Autopsy of War: A personal History

Author: John A. Parrish,M.D.
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press

Autopsy of War
John A Parish

As a book publicity firm, we see lots of books cross our desks here at Newman Communications and some make a strong statement to those of us working them.  This book is no exception, and in fact, it prompted me to make a donation to the USO and tell my friends and colleagues about it. How does a man or woman return from war and resume a “normal” life. How do you deal with the horrors that you have seen during war and transform back to everyday life?  John Parrish’s book, Autopsy of War, shows that it is not an easy task for our returning warriors.  Even with a very successful medical career, Parrish couldn’t shake the PTSD that haunted his every move.  John Parrish came to us for a full book publicity campaign in the hopes that his experience  will reach those most in need of his message, the many soldiers that think they are alone with their anguish. Whether they have lost limbs or the damage is unseen to the eye, the struggle that our returning heroes face is gigantic.

Navy physician John Parrish served in Vietnam, an experience that seared him to the bone.  In the ensuing four decades, Parrish became recognized as one of the most innovative physicians in his field, yet he was tortured by PTSD.  Now, in AUTOPSY OF WAR: A Personal History, Parrish presents a profound and unflinching memoir of a physician’s wartime work in Vietnam and his forty-year struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder.

John’s struggle was highlighted in The Boston Globe interview for their G Section and our radio publicity campaign has garnered many hits including:

• Clearchannel Network & SiriusXM
• Premiere Radio Network – national
• Lifestyle Radio Network – national
  and local radio stations nationwide

When he first arrived in Vietnam, Parrish was a triage doctor, treating as many as thirty patients a day with wounds more destructive and life-altering than anything he had ever encountered.  He did his best but never felt like it was enough.  Dismembered limbs and other body parts flowed through his hands for hours on end, and these tragic triage scenes were not something his mind would ever  forget.  When not working on wounded servicemen, Parrish also tended to patients at a tuberculosis hospital in Hue, which was run by Vietnamese Catholic nuns.  He felt he was doing some good there, until the Tet Offensive brought the Viet Cong to Hue, where they executed the patients because they had been treated by an American doctor, and also killed the nuns for working with Parrish. Parrish would also spend time in the field, which was a particularly difficult time for him, since it was then, says Parrish, that “I felt a duty to find meaning in the war so I could convince myself the dead had not died in vain.”

Although happy to return home to the States, Parrish left Vietnam feeling guilty about leaving behind so much suffering.  He also returned home a different person. He found himself physically and emotionally unavailable to his wife and children, developed an obsession with war books and movies, and over the ensuing years, would suffer harrowing flashbacks.  Fighting the mental devastation of war, Parrish lived virtually homeless at times, visited veterans’ shelters and fled his family while reliving his Vietnam experience over and over again.  Despite the fact that he managed to establish a prominent medical career, few knew how his inner demons took over the rest of his life.  “I found myself increasingly restless, tortured, and lonely,” says Parrish, “never more so than at social events or professional meetings where my peers assumed I was in control.”  The present continued to mingle with the past as haunting images of Vietnam lingered in his mind, until the door to recovery finally opened after years of pain and struggle.

AUTOPSY OF WAR is a soul-searching and intensely personal journey through the world of war and recovery. An honest, moving, and intimate view of one man’s courageous battle to overcome PTSD, it is a highly relevant story today as soldiers return to the U.S. from abroad with challenges to face.  “I accept that there will always be war,” says Parrish, “but I need to believe more can be done to help its victims, specifically the warriors who have left the battlefield but not their personal war.  This book is witness to the power of time, acceptance, self-discovery, hard work, and love in belatedly diminishing one man’s psychic war.”

About the Author:

JOHN A PARRISH, M.D., is the CEO of the Center for the Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology (CIMIT); the CEO of the Red Sox Foundation-Massachusetts General Hospital Home Base Program (an outreach program to help veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars with PTSD and traumatic brain injury); and Distinguished Professor of Dermatology and former department head at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.  He is the author of 12, 20 & 5: A Doctor’s Year in Vietnam.

To learn more about Autopsy of War please visit:  http://autopsyofwar.com/

Filed under: Bios and Memoirs, Health and Wellness, History, Psychology & Sociology, Site News | No Comments »

The Misleading Mind

The Misleading Mind

Author: Karuna Cayton
Publisher: New World Library

For over 20 years Karuna Cayton has worked to coach and help people achieve a more balanced life.

In Misleading Mind: How We Create Our Own Problems and How Buddhist Psychology Can Help Us Solve Them (New World Library), author and psychotherapist Karuna Cayton presents the essence of Buddhist teachings about the nature of mind so that anyone can use them.

“Much of Buddhist thought encourages us to embrace our problems like old friends. It even encourages us to seek out our problems as a way to train our minds and to break free from the control of our disturbing (but sometimes unseen) emotions,” writes Karuna. “Great practitioners like the Dalai Lama even claim to enjoy problems because, like our best friends, problems honestly and accurately reflect ourselves back to us. There is no clearer measure of our interior health than the nature of our problems.”

With a book publicity campaign outreaching to media in various beats and outlets, Karuna’s message hit home with inc.com.   “Empathy is greatly increased through mindfulness practice. As we know from the studies in emotional intelligence, empathy is one of the key leadership competencies in positive leadership. Research has demonstrated that the mood of the leader has an overwhelming effect on the mood of  the organization” states Cayton.

Newman’s  national radio book publicity has spread Karuna’s message around the country via:

• The Progressive Radio Network,
• Business Talk Radio, and more.

Business entrepreneurs and people in general are starting  to look at their problems in a new light.  Once we recognize the habitual ways our minds perceive and react, we see the way they mislead.  Cayton’s book contains exercises and real world examples that help the reader put into practice the way to a better life.

About the Author:

Karuna Cayton, psychotherapist and author of The Misleading Mind, spent twelve years working with Tibetan refugees in Nepal and studying with Buddhist masters. His Karuna Group practice applies Buddhist psychology to individual and organizational clients. He lives in Northern California.  Visit him online at www.thekarunagroup.com.

Filed under: Business, Health and Wellness, Psychology & Sociology, Self Help | 1 Comment »

Book Publicity for Heaven on Earth

Author: Richard Landes
Publisher: Oxford University Press

Heaven on Earth - Richard Landes

Some say “the end is near” others believe that we have been here before. Remember Y2K!  Richard Landes and Newman Communications feel it’s just the beginning!

Landes and Newman Communications have committed to a book publicity tour for Heaven on Earth introducing some of the most influential apocalyptic movements in history, from tribal and agrarian societies to the post-modern world.

Ranging from ancient Egypt to modern-day UFO cults and global Jihad, Heaven on Earth both delivers an eye-opening revisionist argument for the significance of millennialism throughout history and alerts the reader to the alarming spread of these ideologies in our world today.

Continue Reading »

Filed under: History, Psychology & Sociology, Religion and Faith | No Comments »

DIGNITY:

The Essential Role It Plays in Resolving Conflict

Author: Donna Hicks, Ph.D.
Publisher: Yale University Press

Dignity

Dignity, the desire to be treated well, is something that author Donna Hicks knows a few things about. In fact, Donna can be consider an expert on the subject and has written a new book on the matter – Dignity.  Although we may not be “experts” on the matter of dignity,  we do know a thing or two about book publicity and Donna approached us for her book promotion and publicity campaign just for that very reason.  We are pleased to alert the media to this important topic by providing a full book publicity campaign including radio, print and online publicity for Dignity.

The success of this book campaign soon became evident after our Radio Team was able to secure interviews on stations such as:

• NPR stations in Boston (WMBR) and Wisconsin
• Networks: Lifestyles Radio, USA Radio, Business Talk Radio
• Local Stations Nationwide

Success was further identified with opportunities secured by our National Media team, who secured Donna as an expert blogger for the PsychologyToday.com online blog where she has written several articles including an article focused on Why Dignity Matters on PsychologyToday.com. In addition the Newman Team also secured a Q&A with the Boston Globe titled Getting ahold of dignity, a spot in Orange County Register, Investors Business Daily,  and FoxNews.com where Donna discusses the motivating force behind all human interaction in a piece titled Dignity… We All Crave It, So Why Do We Keep Ignoring It? and many more.

Newman Communications continues with Dignity providing an on-going book publicity campaign for a very special topic.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Donna Hicks, PhD, is an Associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University. In addition to teaching conflict resolution at Harvard, Clark and Columbia Universities, Dr. Hicks has spent nearly two decades in the field of international conflict resolution facilitating dialogue between communities in conflict in the Middle East, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Cuba, and Northern Ireland. She was a consultant to the BBC where she co-facilitated a television series, Facing the Truth, with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, which aired in the United Kingdom and on BBC World in 2007.

Filed under: Psychology & Sociology, Site News | No Comments »