Book Review: Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-Being

Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well- Being. (2009). Esther Sternberg, MD. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Hardcover, 352 pages. ISBN-13: 978-0-674- 03336-8. Paperback: 12. 53; hardcover: 34. 34. Ancient civilizations understood the power of the mind to heal or harm the body. This was largely forgotten when science began to demand empirical proof as the standard of scientific evidence. Esther Sternberg's Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-Being takes us back to the earliest understanding that emotions and health are intertwined, this time revealing the scientific method within. Dr. Sternberg positions this scientific understanding in the context of place, showing how the environment can contribute to wellbeing and health. She does this by investigating the body's sensual perceptions and physiological response to the physical environment. Sternberg frames the scientific investigation of the links between the healing process and the environment by asking a simple question: Can the spaces around us help us heal? (2009, p. 1). She articulates how physical space affects and transforms the healing process. Sternberg is a physician who has extensively studied the interaction between the brain and the functioning of the immune system, as well as the psychophysiological effects of stress on health. Fortunately for designers, she has dedicated this book to exploring the role of the physical environment on these issues. Dr. Sternberg takes us on a journey through the senses of sight, sound, touch, smell, and spirit. She discusses the effect of the environment on the continuum of illness and health and how throughout our lifetime the environment can produce changes in our health. Healing Spaces offers fascinating case studies woven together to form a more holistic understanding of oneself and one's environment, always returning to the ideas of health, healing, and often healthcare. She creates this broad understanding by introducing the reader first to the macro-scale, and then delving into the micro-scale to create a more dynamic and complete understanding of the subject. Although many of us believe in the healing powers of the environment, few understand the psychophysiological mechanisms that bring about this healing effect. This phenomenon is tied to the human stress response, in which chronic stress leads to suppression of the immune system, stifling the body's ability to heal. While developing the polio vaccine, immunologist Jonas Salk began feeling a sense of chronic stress and fatigue. Exhausted, he took a sabbatical to Assisi, Italy, where he was transformed by the beauty and spirit of the place, and he returned home to create the vaccine. Moved by his experience, Salk created a facility that would impart the same spirit, light, and nature as Assisi. Because of this moving experience, we now have the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, one of the top centers for innovative scientific research. Just as Salk was inspired by the beauty of Assisi, people are affected emotionally by sound and music. Sound perception is connected to different regions of the brain that are associated with reward, emotion, memory, and movement. These associations give music its power to thrill, delight, and elicit the memory of the night one first danced to its rhythms. …