The Dancing Healers

by Carl A. Hammerschlag

This fascinating account of a Yale-trained psychiatrist's 20-year experience with Native American healing interweaves autobiography with stories of the Native Americans who challenged his medical school assumptions about their methods. While working as a family physicans in a Native American hospital in the Southwest, Carl Hammerschlag was introduced to a patient named Santiago, a Pueblo priest & clan chief, who asked him where he had learned how to heal. Hammerschlag responded almost by rote, rattling off his medical education, intership & certification. The old man replied,"Do you know how to dance?" To humor Santiago, Hammerschlag shuffled his feet at the priest's bedside. Despite his condition, Santiago got up & demonstrated the proper steps. "You must be able to dance if you are to heal people,"he admonished the young doctor. "I can teach you my steps, but you will have to hear your own music." Hammerschlag synthesizes his Jewish heritage with his experience with Native Americans to produce a practice open to all methods of healing. He discovers the wisdom of the Pueblo priest's question to his Western doctor, "Do you know how to dance?"

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Native American History, Spirituality, Sociology, History

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Nicolina Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was interesting in that it was this doctor's story about HIS healing and not so much the healing he brought to anyone else. It wasn't until the end that I could participate in his joy though. The beginning and middle chapters did more to illuminate the author's prejudices and just how much work he has to do. Written in the late 80s, it is no surprise that the views on witchcraft are distorted. (example of his lack of vision that he still has to overcome.) I would highly recommend Coyote Medicine as the definitive book on native healing coming together with western medicine through a doctor's journey.

[Georgia · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 * Actually! Points out racism and things he learned from the Native American culture which unites itself spiritually to the Earth, ancesters, and especially The Great Spirit! He cites some of his cases as a psychiatrist and fAmily physician at a Native American hospital.
Quote: "Navaho medicine uses ritual to help restore mental & physical health"

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. As a therapist myself, I enjoyed hearing Hammerschlag tell the stories of the native american people he had as clients, and how these relationships helped to influence and reshape his theraputic style and practice. Hammerschlag's stories emphasis the importance of learning about every person we meet at a very basic and fundamental level before forming any kind of opinion about the person or their actions. The book also comments on the importance of ritual in people's lives, and it was very interesting to learn more about the meaning behind some native american rituals and traditions.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful and soul-healing. "We are here for such a brief period of time. We come and go like flickers of a flame. Sometimes we get so serious about what it all means. The important thing is to play the hand you've been dealt... We are here to help each other discover our individual uniqueness. This self hood, once understood, will of itself sustain us and will, in turn, connect us to the larger reality of humans and spiritual experience. In that way, we may all become dancing healers." Pag. 136

[Rachel Hines · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a medical student interested in psychiatry and a deep interest in Native American history, I absolutely loved this book. Hammerschlag has such a vibrant knack for storytelling, and his passion and love for the Indian community shines through in his reflections of his experiences.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

A guy has nebulous thoughts about his feelings and society and stuff.

[Jamie Lacy · Rating 5 out of 5]

“You must be able to dance if you are to heal people. I can teach you my steps, but you will have to hear your own music.”

I’ve always thought that this book found me, as I pulled it out of a sidewalk mini-library box a few years ago one day when I was on a rainy walk. At the time, I was running away from the helping/healing profession and didn’t want to read anything about it… but I took the book home nonetheless.

This year, now in grad school for counseling psychology, I opened it up and didn’t stop reading. As a book written in 1988, it definitely doesn’t get everything right—but overall, I loved Dr. Hammerschlag’s introspective stories about his experiences learning about and, in many ways, becoming part of the Native American culture. The stories of hope and loss and healing were inspiring and eye opening, and I think this book is one I will return to in the future.

[Lea Harrington · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book focuses on the unfolding of a personal journey of deeper opening into Native American spirituality and healing - especially in the southwestern US, a shifting of the author’s own healing paradigm as a result, and his personal healing trajectory as he more fully steps into and understands who he is as a healer. In this book, I appreciated the intersection of the land and embedded animistic practices in this part of the country, the historical context, and the shifting interplay between psychiatry and indigenous healing that occurs as the reader accompanies the author on this journey. I highly recommend this book for western practitioners of mental healing / wholeness, as well as others interested in this topic!

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read around 1999. My review then: By a psychiatrist who worked with Native Americans in the Southwest and learned a lot about the Native American approach to healing. Good storyteller. Excellent, recommended.

[Sue Gross · Rating 5 out of 5]

A doctor explains the value of tradition (with native Americans) he sees both sides of healing

[Janette · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful read

It’s been a while since I’ve discovered such a heart-moving read. A book filled with wisdom and modern history, loved it!

[Bradford · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF at 23%. So many typos and grammatical errors made it hard to read. Anecdotals were okay, but don’t seem to tie into the premise of the book.

[JoAnn Brown]

Unexpected extreme rage and violence in the first few chapters. Only read to page 59.

[Anika Hanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this book - found the author to be very respectful of the cultures he describes and his place in them, as he brings a fresh perspective to western medicine. 10/10 recommend.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting how culture in community can heal

[Charu Gupta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting and warm and fuzzy look at cultural influences on mental and bodily health. A little too warm and fuzzy at times, too introspective. But overall really interesting stories about people and their experiences and things that cannot be explained by regular medicine. Still not sure if means other people can have this same experience even with an open mind - he really became part of this particular culture.

[Travis W · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the book. I appreciated the authors own look at his prejudices, his "white saviour mentality" and also his constant belief and push that learning is unique to the individual and that healing is not a top down process, but one that comes from the relationship between people and their environments. A good read.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an easy, enjoyable read in story-telling fashion about an East Coast Yale-educated Jewish M.D. who moves to the southwest U.S> to work with the Native American population. Ultimately they teach him more than he feels he "teaches" them.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rather liked this book about what a psychiatrist learned from native Americans he went to practice with. While he'd come with the medical model imparted by Yale, they reminded him of the broader concerns of the whole person. Thus a psychiatrist learned some psychology.

[Monica Medina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this book for a class - super quick read. Decent - I liked reading about the stories the doctor had to share.

[Carolyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thought there would be more about dancing as medicine, though rewarded with some good anecdotes about experiences that helped a western doctor find within himself a more holistic approach to healing.

[Seth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read with a lot of insight into outside-the-establishment health issues. Some intriguing personal stories portray a broader view than that supplied by conventional medicine.

[Rauan · Rating 4 out of 5]

he's a bit of a Clayton Eschleman,...
thankfully, only a "bit"

[Shirley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book about the healing traditions of Native Americans. Especially of interest to me as the tribes he worked with were all in Arizona.

[Sare Anuszkiewicz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very insightful.

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall an enjoyable and ease read. Intresting story about one man's quest through his transition for traditional western medicine into the spiritual medicine of the Native American tribes.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Be open to all teachers