At the beginning of the 21st century, an integration of the least material element of human beings, namely the psyche or, to be more precise, the psychic apparatus, into medical knowledge and clinical expertise is long overdue. How do the mind and the body communicate? Could the mind cause diseases? This book answers these questions and proposes a comprehensive approach for doctors and psychotherapists, those who are treating somatic patients whether in hospitals or private practice. It also raises awareness among readers with an interest in new developments and fresh approaches to diseases and patients. The work demonstrates the interrelations between mind and body with reference to various scientific disciplines.
Contents: Introduction; Objectives and methodological approach; 1) Emotions and traumas; 2) The economic viewpoint and mentalisation processes; 3) Amanda, Arnaud, Alice, Sandrine and Emma–somatisations and regressions; 4) Adrienne and Sanjay–progressive disorganisation and somatisations: the emergence of irreversible unstable equilibrium; 5) The psychotherapy of somatic patients–the case of Nina, a woman from the Maghreb; Bibliography; Appendices, Notes. "We...have reason to be grateful to Professor Stora for this pioneering volume, in which he makes a first neuro-psychoanalytic foray into the fascinating and important field of psychosomatic medicine. In this spirit, I unequivocally recommend his work to prospective readers, and encourage his colleagues to take up the many scientific challenges he here poses for them."
-- From the foreword by Mark Solms About the Author: Jean Benjamin Stora is a psychosomatician and psychoanalyst. He was President of the Pierre Marty Institute of Psychosomatics from 1989 to 1992 and the Société Française de Médecine Psychosomatique from 2000 to 2002. He is a consultant in psychosomatics at the teaching hospital of La Pitié-Salpêtrière, working in the endocrinology unit and the centre for prevention of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease. | 
