Abstract
While philosophers and psychologists continue to argue about the possible interactions of body and mind, practical doctors have to get on and treat patients in most of whom somatic disease and psychological states affect each other. Three separate situations can be described. There is, first, the influence of somatic diseases on the mind, as in cerebral disease and toxic-confusional states. These are universally recognised by all doctors and need no further discussion. Secondly, there are the somatic symptoms of anxiety, hysteria and depression such as, respectively, palpitations, paralyses and anorexia. Their reality cannot be denied, although, in the absence of any underlying structural lesion, they are often dismissed as ‘functional’. It is not clear whether the word ‘functional’ is always used as it should be in both the physiological and the psychological senses.
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© 1978 Raghu N. Gaind and Barbara L. Hudson
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Pond, D.A. (1978). Is the Term ‘Psychosomatic’ Still of any Value?. In: Current Themes in Psychiatry 1. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-03642-4_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-03642-4_10
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-03644-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-03642-4
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