The infections must be treated “medically,” but they will continue to recur if they are not treated psychologically as well.

I came upon psychosomatic medicine well along in my professional career, when I began to see large numbers of people suffering from those common but sometimes mysterious conditions associated with bodily pain, primarily of the low back, neck, trunk, and limbs. I did not know these disorders were psychosomatic. I had not trained in psychiatry or psy

Such treatment may indeed modify the symptoms, but that is not the same thing as curing the disorder.

Stress is another matter. Most people will accept the idea of stress, finding it less threatening because they think of stress as stemming from things “out there” that are doing something to you, so it does not imply some personal defect. Much of the research in psychology today has to do with the effects of stress in both health and illness. For e

the concept that we humans have two minds is very important to an understanding of TMS. It is clear that we are two different people—one of them conscious and the other unconscious. How did Breuer and Freud see the split mind? In Studies on Hysteria the unconscious is described as a shadowy place inhabited by ideas that were not strong enough to be

The reason for this epidemic is the stubborn resistance of the medical profession to even consider the likelihood of mindbody disorders.

served the same purpose, that is, as a defense against powerful emotions in the unconscious that were striving to come to consciousness, or were being repressed because of their emotionally painful nature.

The question invariably arises, “Aren’t allergic reactions caused by allergens, like grass pollens?” The answer is yes, but such allergens are merely triggers. They are foreign substances, and the immune system is designed to repel foreign invaders. However, not everyone reacts to grass pollens. If your unconscious mind causes your immune system to

Their diagnoses are based on the therapeutic methods they employ. They are, therefore, understandably loath to consider another diagnosis, particularly one that is psychosomatic.