In New Possibilities: Unraveling the Mystery and Mastering Chronic Pain, psychologist and chronic pain expert Alan Stephen Weisser, PhD helps readers understand the extensive impact chronic pain has on their whole lives and whole selves. Giving some brief background about his own formative experience, dealing with a broken neck at age twelve, he explains why this full understanding of the entire impact of chronicity is the first critical step toward meaningful recovery. The book includes numerous patient vignettes to highlight a point or new approach, and short "takeaway" summaries to frame the content ahead, and, in the appendix, eleven self-assessment forms to help readers begin to see the physical, psychological, emotional, and personal impacts of chronic pain, and to better understand additional impacts of the treatment experience.

Readers will hear, for perhaps the first time, how valuable their anxiety and anger is; discover that they have an "existential immune system" that is protective of their whole self, not just their physical self; and learn how to engage and support it to improve their day-to-day experience and their effectiveness in dealing with the limitations of the health care system.

Finally, Dr. Weisser shares the comprehensive stories of several composite patients, desperate from years of living with pain who, through understanding the existential immune system, were able to take seemingly unsurmountable circumstances and transform their lives toward meaningful relief and a regained sense of self and purpose.