The method of scientific investigation used in this book and explained in its first chapter is the method described by Isaac Newton in his book The Principia, which is continually used by him and all other physicists but not by psychologists. The great truth exposed by using this method to understand migraine is that the head pain and the associated symptoms are automatic responses created by evolution and controlled unconsciously to realize self-protection and survival. This fact is also derived from Freud's and Jung's works by using Newton's method. It is also shown that the results of research on the physiological processes that are related to the production of headache do not make the above etiology impossible but rather suggest it. A migraineur has a problem that harms his/her interests seriously, but he/she does not deal with it adequately for various reasons and represses it in some measure. His/her unconscious produces symptoms that carry analogic messages urging him/her to resolve that problem and also punish him/her for not doing that. Sometimes a symptom is so timely and intense that it prevents a self-harming action. Thus, headache means: "Get wise; stop making that mistake; stop hurting yourself!" Eye pain means: "Don't ignore the events that hurt you!" Nausea and vomiting mean: "Don't tolerate ugly events!" The other symptoms too carry self-protective messages related to the patient's life experiences.

Psychotherapy consists of making a patient consciously understand and deal adequately with the problem that his/her unconscious wishes him/her to resolve so that the symptoms become unneeded as message carriers. Evidently, this method necessitates cooperation with the unconscious, whereas all existing therapies combat its products, i.e., the symptoms, and thereby make the symptoms all the more needed. A migraineur can do this work with or without the help of a therapist who is familiar with this method. Dreams too are automatic responses that serve to realize self-protection and survival and carry more diagnostic and therapeutic information and ideas compared to symptoms. Also, dreams can be induced that deal with consciously chosen issues. Therefore symptoms and dreams are interpreted together, as explained in this book. This theory predicts a patients' relevant life experiences in general terms, facilitates the discovery of their particulars, explains the causes, meanings, and functions of his/her symptoms and dreams, and realizes very fast and definitive cures. More than 120 headache and facial pain sufferers have been cured in very short times using this method, as illustrated by 50 original case histories

This book is published for the use of headache patients and their therapists and contains the relevant chapters of my earlier book COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL CYBERNETICS OF SYMPTOMS, DREAMS, LATERALIZATION: THEORY, INTERPRETATION, THERAPY. This earlier book exposes the adaptive and self-protective functions of the most conspicuous automatic responses such as pain, fear, anxiety, repression, all symptoms of primary mental disorders, response to stage and screen plays, laughter and tears, structural responses such as cerebral lateralization, and so forth. The fact that all those phenomena can be explained, predicted, and controlled on the basis of the same principles proves that those principles reflect the truth.

Whereas my previous books about Dramatherapy tended to be addressed mainly to other arts therapists, this one is intended for psychotherapists and counsellors of all kinds. Indeed, I hope that it will attract a range of readers not usually aimed at in books about dramatherapy - actors, audience-members, and all interested in theatre and the interface between psychology and the arts.

The aim of Healing Theatre: How Plays Changes Lives is to give dramatherapy a new dimension by combining life-experience with professional expertise in a way not attempted before. I have aimed at accessibility, addressing those whose knowledge of dramatherapy is not extensive, and those already practising it, thus adding to the literature by demonstrating the creative relationship which exists between the arts therapies and more conventional approaches; a relationship embodied in my own work over the years.

To conclude: my book records the development of my personal conviction about the healing power of theatre. It differs from other books because of its concern with the experience of existential transformation which is theatre's unique gift. Thus it moves outwards from applied drama (i.e. the therapeutic use of dramatic approached) to theatre itself, and to what exactly makes it heal. No other book, so far as I know, has actually gone so far to ask actors the question, Why do you Act?

The method of scientific investigation used in this book and explained in its first chapter is the method described by Isaac Newton in his book The Principia, which is continually used by him and all other physicists but not by psychologists. The great truth exposed by using this method to understand migraine is that the head pain and the associated symptoms are automatic responses created by evolution and controlled unconsciously to realize self-protection and survival. This fact is also derived from Freud's and Jung's works by using Newton's method. It is also shown that the results of research on the physiological processes that are related to the production of headache do not make the above etiology impossible but rather suggest it. A migraineur has a problem that harms his/her interests seriously, but he/she does not deal with it adequately for various reasons and represses it in some measure. His/her unconscious produces symptoms that carry analogic messages urging him/her to resolve that problem and also punish him/her for not doing that. Sometimes a symptom is so timely and intense that it prevents a self-harming action. Thus, headache means: "Get wise; stop making that mistake; stop hurting yourself!" Eye pain means: "Don't ignore the events that hurt you!" Nausea and vomiting mean: "Don't tolerate ugly events!" The other symptoms too carry self-protective messages related to the patient's life experiences.

Psychotherapy consists of making a patient consciously understand and deal adequately with the problem that his/her unconscious wishes him/her to resolve so that the symptoms become unneeded as message carriers. Evidently, this method necessitates cooperation with the unconscious, whereas all existing therapies combat its products, i.e., the symptoms, and thereby make the symptoms all the more needed. A migraineur can do this work with or without the help of a therapist who is familiar with this method. Dreams too are automatic responses that serve to realize self-protection and survival and carry more diagnostic and therapeutic information and ideas compared to symptoms. Also, dreams can be induced that deal with consciously chosen issues. Therefore symptoms and dreams are interpreted together, as explained in this book. This theory predicts a patients' relevant life experiences in general terms, facilitates the discovery of their particulars, explains the causes, meanings, and functions of his/her symptoms and dreams, and realizes very fast and definitive cures. More than 120 headache and facial pain sufferers have been cured in very short times using this method, as illustrated by 50 original case histories

This book is published for the use of headache patients and their therapists and contains the relevant chapters of my earlier book COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL CYBERNETICS OF SYMPTOMS, DREAMS, LATERALIZATION: THEORY, INTERPRETATION, THERAPY. This earlier book exposes the adaptive and self-protective functions of the most conspicuous automatic responses such as pain, fear, anxiety, repression, all symptoms of primary mental disorders, response to stage and screen plays, laughter and tears, structural responses such as cerebral lateralization, and so forth. The fact that all those phenomena can be explained, predicted, and controlled on the basis of the same principles proves that those principles reflect the truth.

This book deals with automatic responses such as pain, fear, anxiety, the symptoms of primary mental disorders, dreams, repression, hypnosis, laughter, tears, response to stage and screen plays, structural responses such as cerebral lateralization, and so forth. The reason why all those phenomena are studied together is that, according to the theory presented in this book, all such automatic responses have adaptive, self-protective functions that contribute to the realization of survival, and that most of them seek to protect not only all sorts of interests and the physical health of the person but also, and primarily, his or her mental health. In reality, this statement about the general function of automatic responses is almost a tautology, because they all are created by evolution, and evolution is directed to realize adaptation, success, and survival; moreover, proper mental functioning is necessary for realizing survival. Therefore the real problem is to understand the particular self-protective functions of particular automatisms and how they discharge those functions, not that they have such functions. Despite this fact, for example, the symptoms of primary mental disorders are considered by the authors of the DSM and by everyone else as harmful manifestations of unknown dysfunctions, and their self-protective functions are totally ignored. It is shown in this book that the harmfulness of symptoms is due to their side effects.

Mental disorders, dreams, and other automatic responses are insufficiently, or even not at all, understood, because (1) mental processes cannot be observed and are even unconscious to a great extent, (2) the experimental causation of mental disorders is ethically unfeasible, and (3) psychologists do not try to construct theories because they do not know how to do it and are also discouraged by the fact that Freud's theories turned out to be unscientific.

Newton explained the method that he used in constructing his theory of mechanics thus: "Propositions [that constitute the basic principles of theories] are deduced from the phenomena and made general through induction." He integrated such "propositions" with empirical and semi-empirical knowledge to explain and predict many mechanical phenomena and thus proved that his propositions were correct. This is the method used in this book to construct a theory of automatic responses and to test it.

A theory is empirically proved to be correct, or viable, by its usefulness in explaining, predicting, and controlling the phenomena in its field of validity. In this book, (a) the functions of several automatisms that are either discovered through research or are considered normal components of everyday behavior are explained on the basis of the theory, (b) the meanings and functions of about 500 symptoms and 200 dreams are likewise explained in detail, (c) the life experiences of those who produced them are predicted in general terms, (d) the particulars of those experiences are exposed, (e) the causal relations between those experiences and the resulting automatisms are explained, and (f) many examples of eliminating the symptoms and their harmful side consequences are presented, which constitute successful cases of psychotherapy. All these detailed explanations, predictions, and controls of particular phenomena constitute more than 2000 empirical proofs of the theory about the general function of automatisms. No other theory in the history of science has been put forth with so many empirical proofs. Future generations will have difficulty in understanding why the functions of automatic responses have not been understood earlier.