Practical Metaphysics; or, The True Method of Healing

About this book

M. J. Barnett begins with a conviction characteristic of mind-cure writing: the state of thought can alter the body's condition. Healing is presented as a discipline of belief, attention and spiritual understanding.

The method belongs to nineteenth-century metaphysical therapeutics, a movement in which private conviction was often offered as an answer to illness. Its claims should be read historically and should never replace medical care. Barnett's argument is particularly useful for tracing the intellectual path from religious ideas about the mind to the practical language of self-help and mental healing.