I was lucky enough to have a short correspondence with Dr. Leon Hammer, a psychiatrist turned CM practitioner.
Those who don’t know Dr. Hammer should really update their knowledge about the man who contributed an amazing book to our shelves, a book called “Dragon Rises, Red Bird Flies“. In the book he shows, among other things, how CM can be used to treat the Shen, and he brings us Dr. Shen’s theory- his own teacher and mentor.

Dr. Hammer was born in the USA on 1922.
During the years between 1948-1970 he dedicated himself to psychoanalysis and psychiatry, in which he studied the treatment of children, various psychological approaches (Gestalt for example) and Hypnosis.
In 1971 he started studying Chinese Medicine with Dr. Van Buren.
In 1974, Dr. Hammer met Dr. Shen, his biggest influence in CM.  Until 1989, Dr. Hammer studied many aspects of CM such as Auriculotherapy, Chinese Herbs, 5 Elements and more.

We should mention that Dr. Hammer also has Shiatsu, Yoga, Tai Chi and Kinesiology under his belt.

At 1990, Dr. Hammer retired from his private clinic, but continued to lecture in the US and around the world including Spain, Poland, Italy, Holland, Germany, England, Australia and Japan.

Since 1980,  Dr. Hammer wrote many articles, and in 1990 he published “Dragon Rises, Red Bird Flies” (DRRBF), which became a classic. In 2001, he published his second book, Chinese Pulse diagnosis, A Contemporary Appraoch.

In 2001, Dr. Hammer was one of the founders of Dragon Rises College of Oriental Medicine, and served as the chairman and consultant.

Dr. Hammer was 84 when I wrote him, and I found him very busy with various projects, yet he found the time to answer my questions and for that I am very grateful.

Chinese Medicine Notes (CMNotes): How did you decide to study Psychology? What made you choose Psychiatry?
Dr. Leon Hammer (L.H): I have wanted to be a physician since I was two years old. I went through many phases of how that was defined by society including attending a scientific high school and majoring in chemistry in college and zoology as a minor. It was in college, after the war, that I became aware of my psychological being with psychological issues and in addressing them I realized that my interest was in that aspect of health rather than in conventional medicine. Instead of science I found myself interested in literature, history, theology, philosophy and even economics. I was interested in people. Since I still wished to be a physician and could think of no other path in life, I chose psychiatry as the aspect of medicine closest to my personal interests.

CMNotes: What do you think are the benefits of a psychological treatment?
L.H: The answer to this question would take several books. Psychological treatment ultimately has the same goal as all esoteric religions, to enhance self-awareness.

CMNotes: After all the work that you did in psychology and psychiatry, you started studying Chinese Medicine. How did that happen? How did you meet up with CM?
L.H:  In 1971 I took a sabbatical from my work and my family and lived in England for six months. I went for an opportunity for personal growth that was not possible working 70 hours a week. I had known for some years that what was lacking in psychological talking therapies was the absence of touch but found that touch in bioenergetics was more of an attack than a healing contact. In England I met someone who taught me a form of massage and after we were acquainted for a while, confided in me that they were studying acupuncture. They offered to introduce me to their teacher and I accepted. Though I knew nothing about Chinese medicine, somehow, with the first step into his office I knew that I was what I had always meant when I said that I want to be a physician. I never intended to practice Chinese medicine. I was 47 years old and well established in psychology and psychoanalysis. It was after two years while on vacation that I received a frantic call from a psychologist in a nearby town to see a patient who was manic, who had not slept for three weeks, and who was driving him and a therapy group to which she belonged crazy. I saw her. For two and one half hours she spoke at me in French. I could not get a word in edgewise until I suddenly recalled that acupuncture was popular in France. I broke in and asked her if she would like acupuncture, and with a thick French accent she exclaimed “acupuncture” and jumped on the massage table in my office. I quickly placed as many needles as I could recall being of some value and she fell asleep- for five hours on that massage table. The next day she called. She was no longer in a manic state, her asthma and allergies were better and in the ensuing week all of her other ailments disappeared.  Within the following month I was inundated with calls for acupuncture and thus was launched my career in Chinese medicine.

CMNotes: How do these two techniques compliment each other? How do they combine together in sessions?
L.H: I found that CM enhanced awareness, the goal of psychology as mentioned above.

CMNotes: I know that there are different methods in psychology, but I understand that some methods grasp the human being in a very similar way as CM. Can you tell us more about those methods and just how similar they are? And can you tell us where they are different?
L.H: Humanistic Psychology is most closely allied to CM for reasons that I describe in Chapter 1 of DRRBF to which I refer you. They are also similar in that they are `circular’ rather than `liniar’ and see everything in relation to everything else rather than exist as isolated entities. You cannot consider a Liver without also understanding what is happening in the Heart and the Kidneys.

CMNotes: How did your previous studies helped you in your CM practice, if anything?
L.H: I realized rather early in my psychiatric career the value of touch and of the body to the mind. Work with Gestalt [Perls], Rolfing [Ida Rolf] and Bioenergetics [Lowen & Pierokos] prepared me to take the next step to CM.

CMNotes: How was the book DRRBF was born? Was there a certain purpose for it? Do you think it achieved that purpose?
L.H: I realized after writing it, that DRRBF was in some respects a book about diagnosis in terms of the normal functions of the organ energies and the possible deviations. It then hit me that it is my appointed mission to bring the medicine back to it’s unique roots which made it possible to treat a person, not a pattern. The ways of the Lord are indeed mysterious, because until now I did not know what I was doing. I just did it. It feels like climbing a mountain through the woods, plodding along, and then suddenly there is the summit, and you see the entire landscape.

CMNotes: You studied with well known names in the CM field- Dr. Van Buren (who he himself was very educated as well before studying CM), Dr. Shen… What did you learn from each of them that you took with you to your own practice? Who influenced you most in your work?
L.H: Dr. Shen influenced me the most since he taught me the pulse and the cental  importance of diagnosis in the medicine. Dr. Van Buren was my first teacher who taught me many things too numerous to list here.

CMNotes: Did you combine different methods in the CM treatments (stems and branches, TCM, 5 elements)?
L.H: I studied most aspects of the medicine except stems and branches that Dr. Van Buren developed mostly after my time with him that ended in 1974.

CMNotes: Which technique did you prefer in your practice- acupuncture? Herbs? Psychology?
L.H: I do not have and they are integrated. But I will say this- relationship is the basis of whatever kind of healing one does.

CMNotes: “Chinese Pulse Diagnosis, A Contemporary Approach“, could you tell us more about it? What was the goal of it’s publication in your eyes?
L.H: I studied the pulse for 8 years with Dr. Shen and began to teach it 24 years ago. We have instructors on several continents and many students. The book was written for them as a textbook-reference. This method of pulse diagnosis with at least 100 times the amount of material than the other pulse methods, most of which I have used. CCPD [Contemporary Chinese Pulse Diagnosis] provides a great deal about a person’s mental-emotional life as well as physical.

CMNotes: How do you see the combination between CM and Western Medicine? Is the world ready for that yet? Is the Western Medicine world ready for that yet?
L.H: Western medicine when it can, uses CM as another treatment tool, generally ignoring the rich diagnostic tradition. It is turning CM physicians into technicians. The stronger medicine will absorb the weaker medicine if the weaker seeks to merge with the stronger. CM cannot survive as a complement to Western medicine. CM has to be an alternative to Western Medicine. They can collaborate but not merge.

CMNotes: What are the things that you learned from your career as a teacher?
L.H: It has forced me to think and has stimulated many of the many new ideas that I am developing.

CMNotes: What are your feelings about research? Is it more for the Western Medicine or more for Chinese Medicine?
L.H: This is a complex subject. CM is built on relationships, while Western Med. Is based on isolating and studying one thing and eliminating everything else. The circular nature of CM that depends on connections cannot be studied by linear Western science.

CMNotes: What are the 3 things that you think a practitioner in CM should do once starting his practice? What advice can you give us to become better practitioners once we’re out of school?
L.H: Apprentice yourself to a more experienced practitioner. Schools are not the traditional way of learning this medicine and can never replace the day to day contact with a more experienced person.