Architectures of Healing - Cure through Sleep, Touch, and Travel

Today, many feel fettered by insomnia, untouchability, and restrictions on movement. Looking for a more holistic approach to bodily and mental health, this book explores architectures and elementary forms of care and healing in different time periods: from the powers of sleep, touch, and travel in Asklepieia, the ancient healing temples for divine dream encounters alleviating the pain of the ailing pilgrim; to the attentiveness carried through the healing touch from the establishment of Byzantine hospitals till our times; to a pilgrimage center in modern-day Lesbos on a personal search for healing from the traumas of war and patriarchy; to the liberating and self-preserving powers of sleep as a healing response to past and current systems of oppression. contents Asklepieia: Architectures of Healing, 400 BC to 200 by David Bergé The Healing Power of Sleep by Milica Ivić The Healing Touch by Antigone Samellas My Grandmother’s Desire to Heal: A Pilgrimage to Lesbos by Valentina Karga managing editor Dimitra Kondylatou