Medical Doctors and Autosuggestion Books on Low Back Pain

By Michael Dorausch, D.C.

D.D. Palmer’s inclusion of “auto-suggestion” as a cause of subluxation in The Chiropractor’s Adjuster (1910) was an early nod to the mind’s role in physical ailments like back pain. He suggested that mental states (emotions, thoughts, or beliefs) could subtly manifest in the spine, altering nerve tension. While Palmer rejected much of allopathic medicine, his ideas foreshadowed later MD-authored works exploring psychosomatic links to low back pain. Interestingly, none have cited Palmer and his pioneering work as they all suffered from PDS (Palmer Derangement Syndrome).

John E. Sarno, MD

Perhaps the most prominent figure here is John E. Sarno, a rehabilitation medicine specialist at NYU. In his book Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection (1991), Sarno argued that chronic back pain (especially low back pain) often stems from tension myositis syndrome (TMS), a psychosomatic condition driven by repressed emotions like anger or anxiety. He didn’t use “autosuggestion” explicitly but reframed it as unconscious psychological processes causing physical symptoms. Sarno wrote:

The pain is real, but its source is not structural damage – it’s the mind creating tension in muscles and nerves to distract from emotional stress.

Sarno’s focus on low back pain was deliberate, as it’s the most common chronic pain complaint. His earlier book, Mind Over Back Pain (1982), and later The Divided Mind (2006), expanded this thesis, citing case studies where patients resolved debilitating low back pain by addressing emotional triggers rather than physical lesions. Sarno’s work echoes Palmer’s intuition about the mind’s influence.

David Schechter, MD

A disciple of Sarno, David Schechter, a family physician, co-authored The MindBody Workbook: A Thirty Day Program of Insight and Awareness for People with Back Pain and Other Disorders (1999). Schechter specifically targets low back pain in his practice and writings, building on TMS. He emphasizes journaling and self-reflection (modern takes on autosuggestion) where patients consciously reframe their pain’s psychological roots. Schechter’s approach assumes that low back pain often persists due to “learned neural pathways” reinforced by stress, a concept Palmer might have likened to auto-suggested nerve tension.

Howard Schubiner, MD

In Unlearn Your Pain (2010, updated 2022), Howard Schubiner explores mind-body syndromes, including chronic low back pain. He draws on neuroscience to argue that pain can be a “protective response” from the brain, amplified by stress or trauma (akin to Palmer’s autosuggestion manifesting physically). Schubiner’s work integrates mindfulness and cognitive techniques, suggesting patients can “unlearn” pain patterns, a sophisticated evolution of Palmer’s idea that mental impulses affect the spine.

Others and Broader Context

While not exclusively MDs, authors like Norman Cousins (Anatomy of an Illness, 1979) and Herbert Benson (The Relaxation Response, 1975) influenced medical thinking on psychosomatic pain, though they focus less on low back pain specifically.

These doctors didn’t directly cite Palmer (his chiropractic roots kept him outside mainstream medicine) but their works parallel his autosuggestion hypothesis. The psychosomatic model of spine related pain has its roots in Davenport, Iowa.