Maxwell Stein

'The Complete Guide to Tinnitus' is, at best, a very brief guide indeed. At just 88 pages of unusually large type I had guessed that the title was an exaggeration before reading, but even by such low expectations I was disappointed. The constant disclaimers of responsibility are irritating, the tone is altogether patronizing, and some of the advice is just plain bad (although the recommendation that one should avoid head trauma and whiplash, "where possible", did make me smile). But then we come to Chapter 5: "Alternative Therapy" which just about destroys any semblance of authority the work might have possessed. Here the author suggests such activities as massage (in which the repetition of movements in multiples of nine "is part of the mystical heritage of Chinese medicine, and should be respected"), and self-hypnosis (where we find the sentence "The subconscious mind likes things to stay the same, and so resists change" which is simply false). I finished the book/pamphlet – my coffee still warm – feeling somewhat cheated out of my £2.49 and justifiably suspicious of the author's motives in writing it.… (mehr)