Acupuncture Imaging: Perceiving the Energy Pathways of the Body [Paperback]

Given the two prior negative reviews, I feel its important to provide a balancing input, particularly since I did fully enjoy this small book.

There are hints given toward the end of this book about why he uses the term "imaging". With intentional experience and time devoted to Seem's style of evaluating the person, their meridians as a whole instead of just a few selected points, before touching in order to intuitively perceive ... he suggests that some people may learn to "see" energy coursing and the places where there might be obstructions. I agree the title may lead to a little disappointment. The book is more about trying to understand the deeper dynamics of energy management in the body and prodding of it by manual exam and acupuncture rather than "imaging" in the typical use of the word.

However, if one approaches the book with an open mind, there is a lot of helpful information here. It is not a comprehensive textbook on how to learn acupuncture, and does NOT pretend to be. It is assumed that one already has acquired the basics from some perspective such as TCM, 5-Elements or one of the physicians' medical acupuncture disciplines.

Bob Flaws, in his introduction to the book, describes Mark Seem as an acupuncturist's acupuncturist, referencing the fact that Seem has devoted his career and teaching to refining a particular form of acupuncture focusing on the body's innate energetic pathways that are independent of other "assists" such as herbal preparations. As such, this short book of about 100 pages, attempts to summarize a starting point for exploring acupuncture from an energetic framework. He intentionally speaks more as a philosopher and educator rather than a "technician", sharing the accumulated impressions he has gained over his career using a psychosomatic and phenomenologic approach.

His emphasize on recruiting patients to be responsible, active participants in the pursuit of their own healing, rather becoming the passive recipients of treatments or pills is refreshing. That's always a challenge no matter how much desired for most practitioners of the healing arts. He attempts to explain how he engages his patients in this process specifically for the medium of acupuncture. These efforts are quite valuable -- yet their significance may be lost when one is at the start of acupuncture training and still attempting to absorb the massive amount of required material. Its more the type of information to which one returns after reaching a plateau that prompts a need to re-think how one organizes their own approach to the discipline. I anticipate I will want to re-read it intermittently.

Seem's pre-acupuncture background was in philosophy and psychosomatics. He then trained in a Canadian school of French-Chinese energetic acupuncture. This approach became known in France dating back to the early 1900's due to the work of George Soulle' de Morant, a Frenchman who spent at least 2 decades in China, was fluent in Chinese having learning Mandarin as a child, and translated/catalogued many original manuscripts in order to document techniques of the pre-communist era while working with Chinese physicians and acupuncturists. de Morant was awarded the highest national Chinese award for civilians and was considered a Chinese Doctor among the Chinese. He eventually returned to Europe where he was known as the Father of Energetic Acupuncture. (Besides his books on acupuncture, de Morant was a prolific writer/translator on many different aspects of Chinese life and literature.)

This French-Chinese model differs from newer TCM approaches, which at least for awhile dominated China after the Maoist reform (1950's) and also dominated the American scene when acupuncture first migrated here. Seem's book does have several recognizable features in common with the training provided to physicians through the Helm's Institute, whose founder also trained in French-Chinese energetic acupuncture in France.

Mark Seem begins with a helpful historical review regarding the development of the different schools of acupuncture and why he personally became invested in the approach he uses. He is the founder of the Tri-Sate College of Acupuncture in New York City, and has been a major national leader in training and organizations for licensed acupuncturists. He acknowledges several other sources that have influenced the development of his style that an interested reader may want to pursue for further detail (such by those by Royston Lowe, Yves Requina and Kiiko Matsumoto. The latter being a particular good source for information on Japanese meridian work. )

There are a few summary tables and diagrams but no specific treatment protocols, in keeping with his phenomenological approach of following the message he encounters from the patient's body -- not some predetermined formulae attached to either an eastern or a western medical diagnosis. That's the point.

He broadly describes his journey through a treatment process from surface energetics, through tendinomuscular meridians and then to deeper interconnections among principal meridian and/or curious meridian pathways. I strongly anticipate that travelling with him through this journey will gain in meaning the more experience one gains with acupuncture if the commitment is to move beyond "cookbook recipes" for treatment protocols.

His other textbook which I have not yet read seems to likely be more comprehensive on the basics of his style, called BodyMind Energetics.

Mark Seem is one of the most innovative acupuncturists of today and is not afraid to speak his truth. Each of his books are refinement of his previous books in which he develops his very unique and specific protocol for practicing acupuncturists wishing to learn this style.

I'm not certain his techniques are learnable from a book; I spent many clinical hours learning his protocol at Tri-State where I was lucky enough to go to school but if you want to learn "classical," meridian-style acupuncture from a modern perspective, Mark Seem is the Man.

I find Dr. Seem's work in general and his iconoclastic ideas on Acupuncture both innovative and refreshing. This book, Acupuncture Imaging, presents a barrage of semi-supported thought fragments on the practice of meridian based acupuncture. The book also examines the psychological integration of mind and body into the practice of acupuncture and the development of patient rapport in the same disjointed and fragmented style. While the ideas being presented are both novel and interesting, the work itself seems hurried and half-baked. The book lacks a consistent, logical presentation and jumps about from topic to topic. It reads a bit like a doctor's personal practice journal, the musings of an energetic genius in an intermediate stage of development at the time of their publication.

While I consider myself a fan of Dr. Seem, I must say that other than some food for thought, and some good suggestions for further reading, I had a very hard time pulling anything of real clinical value out of this little book. It is my sincere hope that at some future point, Dr. Seem will take the time to write a much more comprehensive and comprehensible opus - offering his fellow practitioners a clinically relevant and coherent presentation of his acupuncture style. As it stands, this small work reads like a well intentioned pastiche of semi-connected ideas and leaves the reader with a vague feeling that there is something really valuable to be gained that is lies just beyond his comprehension.