Touch (Bradford Books)
As director of the Touch Research Institute at the University of  Miami School of Medicine, Field has extensively studied and  documented touch. In this book-length essay on the importance of  touch, she argues that while skin is the largest sense organ of  the body, it is taken for granted and overlooked in terms of  research; it is also our most social sense in that it usually  involves another person. Field discusses different kinds of  touch e.g., tickling, inappropriate touching, touch that is  relaxing as well as anthropological findings. For example,  various studies show that Americans are some of the least  tactile people in the world. Field goes on to suggest that many  of the problem behaviors we see in this country might be traced  to the absence of touch, or, as she characterizes it, to "touch  hunger." In her enthusiasm for her subject, she offers a few  observations that strain credulity, as when she suggests that a  fetus may turn out to be a good swimmer because of being  stimulated in the womb by massage. Descriptions of the results  of touch deprivation, the mechanics of how touch operates in the  body, and various touch therapies and their benefits, especially  in terms of pain reduction, are detailed. An interesting,  well-written book with an extensive bibliography; recommended  for public and academic libraries. Margaret Cardwell, Christian  Brothers Univ., Memphis, TNCopyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.