dr john sarno who wrote books on psychological origins of chronic pain dies at 93 creditrumur incjune 23 2017john e sarno a doctor at new york university whose controversial books on the psychological origins of chronic pain sold over a million copies even while he was largely ignored or maligned by many of his medical peers died thursday in danbury conn he was 93his death at a hospital was confirmed by his daughter christina horner who said the cause was cardiac failure he had a home in nearby carmel ny as well as one in manhattanhe died a day before his 94th birthday and the release of all the rage saved by sarno a documentary film about himrevered by some as a saint and dismissed by others as a quack dr sarno maintained that most nontraumatic instances of chronic pain including back pain gastrointestinal disorders headaches and fibromyalgia are physical manifestations of deepseated psychological anxietieshis books including the bestselling healing back pain the mindbody connection became popular largely through word of mouth thousands of people have claimed to have been cured by reading themhis ideas inspired online support forums that doubled almost as shrines to him and he received glowing endorsements from celebrities like anne bancroft larry david and howard stern who dedicated his autobiography to the doctoranother who swore by him the financial writer and wall street trader edward siedle described dr sarno in a forbes column as the most brilliant doctor in america and unfortunately a largely neglected national treasurethe mainstream medical community however generally dismissed his theories as simplistic and unscientific and felt that he went too far in saying that emotional factors not only worsen chronic pain but also directly cause ithis views are definitely considered on the fringe said dr christopher gharibo a pain management specialist at the langone medical center at nyu his position was that almost all chronic pain is purely psychological and all in the head which i certainly disagree witheric sherman a psychotherapist who worked with dr sarno for many years recalled how dr sarnos colleagues would belittle him behind his back in lunchtime conversations at nyu even as some would visit him privately for their ailmentsit was him against the world yet he was never afraid of not fitting in dr sherman said he had a damn the torpedoes perspective on his work and was notoriously indifferent to others opinions of himdr sarno who specialized in rehabilitation medicine developed his theories over almost 50 years at nyu he gave the various forms of chronic pain the collective name tension myositis syndrome tms which apart from its psychological roots he attributed to mild oxygen deprivation caused by reduced blood flow to muscles and nerves throughout the bodyhe said most of his patients improved simply by learning and thinking about the psychosomatic connection to pain and that others recovered by journaling regularly and in some cases doing psychotherapydr sarno a healthconscious man who walked from his upper east side home to nyu