Wednesday, November 14, 2007

OK, back to structure for just a minute...

I'm so pleased to announce (with Michael Shacklock's permission and blessing) that he will soon be re-publishing portions of a classic text of great interest to all nerve-o-philes, namely Alf Breig's book, Adverse Neural Tension in the Central Nervous System, long out of print.

The new release will be called Biomechanics of the Nervous System Revisited. It will explain to all manual therapists new to thinking about this particular structure called the "nervous system", the physicality of it, how it slides around inside the body, how to treat it (respectfully, we hope). It will contain many of the original photos taken by Breig himself, during surgical procedures, and published in the original book in 1978, which clearly show how nerves move, especially nerve roots.

Breig's book, very scarce, out of print, attained near-mythic fame. The pioneers of neurodynamic treatment had obtained copies nearly three decades ago, but not many books had been printed, and no one else in later waves of interested neural treaters could lay hands on it, or on any of these pictures, much to our collective frustration. This sad fact created a bit of a dip in the understanding of nerve mechanics for a long time. Until now. Make that until soon. Until January 2008.

Michael made trips to visit relatives of this recently deceased surgical explorer, and the explorer himself before he died, and was able to obtain rights to reproduce much of the content. Thank you so much for this, Michael. What a gift you are bringing manual therapy.

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