''You Can Heal Your Life'' is a
1984
Events
January
* January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
* January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...
self-help
Self-help or self-improvement is a self-guided improvement''APA Dictionary of Physicology'', 1st ed., Gary R. VandenBos, ed., Washington: American Psychological Association, 2007.—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a subst ...
and
new thought
The New Thought movement (also Higher Thought) is a spiritual movement that coalesced in the United States in the early 19th century. New Thought was seen by its adherents as succeeding "ancient thought", accumulated wisdom and philosophy from ...
book by
Louise Hay
Louise Lynn Hay (October 8, 1926 – August 30, 2017) was an American motivational author and the founder of Hay House. She authored several New Thought self-help books, including the 1984 book '' You Can Heal Your Life''.
Early life and ...
. It was the second book by the author, after ''Heal Your Body'' which she wrote at age 60. After Hay appeared on ''
The Oprah Winfrey Show
''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', often referred to as ''The Oprah Show'' or simply ''Oprah'', is an American daytime broadcast syndication, syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicag ...
'' and ''
Donahue Donahue is the Americanized version of Irish surname Donohoe, which, in turn, is an Anglicized version of the ancient Irish name "Donnchadh" (sometimes "Donncha").
Donncha was a common “first name” in 9th Century Ireland, and when the use of ...
'' in the same week in March 1988, the book appeared on the
''New York Times'' Best Seller list, and by 2008, over 35 million copies worldwide had been sold in over 30 languages, becoming one of the best-selling non-fiction book of all time. The book was also instrumental in the success of her publishing company,
Hay House
Hay House is a publisher founded in 1984 by author Louise Hay, who is known for her books on New Thought. Hay House has its headquarters in Carlsbad, California, and is (as of 2018) run by Reid Tracy. Hay House descr ...
Inc. Due to the book, she is "one of
the best-selling authors in history", and one of largest selling women authors, after
J. K. Rowling
Joanne Rowling ( "rolling"; born 31 July 1965), also known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author and Philanthropy, philanthropist. She wrote ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume children's fantasy series published from 1997 to ...
,
Danielle Steel
Danielle Fernandes Dominique Schuelein-Steel (born August 14, 1947) is an American writer, best known for her romance novels. She is the bestselling author alive and the fourth-bestselling fiction author of all time, with over 800 million ...
and
Barbara Cartland
Dame Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland, (9 July 1901 – 21 May 2000) published as Barbara Cartland was an English writer, known as the Queen of Romance, who published both contemporary romance, contemporary and historical romance novels, the lat ...
.
[The Queen of the New Age](_blank)
Mark Oppenheimer, ''New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' magazine, May 4, 2008. Accessed March 9, 2013.[
]
Premise
The key premise of the book is that because the mind and body are connected, illnesses of the body somehow have their root causes in emotional and spiritual aspects of the mind and its beliefs and thought processes. While modern medicine concerns itself with eliminating symptoms of disease in the body, using tools such as chemotherapy and other pharmaceutical drugs and various surgical techniques, Hay's approach is to identify and work to resolve what she perceives as the mental root causes of disease. Hay believes that the causes of "dis-ease" include stress and unhealthy thought patterns and beliefs about oneself, and postulates that the most fundamental way to effect positive change in the body is to change the way we think, using tools such as "mirror work" and affirmations. At the end of the book, a separate section lists numerous illnesses and various emotional thought patterns that Hay believes causes them; this was derived from Hay's earlier book, ''Heal Your Body'', which had its origins in a pamphlet she published in 1979.
Film adaptation
In 2007, the book was adapted into a documentary film of the same name, with a screenplay written by Gay Hendricks
Gay Hendricks (born January 20, 1945, in Leesburg, Florida) is a psychologist, writer, and teacher in the field of personal growth, relationships, and body intelligence. He is best known for his work in relationship enhancement and in the develop ...
and directed by Michael A. Goorjian
Michael Andranik Goorjian (born February 4, 1971) is an American actor, filmmaker, and writer. Goorjian won an Emmy Award for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Mini ...
.
Controversy
The theories described in this book have been criticized as groundless by proponents of evidence based medicine. Specific passages within Hay's book appear to be medically inaccurate. For example, the below quotation appears to falsely claim that migraine headaches are purely psychosomatic:
“Headaches come from invalidating the self . . . Forgive yourself, let it go, and the headache will dissolve back into the nothingness from where it came . . . Migraine headaches are created by people who want to be perfect and who create a lot of pressure on themselves. A lot of suppressed anger is involved…”
Hay has also been criticized for 'blaming the victim' by suggesting that AIDS sufferers are causing their own illness due to poor mental attitude, and for claiming for decades that positive attitude can defeat AIDS, despite not being able to demonstrate any examples of this happening.
The book also claims that birth defects are due to karma
Karma (; sa, कर्म}, ; pi, kamma, italic=yes) in Sanskrit means an action, work, or deed, and its effect or consequences. In Indian religions, the term more specifically refers to a principle of cause and effect, often descriptivel ...
and that children choose their parents.{{Better source needed, date=January 2022
References
External links
Louise Hay, website
* Summaries of the boo
''You Can Heal Your Life''
Self-help books
1984 non-fiction books
American non-fiction books
Books about spirituality
Non-fiction books adapted into films
Hay House books
New Thought literature