John E. Sarno, MD

John E. Sarno (June 23, 1923 – June 22, 2017) was an American physician and professor of rehabilitation medicine at New York University School of Medicine, best known for pioneering the theory of Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS), a psychosomatic disorder in which repressed emotions, particularly unconscious rage, manifest as chronic musculoskeletal pain such as backaches, without structural damage. He argued that the brain creates these symptoms as a distraction from psychological distress, a concept he detailed in several bestselling books that have sold millions of copies and influenced a dedicated following among patients seeking alternatives to conventional treatments.

Born John Ernest Sarno Jr. in Williamsburg, Brooklyn , Sarno graduated with an M.D. from Columbia University in 1950. After a decade in family practice in Fishkill, New York , he pursued training in physical medicine and rehabilitation at NYU, joining the faculty and becoming an attending physician at the Howard A. Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, where he served as head of the outpatient department . His interest in chronic pain emerged from observing patients with persistent back issues despite negative imaging and failed surgeries, leading him to explore psychosomatic origins in the 1970s .

Sarno's seminal works include Mind Over Back Pain (1982), Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection (1991), The Mindbody Prescription: Healing the Body, Healing the Pain (1998), and The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders (2006), in which he expanded TMS to encompass conditions like fibromyalgia , gastrointestinal disorders, and repetitive strain injuries. His treatment protocol emphasized patient education on the mind-body link, daily journaling to uncover repressed emotions, and resuming normal activities without physical therapy or medication, claiming high success rates based on clinical observations. While these ideas drew praise from celebrities like Howard Stern and Larry David , and inspired testimonials from thousands, they faced sharp criticism from the medical establishment for lacking randomized controlled trials and relying on outdated Freudian principles.

Sarno's legacy endures on the fringes of medicine , with his books continuing to offer hope to those disillusioned by traditional interventions, though mainstream experts stress the need for evidence-based approaches to pain management . He died of cardiac failure in Danbury, Connecticut , leaving behind his wife, Martha, and their children.

John E. Sarno was born on June 23, 1923, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn , New York, to Lithuanian Jewish parents, John Ernest Sarno, a printing press worker, and the former Delia Matzkin, a homemaker.

Sarno married Penny Patt in the 1950s, and the couple had three children: Lindianne, David , and Lauren . They divorced in 1966. He remarried Martha Lamarque in 1967, with whom he had a daughter, Christina Sarno Horner, resulting in a total of four children.

John E. Sarno attended New York City public schools before enrolling at Kalamazoo College in Michigan in 1940, where he completed his undergraduate studies in 1943. Upon graduation, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Medical Department and served as a surgical technician in field hospitals across Europe during World War II from 1943 to 1946. His duties included treating trauma cases in Normandy , Belgium , and Germany between October 1944 and May 1945.

After the war, Sarno enrolled at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1946 and earned his M.D. degree in 1950. He then completed a rotating internship at the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital (Marine Hospital) on Staten Island from 1950 to 1951.

Sarno later pursued residency training in rehabilitation medicine at New York University's Rusk Institute, where he spent initial months in the program in the early 1960s before fully completing his residency by 1965.