Introduction

Abstract

Psychosomatic research is concerned with the problems of ascertaining, defining and explaining the interaction of phenomena belonging to the psychic and somatic systems of reference. Most of the contributions can be grouped in three main areas: research based on clinical data, the experimental approach of connections between physiological and psychological data and the elaboration of conceptual tools permitting to deal with the relationship between psychic and somatic phenomena. A restricted survey of the principal contributions and new perspectives in each of these areas is offered. We are far from a unifying und integrating theory of psychosomatic interaction, but the field of psychosomatic research remains an exciting challenge, because it embraces the problems of life and human nature itself.

Continuing Friendship in the Face of European Destruction and European Construction: The European Conference on Psychosomatic Research

“…Europe's borders were open. In this situation the ECPR developed into a European success story as has been described by Pierloot [3] and by Freyberger [4]. …”