Steven Ozanich TMS and Pop Culture

HUGE Soprano fan, (watched seven times; own the set) and thought about TMS during BP's back problem episodes!

 

Found this via social media. It's from Russia Today, a news organisation run by the Kremlin but still it's worth watching.



Not many views surprisingly as it was a pioneer in Youtube News coverage

 

The duel from Star Wars:Empire strikes back(s?) is not a direct reference but I found some of the metaphors contained interesting.

 

found a podcast made by CheapAssGamer who is a proponent of Sarno . be warned its a bit lewd&crude.
https://www.cheapassgamer.com/topic/323993-cagcast-347-how-to-avoid-back-pain-and-disgust-people/

David Abrams
@CheapyD is the guys twitter handle and seems fairly well known amongst gamers

 

Billions made by showtime and written by Brian Koppelman supposedly has a reference to Sarno...Brian got better using his methods
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4270492/

 

Excellent find @IrishSceptic I want to watch this show, but no idea when it will air in the UK. What episode is the reference made in?

 

I recently watched the TV movie about Bernie Madoff who was shown in the end when he was about to give him up, under tremendous pressure, constantly on his back in his office because of back pain. TMS!

 

no idea which episode , I don't plan on watching as I'm allergic to financial parasites

 

I don't use Twitter, but just seen this old tweet between Brian Koppelman and Chris Hewitt which mentions Dr Sarno.

Chris Hewitt writes for Empire magazine.

It's a shame we didn't get in on the dialogue and mention the wiki. It would be great means of raising awareness.

 

yeah Forrest, I've studied a lot of finance/economics in the wake of the global situation and these people are callous ruthless killers. Economics is a very interesting topic all the same, just the people that inhabit Wall St are hard for the layperson to understand such is their lust for Gold.

 

also I was just listening to Nicole Sachs talk with you on youtube, its great. I may have asked this before but is the Rosie O'Donnell episode with Jeanette Barber available?

Can you imagine if some major celebrity went on a talkshow like Ellen desperate and pleading today? it would be a huge boost

 

Probably the greatest TMS film of all time is "Joe Vs. The Volcano". If you have not seen it, I won't spoil it, but basically, a man who is a perpetual hypochondriac, is given a new lease on life after quitting his dreadful day job and seeking new adventures.

From Wikipedia:

Joe Banks (Tom Hanks) is a downtrodden everyman from Staten Island, working a clerical job in a dreary factory for an unpleasant, demanding boss, Frank Waturi (Dan Hedaya). Joyless, listless, as well as chronically sick, Banks regularly visits doctors who can find nothing wrong with him. Finally, Dr. Ellison (Robert Stack) diagnoses an incurable disease called a "brain cloud" which has no symptoms, but will kill Joe within five or six months. Ellison says that Joe's ailments were psychosomatic, caused by his horrific experiences in his previous job as a firefighter. Ellison advises him, "You have some life left...live it well." Joe tells his boss off, quits his job...and decided to live life to the fullest.

 

Just came across another example of TMS in pop culture. I'm watching the Showtime series Billions on Netflix. In it the US attorney winces with back pain. His colleague states "there's a book for that". The US attorney says "Sarno?". The colleague says "yea, but you actually have to read it for it to work."

 

Another example of TMS in pop culture. While watching Season 2 of the Crown on Netflix, in episode 10, Prince Philip goes to an osteopath because of neck pain. The osteopath tells him that tension, stress, and unresolved conflicts can cause pain. Later in the episode, Philip tells the Queen that it was all nonsense and he went to a different doctor.

 

(Thanks for pointing us in the direction of this thread, Ellen!) I got excited about that scene, too! Until the context of his larger, seedier role among Britain's elite made it clear that he was mostly talking about tension of a more...sexual nature.

But, let's be honest. Even if the doc was talking about straight up TMS, Phillip (at least as his character is portrayed in the show) is probably the last person on earth who would buy into the concept of TMS, or do the work! As much as we'd love to see this stuff reach a broader audience, Phillip was never going to be our man.

 

I first heard of Dr. Sarno in the late "90's as discussed on the Howard Stern radio show. This show is a daily, rolling discussion of pop culture with current events and artist interviews. Sarno cured Stern of his back pain and Stern also uses this technique when he feels his OCD creeping in. Howard still mentions Dr. Sarno to this day including a special discussion upon his passing. Steve, I believe I have heard you yourself mentioned on Howard's show in the past year or two. I don't recall if you called in or if he read a letter but I've heard the replay of this episode at some point since discovering your own book. @Steve Ozanich

 

Another reference, sort of: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/14/sports/olympics/lindsey-jacobellis-olympics-snowboard.html (The Haunting of Lindsey Jacobellis)

The article includes a discussion of Lindsey Jacobellis's performance anxiety related to her fall in the 2006 Olympics, and subsequent failures likely resulting from fear. Jacobellis is now working with a "mental skills coach," Denise Shull, who encourages Jacobellis and Wall Street clients to feel their feelings. Rather than encourage Jacobellis to ignore scary thoughts and think positive, like most sports coaches, Shull tells Jacobellis to think about her fears and use them in order to help her do better.

Quote:

It is the same positive-thinking mantra athletes routinely hear. Shull does not buy it. It’s O.K., even helpful, she said, to be nervous at the starting gate, to hate a certain part of the course, to have memories of falling as the next finish line approaches. Just talk about it.
....
“The more she deals with it, in some ways, that’s hard work — you’re not allowing yourself to ignore all the feelings you have, and that’s got to be difficult,” Foley said. “But it’s worth a try. We’ve been there a lot of times, and it hasn’t gone how we wanted for Lindsey, so why not work hard like this and see where we can get?”​