Candace Pert: Genius, Greed, and Madness in the World of Science

by Pamela Ryckman

Candace Pert stood at the dawn of three the opioid crisis, the AIDS crisis, and the mind-body movement. Indeed, her visionary work shaped history - for good and, inadvertently, for evil. 
 
Before there was Bessel van der Kolk, there was Candace Pert, the Mother of the Mind-Body Revolution. Her story forms a launchpad to discuss the most pressing issues plaguing science and healthcare today. 

Pert played pivotal roles in major movements in both science and politics. Namely,
Discovered the opiate receptor (the mechanism by which opioids function in the brain), launching the opioid crisis. Proved the mind-body link, launching the field of integrative or functional medicine. Created Peptide T, the underground AIDS drug featured in the film Dallas Buyers Club, and then went rogue, becoming a linchpin in the black market for her drug. Pert was sabotaged by mentors and colleagues keen to profit from her brilliance. But she too became tainted, believing that her noble ends would justify devious means. Like a mythic hero, she succumbed to a fatal flaw, and her greatest strengths—singularity of purpose and blind faith in her own virtuosity—would prove to be her undoing.

CANDACE PERT is a great read for anyone interested in integrative health, mind-body awareness, medical ethics, the bureaucracy of a toxic healthcare system, and a flawed genius whose scandals and breakthroughs shaped history. 
 
"Exemplary research, balanced accounts and deeply evocative prose... a truly insightful narrative on what it can mean to be a woman at the cutting edge of science." - The Wall Street Journal
"Riveting biography... nuanced portrait...Readers will be engrossed." - Publisher's Weekly
"There is a revolution taking form that is significantly influencing how the Western medical community views health and disease. Candace Pert's contribution to this revolution is undeniable." - Deepak Chopra
"Ryckman's writing is life-like, suspenseful, and creates a roller coaster ride of stakes and unexpected discovery" - Dr. Lisa Miller, New York Times bestselling author of The Spiritual Child and The Awakened Brain

305 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 7, 2023

About the author

Pamela Ryckman is the author of Stiletto Network: Inside the Women's Power Circles That Are Changing the Face of Business. She has written for The New York Times, The Financial Times, Fortune.com/CNNMoney, The New York Observer, and The New York Sun, among other publications.

Before becoming a journalist, Pamela performed internal strategy work for Merrill Lynch's Global Markets and Investment Banking Group, and for Goldman, Sachs & Co.'s Equities Financial and Strategic Management group. She began her career at Mitchell Madison Group, a management consulting firm.

Pamela earned her A.B. in Comparative Literature from Princeton University and her Master of Arts in Journalism from New York University.

Reviews

[Judi Valentine · Rating 5 out of 5]

While in grad school in the early 90s I studied in amazement and admiration the work of Dr. Candace Pert. She was a hero to female science nerds as the person who discovered how emotions affect and shift our biochemistry, establishing the mind body link. Her seminal work preceded a (slow) shift to integrated and then functional medicine. Like many geniuses, just living in the world was a challenge to Candace and I’m sorry she suffered much and died so young. This book reads like a thriller and I couldn’t put it down. I don’t know how you write a book like this and offer high kudos to author Pamela Ryckman for pulling it all together, no small feat.