“Touch, is probably the oldest way of healing. In Egypt, more than 2000 years before our era, sculptures attest of rubbing gestures of the hands and feet. In India and China, there is no medicine without deep and very codified massages. In Greece, Hippocrates insisted that every doctor be trained “in the art of rubbing,” and the kheirourgoi – ancient surgeons – treated their patients primarily with the palm of their hand and the tips of their fingers on patients’ skin. In Rome, the famous physician Galien followed the example of the god Aesculapius, son of Apollo, who healed through touch. Subsequently, the religious prohibitions of the Church and the advent of drug therapies gradually eclipsed massage from the Western therapeutic arsenal. »
It was not until the Swedish doctor Henrik Ling in the 18th century and his massage method which was exported to the USA and the Esalen Institute in California founded in 1962 that the benefits of touch regained pride of place.
Excerpt from the book “The inner solution” by Thierry Janssen, surgeon and mind-body psychotherapist
Comentários