the person in healing his spirit. This cannot be learned in medical school, it is not in the medical textbooks, nor does it qualify as a diagnosis for insurance companies. But it is what really matters.