The link between emotion and disease has long fascinated mankind. Famous seventeen century British physician, Thomas Willis (1621–1675) saw diabetes as a consequence of sadness or long sorrow (Willis, 1971). Though better known for describing what eventually became known as the " Circle of Willis " , he provided a fairly comprehensive description of the role of nervous system in disease (Encycl...

Mind-Body practices have become increasingly popular as components of psychotherapeutic and behavior medicine interventions. They comprise an array of different methods and techniques that use some sort of mental-behavioral training and involve the modulation of states of consciousness in order to influence bodily processes towards greater health, well-being and better functioning. Mind-body pr...

Psychosomatic research has advanced over the past decades in dealing with complex biopsychosocial phenomena and may provide new effective modalities of patient care. Among psychosocial variables affecting individual vulnerability, course, and outcome of any medical disease, the role of chronic stress (allostatic load/overload) has emerged as a crucial factor. Assessment strategies include the D...

Basing ourselves on the writings of Hans Jonas, we offer to psychosomatic medicine a philosophy of life that surmounts the mind-body dualism which has plagued Western thought since the origins of modern science in seventeenth century Europe. Any present-day account of reality must draw upon everything we know about the living and the non-living. Since we are living beings ourselves, we know wha...

In the launching of " Psychobiological Research in Psychosomatic Medicine " topic, we defined the principal goal of psychosomatic medicine as " the integration of biological, psychological, and social systems that may influence health or pathology, namely in chronic diseases and co-morbid physical and psychiatric disorders. " According to Fava et al. (1) in the interdisciplinary field of Psycho...