I was drawn to the book 'The Upside of Psychosomatics' by Mikhail Filiaev, even though I was already familiar with his methods. As the founder of the PSY2.0 school, Filiaev made the study of psychosomatics accessible to people without specialized psychological education. The book offers a simple and accessible explanation of the patterns of the human body.
Filiaev presents and conducts demonstrations very vividly and engagingly – he's an excellent orator and can keep the audience captivated (there are many videos and lectures available online). But I'm left wondering why he needed to bring in journalist Lana Boeva as a co-author. Maybe he didn't want to spend a lot of time working on the book himself, or maybe he was hoping for a high-quality final product?
The result is a bit of a mixed bag.
So, Lana Boeva took on the task of writing the book in exchange for the opportunity to attend Filiaev's courses for free. Honestly, I'm not sure where or what this journalist writes about, but her writing style really puts me off from continuing to read:
You'll witness the collapse of hopes. You'll be an eyewitness to incredible healings.
Be careful – this book may spark a revolution in your consciousness and turn your life around by 180 degrees!
And almost the entire book is written in this sensational style, with constant references to her 'journalistic intuition' and her 'insights'. It's hard to delve deeper and get past this awful writing.
When I first started reading, I thought Lana was trying to make the material as simple and accessible as possible to catch the reader's attention. But the more I read, the more I realized that she was just trying to be sensational.
From time to time, she inserts her masterful headlines in the style of a newspaper, and the idea is that it should look witty, but it just comes across as cheesy.
In the course of the narrative, Lana not only shares her own impressions but also quotes fragments from Filiaev's lectures and therapies verbatim. And this part of the book is actually pretty interesting.
I have to say, it's a good idea to get a sense of who Filiaev is and how he works with clients before diving into 'The Backside of Psychosomatics'. Otherwise, you might be in for a shock - what an insensitive thing to say to people!
But if you read it with the knowledge that Filiaev is a master of provocative psychology and doesn't coddle his clients, but rather pushes them to confront their issues, these same lines read very differently. His questions make you think and engage, rather than just dumping your problems on a therapist and expecting them to fix everything.
When reading the parts where Filiaev's direct speech is quoted, you can almost hear his tone - kudos to Lana Boeva for trying to convey it as closely as possible to the original, without adding her own spin.
Our body is always on our side! We just need to learn not to kill it with our desires and reactions, but to restore it.
***
When something unpleasant and confusing enters my life, I ask myself: 'Why did you do that?', 'Why did you attract that?'
Filiaev simplifies the idea of how our body reacts to different events, why it launches diseases, and provides practical techniques for working with ourselves and our clients. Reading his thoughts is engaging, captivating - it's clear that he's deeply passionate about his work.
He teaches us to be more attentive to our body, not just treating it as a physical shell that we usually beat up for being unhealthy and ugly. You can agree or disagree with his views, but the point of this review is not to discuss the merits of psychosomatics, but to share my impression of this popular book.
Despite giving this book a 3-star rating, I'm not downplaying its strengths: it has a lot of interesting and useful content, plenty of food for thought. But Lana Boeva's commentary is just a major turn-off.
After some time, I returned to the book, but this time I skipped her valuable notes and flipped through the pages.
Other book reviews on the topic of psychosomatics you might find interesting:
I read a review on the book 'How Sasha Became Healthy': a look at psychosomatics from the perspective of the Somatic Experiencing method by Irina Semizorova. The book has some great quotes that really stuck with me.
If you're interested in psychosomatics and New German Medicine, this guide is a must-read.
I think we all have an incredible resource for self-healing inside us, waiting to be tapped into. This book explores how to unlock those inner healing powers.
I recently read 'The Love Yourself Healthy' book by Louise Hay, and I was blown away by her message about the dangers of charlatanism and the importance of self-love. If you're interested in psychosomatics and want to learn how to listen to your body, this book is a great place to start.