Promising new study results regarding ulcerative colitis:

"Experts claim bowel disease cure

Experts at one of the country's leading scientific research centres

believe

they have discovered a cure for the chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
A team from University College Dublin's Conway Institute successfully used a new class of drugs to treat the debilitating illness which affects 15,000 people in Ireland.
Researchers are now teaming up with experts at University of Colorado to develop a safe way for people to use the drugs. Current therapy and treatment options are very limited and surgery to remove sections of the intestine is often the only option. Professor Cormac Taylor, from the Conway Institute, said the treatment has the potential to completely reverse the symptoms of IBD."

Here's a link to the article

I stayed home from work today sick and caught a movie on AMC called "Awakenings" with Robert Deniro and Robin Williams. It's about patients with some form of encephalitis, who were basically comatose and catatonic, until treated with some form of Dopamine. This led to some temporary "awakening," in the case of Deniro's character, after 30 years. I don't know the story behind the movie, but I may look into it. I highly recommend it, I don't know why I never heard of this one.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099077/

Recommended Reading

The following is a book list that I'm working on. Forgive me for slapping it right here in the midst of my blog. When I get time I will make it look better.


Recommended Book List (work in progress)

Fiction
Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
Interesting book by Orwell detailing hand-to-mouth existence in Paris, where he works in the kitchens of Paris hotels and in London, where he lives the life of a "tramp" (apparently an outdated English word for homeless). Things get so bad he has to pawn clothes to purchase bread! Trust me when I say this book makes 8 hour work days not seem so bad after all.

Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre
This book gets by basically for being in Paris and being "existential."

The People of the Abyss by Jack London
Details London's trip to the East End of London in the early 1900s. Much more like a documentary than the above book by Orwell, London brings up many important points regarding the hardships and dilemmas imposed on the peoples he is among - a "vast and malodorous sea." Highly recommended.

The Iron Heel by Jack London
Yeah, I probably don't want to give links to Amazon when I recommend anti-plutocracy overtures like "The Iron Heel."
[I will post comments after I finish the book - I had never known London wrote a book like this - As Orwell followed London, even into the slums of the East End, this is undoubtedly a strong influence on Orwell to write 1984...very exciting!]

Managerial Revolution: What is Happening in the World
I found out about this book from my studies of analyzing stocks. Specifically, after having read the "Bible of value investing," Security Analysis by Benjamin Graham. I have also not read this yet, but have purchased it and cannot wait!! I have not verified it, but a comment on the review on Amazon.com mentions that this book was also an influence on Orwell to write 1984. I have a lot of synchronicity going on right now with my reading...

Ask the Dust by John Fante
Written in the 1930s, still a pretty decent modern book. Trials of a starving writer in LA.

Non-Fiction

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
True story of Christopher McCandless, who goes on a series of adventures, ultimately perishes tragically in the "Fairbanks 142" bus in Alaska.

Everett Ruess-A Vagabond for Beauty by Vicky Burgess, W.L. Rusho and John Nichols
Another true story, though Everett begins his adventures at a much younger age than Christopher McCandless. Travels through California, Big Sur, Carmel, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Navajo lands. Disappeared and never found in 1934 in Utah. Amazing story.

Thirty-Seven Days of Peril by Truman Everts
Amazing book (more of a short story) about a man stranded and on death's doorstep in Yosemite in the 1800s. Incredible.
*Available for free at: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30924

Existential Philosophy
Introduction to Metaphysics by Martin Heidegger
Pre-dating Heidegger's Being & Time, originally given as a lecture course. Heidegger discusses "Being" (Da-Sein), including frequent references to pre-Socratic Greek Philosophy, such as Parmenides.

Zollikon Seminars: Protocols - Conversations - Letters by Martin Heidegger (author) Franz Mayr (Translator)
Documenting a series of meetings and lectures between Heidegger and Medard Boss and medical students.


Existential Psychology *some of these titles are out of print

Psychoanalysis and Daseinsanalysis by Medard BossMedard Boss, a follower of the German Philosopher Martin Heidegger, compares his psychology of Daseinsanalysis to Freudian Psychoanalysis and finds there are some worthwhile contents in Freudian therapy as opposed to Freudian theory. This is not the best text to read for an introduction to Medard Boss.

Existential Foundations of Medicine and Psychology by Medard Boss
Boss explains the Daseinsanalytical view of the true basis of medicine in contrast to the physicalistic, reductionist, and deterministic medical model. This book offers a decent overview of Boss' psychological adaption of Heidegger's Philosophy, however, Boss' books on dreams offer a clearer entry point into daseinsanalytical insight, especially if you are interested in dreams.

Analysis of Dreams by Medard Boss
The older of Boss' two books in English regarding Dreams. This one is more about the Daseinsanalytic insights applied to dreams - in other words theory - than his later book, which contains more examples of patient's dreams.

I Dreamt Last Night by Medard Boss and Stephen Conway
The later book by Boss, which provides more examples of patients dreams and their daseinsanalytical explanations.

Existential Psychology by Rollo May
The Discovery of Being: Writings in Existential Psychology by Rollo May

Psychoanalysis and Existential Philosophy Edited by Hendrik M. Ruitenbeek
(A compilation of many great existential writings, including Medard Boss)

Readings in Existential Psychology and Psychiatry (Studies in Existential Psychology and Psychiatry) Edited by Keith Hoeller
This book is a treasure - the essay on the will be Farber and on anxiety by Boss have the potential to be life-changing. This is a must read if you can find it.

Theistic Existentialism / Theology

The Courage to Be by Paul Tillich
A master work by a master thinker.

Sickness unto Death: A Christian Psychological Exposition of Edification & Awakening by Anti-Climacus (Penguin Classics)-Kierkegaard
This book regards despair and the self...
~anthropological in nature, instructive (subtitled 'Psychological Exposition')

Fear and Trembling (Penguin Classics)-Kierkegaard
This book regards faith
~anthropological in nature, instructive

The Concept of Anxiety : Kierkegaard's Writings, Vol 8 -Kierkegaard
~A Psychological Exposition
This book regard hereditary sin and anxiety (aka The Concept of Dread)

Why is it that when we encounter someone who appears to be anxious, we generally have a negative reaction, or ourselves become uncomfortable?

Viewing anxiety in terms of the fear of "being thrown back on oneself," this reaction seems to be a mystery. In living with chronic illness, I often feel my anxiety as the storehouse of energy that I have, but am unable to translate into use for various reasons. So, if anxiety was a sign of stores of unactualized possibilties for living, why would it have a negative connotation? What survival value does this impart?