Abstract
The concept of the system is a fruitful one for psychosomatic medicine, since it is a model capable of representing psychological and physiological observations in a common framework. The psychosomatic development of the human “system” is seen as the passage through crises, development of new qualities, and transformation of simpler systems into more complex ones. Also relevant here are the concepts of the game as an important means of crisis management and the physician as participant observer in the patient's system. Case examples demonstrate the doctor's ability to recognize the disturbances in a patient's development, so that he may help him translate emotional symbols back into rational symbols.
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