RamblemuseSM Annotated Massage Bibliography Gateway
This bibliography is offered for those desiring to find resources for self-directed learning to augment their formal coursework. The content includes resources for anatomy, physiology and massage technique, but also ranges out into the broader cultural and psychological implications and impacts of touch and body identity.
The bibliography is organized by author within categories. A category reselection window at the top of the bibliography display page duplicates the index below. Category selection is done on the web-server, so you get sent what you ask for. Within your browser, the bibliography display is first created with book descriptions expanded. For Javascript enabled browsers, the descriptions will be collapsed just after loading the page. Hovering a mouse over the triangle wedge next to "description" will temporarily float the hidden description over the underlying page. Clicking on the wedge will open or close the description. Browsers without Javascript enabled simply get the whole enchilada by default.
Bibliography Index
Comments
Back in 1999, I put together an earlier bibliography because I felt there should be guidance rather than requirements in learning matters of interest. A hand up rather than a barrier. I have also long been interested in the sociological implications of touch and embodiment — massage as a transformative activity rather than just one more meal-ticket occupation. The content reflects this interest. What Margaret Wheatley talks about in terms of simple/meaningful conversation, I also look at in terms of simple touch. We seem too often to become so enraptured with the next technique that we lose sight of this basic need of connection between embodied humans.
The main bibliography has been created in affiliation with Amazon.com. Their web services have allowed me to obtain book information in a computer massageable format and build and maintain this bibliography in far less time than would otherwise have been required. In most cases Amazon provides prompt book service directly or through 3rd party vendors. For a few books from small niche publishers or for reports published by the National Academy Press, the item may be much more readily available directly from the publisher than via Amazon's resources. This mainly applies to books published by
- Curties-Overzet Publications
- IAHE/Upledger
- Megabooks, Inc
- National Academy Press
- OMERI (Orthopedic Massage Education and Research Institute)
- Sohnen-Moe Associates, Inc.
This rebirth of the bibliography is just up as of late September 2006. Its content, particularly book descriptions and categorization, is still being refined. This version follows on an earlier version that I implemented in the late 1990's for the McKinnon Institute. It leverages work I've done with XML, XSLT, and the Library of Congress's MODS-XML bibliography format for the Massage Medical Applications Project (MMAP).
Resources
Not all worthwhile publications are in the formal publication circuit. Here's a few additional resources.
- Bodywork Wiki — This is a quite recently started Wiki specific to massage and bodywork. It is kept under editorial control sufficient to maintain its applicability (once enough has been written) to the needs of practitioners.
- Daybreak Institute — Daybreak Institue provides information on geriatric massage.
- Everflowing — Founded by Irene Smith, everflowing has material on end-of-life-care.
- Information for People — Information for people is a source of information from the Hospital Based Massage Network and on massage in health care facilities.
- Inc Magazine has resource section for One-Person Businesses. This includes a subsection on writing a business plan.
- Despite some foot-dragging by some massage organizatons, distance education will inevitably and increasingly be used to teach some of the didactic parts of massage curricula. Here's my own Annotated List of Distance Education Resources (ALDER).