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Touch Therapies across the Life Span

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Handbook of Diversity Issues in Health Psychology

Part of the book series: The Plenum Series in Culture and Health ((PSCH))

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Abstract

The Ayur-Veda, the earliest known medical text from India (around 1800 b.c.), lists touch therapy (massage therapy), diet, and exercise as primary healing practices of that time. As Jules Older notes, even the English word shampoo comes from the word champna, which is an ancient Indian word meaning to press (Older, 1982). From early times, massage has been effectively used for many medical and psychiatric conditions, including dropsy; mental illness; torpor; spasm; stomach pain; heart disease; labor pain; delivery; postpartum bleeding; infertility; dysmenorrhea; stimulating the breast for milk; postsurgery to speed healing; as an adjunct to plastic surgery; discomforts and disorders of the joints; to restore movement in strained, fractured, or wounded limbs; lumbago; rheumatic diseases; and aging.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Touch Research Institute, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, Florida, 33101

    Tiffany M. Field

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  1. Tiffany M. Field
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Stanford University, Stanford, California

    Pamela M. Kato  & Traci Mann  & 

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© 1996 Plenum Press, New York

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Field, T.M. (1996). Touch Therapies across the Life Span. In: Kato, P.M., Mann, T. (eds) Handbook of Diversity Issues in Health Psychology. The Plenum Series in Culture and Health. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-27572-7_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-27572-7_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-306-45325-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-585-27572-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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