I'm going to hijack your comment here and respond briefly to you to share a personal story and my battle with RSI.

I'll preface this by saying that I am a software engineer with a CS degree whose main hobbies include Melee and various other PC games. I don't believe in spiritual powers of any kind and believe myself to be a pretty rational person. I tell you this only to persuade you that I have the tools necessary to try to provide a rational analysis of my RSI story. I will ALSO preface this by saying that you should, first and foremost, always go to the doctor first.

Around August of 2017, I started developing a weird tingly, shaky feeling in my right wrist. I had started playing tennis at the time casually with some friends and had attributed it to bad form in tennis. So, I took a break. No biggie.

Not long after, the same feeling started to develop in my left wrist. Weird, as I don't play tennis with my left at all. Okay, maybe it's just programming/computer use to blame. At this point I become worried, so I went to a hand specialist and X-Rays looked fine. He put me on wrist splints for a few weeks and said to check back.

Three weeks went by, ask he prescribed, and nothing. He then put me on what I think was arthritis medicine and that did absolutely nothing. At this point, I go to a second hand specialist for a second opinion. He does X-Rays, looks fine. He prescribes me to see an Occupational Therapist and then weeks later, a Physical Therapist. None of it works. Still, I keep doing the daily exercises just to build strength.

At this point he prescribes an MRI for each wrist. I additionally ask for an MRI of my neck to make to rule out anything wrong in the cervical spine. After the three grueling MRIs, results come back. All normal. At this point, we are 6 months in.

I'm glossing over a lot of it, but it was a dark time for sure. I was going mad. I had exhausted all options for doctors and not only is nothing working, but they don't even have the slightest idea of what is happening. That was perhaps the most troubling part. Eventually, I come across a resource online that points to Sarno's book.

Upon reading the first chapter, I immediately sympathize with all of it. Having exhausted all traditionally scientific and rational options for nearly a year now, what could I lose by trying it?

For me, it didn't take 2 weeks. It was more like 2 months. But I got better, completely. I should also mention that at the time the pain started to arise was when I was starting a new job and had just moved back in with my parents temporarily. It wasn't until after I read the book that I connected the dots. All the while, I figured it was just due to my occupation and hobbies. It wasn't really until after I moved back out and things started to settle at work that my wrist issues completely went away.

I don't subscribe to every page of Sarno's book, but my story, and Otto's, are far from an outlier. Unless you are to claim that Sarno is making up his numbers, it is irresponsible to completely disregard his success rate.

Second, most of the substantive aspects of this theory can be captured in the existing research on general somantic symptom disorders, the physical pain caused from stress broadly, and hypochondria.

I don't believe Otto or I are hypochondriacs. I do believe, and science has shown, that stress can amplify symptoms. Where Sarno differs, however, is that he believes emotions have a causal effect.

Third, the lack of scientific rigor in studies means there is ample room to argue that those who recover are experiencing regression to the mean or a placebo effect.

Placebos are indeed really powerful but the key difference, and why Sarno's work is not placebo, is that the effects are permanent. Placebos on the other hand, are temporary and fade once the user figures out that it was a placebo.

Fourth, the community of doctors who recommend TMS treatment are usually on the experimental fringe, health 'gurus' who sell lots of books, or people like Dr. Oz, all of whom routinely disregard evidence-based solutions.

I don't mean to call you a liar, but I have not found this to be true at all... Most people who subscribe to Sarno's work have no affiliation of any kind to any organization. If anything, what the book says to do is NOT spend money on fancy equipment or fake medicine. Maybe someone out there is exploiting his work, but all he really says it to just read the book. In fact, if anyone is actually interested, I will personally buy you the book (or audiobook). And if you go to any TMS forum, they will too. It's a $10 book that doesn't advertise a single thing.

I will just say this: While Sarno's method isn't measurable by a scientific instrument, he has decades of case studies to back it up, and that is scientific. I haven't found some ulterior or nefarious motive behind any of it and worst case, you're down $10 bucks and your situation stays the same. I also don't blame your skepticism AT ALL. In fact, if I never went through it myself, knowing myself, I would 100% call bullshit as well lol.