The part that social and emotional life plays in the response to stress and the course of illness has been recognized for ages. But the obstacles to the teaching of a “psychosomatic approach” to health and disease persist. This paper explores briefly the attitudinal, definitional, historical and structural factors which present as problems in attempts to teach a psychosomatic approach to medical diagnosis and practice. If there is a body of knowledge rightfully called psychosomatic medicine, and if it is important to appreciate, understand and utilize the psychosomatic approach in everyday clinical work with the whole patient, then new ways must be explored to accomplish this task. Suggestions are offered towards this objective.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
LipowskiZJ: Introduction: Current trends in psychosomatic medicine. Int J Psychiat in Med5:303–308, 1974
2.
WeissJH: The current state of the concept of a psychosomatic disorder. Int J Psychiat in Med5:473–82, 1974
3.
CobbS: Epilogue: Meditations on psychosomatic medicine. Int J Psychiat in Med6:331–36, 1975
4.
Introductory statement. Psychosom Med1:1, 1939
5.
DunbarF: Mind and Body: Psychosomatic Medicine. New York, Random House, 1947
6.
AlexanderF: Psychosomatic Medicine. New York, Norton, 1950
7.
WittkowerEDCleghornJMLipowskiZJ: A global survey of psychosomatic medicine. Int J Psychiat7:499–516, 1969
8.
LipowskiZJ: Review of consultation psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine: I. General principles. Psychosom Med29:153–71, 1967
9.
LipowskiZJ: Review of consultation psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine: II. Clinical aspects. Psychosom Med29:201–24, 1967
10.
LipowskiZJ: Review of consultation psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine: III. Theoretical issues. Psychosom Med30:395–422, 1968
11.
StainbrookE: Behavioral biology in medicine. Int J Psychiat in Med2:181–88, 1971
Prefatory note: A statement of purpose. Int J Psychiat in Med1:1–2, 1970
14.
MonroeRRKleeCDBrodyEB, (eds): Psychiatric Epidemiology and Mental Health Planning. Psychiatric Research Reports of the American Psychiatric Association, Washington, DC, 1967
15.
SeguinCA: Introduction to Psychosomatic Medicine. New York, International Universities Press, 1950, p 318
16.
HammanL: The relationship of psychiatry to internal medicine. Ment Hyg23:177–89, 1939
17.
DuffRSHollingsheadAB: Sickness and Society. New York, Harper & Row, 1968
18.
MumfordE: Interns: From Students to Physicians. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1970
19.
WebsterTG: Learning Processes in physician education: Integrating psyche and soma. Int J Psychiat in Med2:67–80, 1971
20.
PelligrinoED: Educating the humanist physician: An ancient ideal reconsidered. JAMA227:1288–294, 1974
21.
MoosRHYalomID: Medical students' attitudes toward psychiatry and psychiatrists. Ment Hyg50:246–56, 1966
22.
LightD: The impact of medical school on future psychiatrists. Amer J Psychiat132:607–610, 1975
23.
RosenBM: Identification of emotional disturbance in patients seen in general medical clinics. Hosp Comm Psychiat23:364, 1972
24.
MaguireGP: Psychiatric morbidity and referral on two general medical wards. Brit Med J1:268, 1974
25.
LipsittDR: Medical and psychological characteristics of “crocks.”Int J Psychiat in Med1:15–26, 1970
26.
EngelGL: Selection of clinical material in psychosomatic medicine: The need for a new physiology. Psychosom Med16:368, 1954
27.
SchmaleAH: Relationship of separation and depression to disease: A report on a hospitalized medical population. Psychosom Med20:4, 1958
28.
GreeneWA: Early object relations, somatic, affective and personal: An inquiry into the physiology of the mother-child unit. J Nerv Ment Dis126:225, 1958
29.
LipowskiZJ: Physical illness, the individual and the coping process. Int J Psychiat in Med1:91–102, 1970
