Psychosomatic Medicine

OBJECTIVE: This article presents major concepts and research findings from the field of psychosomatic medicine that the authors believe should be taught to all medical students. METHOD: The authors asked senior scholars involved in psychosomatic medicine to summarize key findings in their respective fields.

Psychiatric education for the medical student addresses itself to students' and potential non-psychiatric physicians' needs in identifying and addressing the biopsychosocial aspects of patient care. The education is best based on the clinical method, using the extended interview to identify the relationship of environmental and social circumstances to the anlage, onset and reaction to illness in the patient. Within this pattern, genetic, epigenetic developmental patterns, earlier illness, behavioral and personality patterns are identified.

Psychiatric education for the medical student addresses itself to students' and potential non-psychiatric physicians' needs in identifying and addressing the biopsychosocial aspects of patient care. The education is best based on the clinical method, using the extended interview to identify the relationship of environmental and social circumstances to the anlage, onset and reaction to illness in the patient. Within this pattern, genetic, epigenetic developmental patterns, earlier illness, behavioral and personality patterns are identified.

The concept of "the unconscious" is considered the central concept of depth psychology. While the unconscious in Freud's conception consists essentially of repressed material and through conversion can result in psychosomatic illnesses, C. G. Jung saw in the "collective unconscious", which he discovered, the source of all psychic and spiritual development. Mediation between the collective unconscious and the conscious is effected by means of the "archetypes", whose function can be compared with the instincts.