Review: A Manual of Acupuncture by Peter Deadman

Reviewed by Sacred Lotus on: 03/04/2013

After almost 15 years, I still regularly pick up this book to reread Peter Deadman's commentaries on the points. The experience almost always expands my understanding of Chinese Medicine. If you are serious about Acupuncture... this is the one book that you want to own. It is truly a treasure for the western Acupuncturist, and there is nothing else like it. It is also the primary Acupuncture textbook at many TCM/Acupuncture schools. 

A Manual of Acupuncture is comprehensive, concise, and very well researched.  It's also extremely well organized and the layout is consistent and simple throughout the book. The majority of the book consists of the 14 channels and individual Acupuncture point profiles, which is reason enough to own the book. In addition to this (including the extra points), students will find the area illustrations towards the back of the book invaluable for studying point/channel locations. There are major point illustrations of the eye, face, head, neck, arms, chest, abdomen, back, legs, and feet. 

The points begins with a name translation, Chinese characters, and any special attributes of the point (i.e. Luo-Connecting Point).

In addition, the point profiles include:

• Location
• Location Note
• Needling
• Actions
• Indications
• Commentary
• Combinations

The commentary is a combination of modern applications, gems of wisdom from the ancient texts, and often point combinations describing relationships with other points, channels, organs, etc.

The point locations are superbly illustrated... detailing the bones, muscles, tendons, skin, and distances for each point. Most of the illustrations include relevant proximal points that aid in locating the point in question, as well as learning the local points. 

On top of all this, the book is really a joy to read....

Go check out "A Manual of Acupuncture by Peter Deadman "...