One of the first posts on CMNotes was about Chinese Medicine Books for the first year.
When I was writing that title, I did not think that as of the 2nd year, there’s really no way to say which book is most suitable for what year. I mean, most of us start reading Elisabeth and Father Larre’s work on the 2nd year, for example.
So I’m just going to mention books that I feel are very important for any student to read, and of course every practitioner can go back to the books and learn something new. Which is an important point regarding reading books in CM, at least to my humble opinion. I think that what you understand in a book on the 4th year is quite different then what you can understand from the very same book 3 years after reading it for the first time.
And then I thought- why not make different posts for different subjects? I get to write about more books and you get more information about books according to their subject.
Yes. I sometimes surprise even myself.

There isn’t really a field of “Chinese psychology”.
We don’t separate body and mind, and we always pay attention to both aspects in man. But sometimes, and I’ll whisper it so no one will hear it but you, we simply need to address one aspect more than the other.
I find that studying TCM gives a very superficial idea of human psychology and I also think that TCM itself doesn’t really address psychological issues- big or small.

I also think, that most practitioners don’t solve their own issues before becoming practitioners and before trying to help others solve their own issues.
Without having that personal experience of healing, one can only give a partial support if any, not a lot of empathy which is very important as a healer and as a human being in general and one can not contain the patient’s inner world.
And that’s a problem. But maybe we’ll address this issue in a different post….

We’re here to look over main books in this subject, I hope this list will be useful.

Dragon Rises, Red Bird Flies by Dr. Leon Hammer: an important book to everyone, since we have so much to do with the human spirit, emotions and psychology. This book is unique because the author, Dr. Hammer, is a fully trained psychiatrist and psychology, who decided one day to practice CM. We were very fortunate to interview Dr. Hammer, and you can read the interview here.

The Seven Emotions by Elisabeth Rochat and Claude Larre: Father Claude Larre and Elisabeth Rochat de la Valle wrote a number of books together, all are important. Each book takes on a different subject and both authors dive into ancient texts and translate it for us, prodving their insights. This book is the most important I have read on the subject of emotions and psychology in CM and Chinese philosophy.

Chinese Medical Psychiatry by Bob Flaws: I personally haven’t read the book, but I heard from various people that it helped them understand certain situations- most of them have very little written Chinese references.

Chinese Pulse Diagnosis by Dr. Leon Hammer: yes, I know, this book is mainly about pulse, but since it was written by Dr. Hammer, I suspect it contains a touch here and there of psychology. And indeed chapter 15 is called “Qualities as Signs of Psychological Disharmony”. Yay for us- another source of information not only about the tricky art of the pulse, but also about psychology in Chinese Medicine.

Only 4 books???
A bit of a let down if you ask me… I will sign off with the mention of two more books I think are worth another look:
Nourishing Destiny by Lonny Jarrett: I didn’t get my hands on a copy (yet), but I suspect it will talk about psychology and emotions as it has to do with the 5 Elements.
Five Elements Constitutional Acupuncture: a book by Angela and John Hicks and Peter Mole which talks about the intergration of TCM with 5 Elements, and again- I haven’t read the book (yet) but my guess is that a book that has 5 Elements written all over it simply must have something to do with emotions…

If you know about books that aren’t on this list- please leave a note about them here.