Michael Jawer is an emotion researcher and coauthor Marc Micozzi is adjunct professor of physiology and biophysics at Georgetown University School of Medicine. They begin with a quotation from the ancient seer Hippocrates who said: "It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know what sort of disease a person has." This thought sets the stage for their exploration of "emotional type" and its bearing on the 12 most common chronic illnesses: asthma, allergies, chronic fatigue, depression, fibromyalgia, hypertension, irritable bowel syndrome, migraines, post-traumatic stress disorder, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, and ulcers.

Jawer and Micozzi contend that our dynamic character or personality determine how we feel. The mind and the body are more closely connected than we might have thought. Taking a cue from James Hillman who saw the importance of boundaries, the authors present profiles of thin boundary people who are overly sensitive and reactive and thick boundary people who suppress or deny strong feelings but are able to maintain a calm demeanor. This leads Jawer and Micozzi to a discussion of decoding chronic illnesses through personality differences. There is no "one size fits all" treatment for these illnesses but seven alternative healing therapies have proven helpful — acupuncture, hypnosis biofeedback, meditation, yoga, guided imagery, and relaxation techniques.

Kat Duff, who is a chronic fatigue sufferer, has observed that "illness is not just something that happens to us, like a sudden sneeze or passing storm: it is a part of who we are all the time." Your Emotional Type is a wake-up call for those who are stuck in stubborn emotional prisons of fear, anger, resentment, regret, and self-destruction. According to this book, more inner work is one of the keys to sustainable health and pain relief.