Alain Cassourra is an osteopath physician working at Hôpital Saint-Louis, in Paris. He is a lecturer in manual medicine and osteopathy at the University of Bobigny (near Paris).

The body reveals itself when it is touched. Osteopathy is not just an auxiliary technique used to treat mechanical dysfunctions. It is a fully-fledged branch of medicine that uses manual manipulation to unblock the patient by accessing various different dimensions — physical, emotional and energetic — of the body.
The body has a memory: it “talks” to us through its joints and tissues when these become painful. Physical blockages are often the reflection of emotional knots that are deeply embedded in the body and that osteopaths, using the special tool that is their hands, are able to feel and treat.
And so, through the treatment of physical suffering, this unconventional branch of medicine, which though recognised remains controversial, can access psychic suffering and has the means to appease it.
This idea, which is far from obvious for someone with a scientific background, is the result of deep reflection, backed by living examples, enriched by encounters and exchanges with other — primarily Asian — medical traditions. This book recounts those experiences while inciting readers to view the body differently.


• From classical medicine to osteopathy: the itinerary of a physician with a classic Western scientific background who became an osteopath and discovered the great wealth of the bodily dimension and the need to listen closely to what the body can tell us.

• From the body to the psyche, a new look at our aches and pains and what they mean.