Non-Medical Approach for Beauty Disorders

Skin Deep, A Mind/Body Program for Healthy Skin by Ted A. Grossbart and Carl Sherman (Morrow: $17.95).

The premise of this book is that the skin is both a physical and emotional organ, and it thus responds to physical and emotional approaches in treatment.

Grossbart, a clinical psychologist on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, and Sherman, a writer who holds a Ph.D. from Harvard, wisely suggest that readers not consider their work a substitute for dermatology, but rather “a useful, problem-solving supplement to it,” perhaps to be used when all else has failed.

The authors write--convincingly--that numerous non-medical techniques (among them, hypnosis, relaxation, biofeedback and psychotherapy) may help a wide variety of skin diseases. And they spell out which treatment modalities seem to be most successful with which skin ailments.