The Mind-Body Interface in Somatization When Symptom Becomes Disease

The Mind-Body Interface in Somatization: When Symptom Becomes Disease represents a unique contribution to the clinician's tool chest for diagnosing and treating psychosomatic illness. Beginning with a discussion of contemporary disease classification, the authors clarify matters greatly by talking in terms of chronic and situational somatization, showing that chronic patients use illness as a way of life while situational patients somatically respond to existential crises, and revealing how both are rooted in the mind-body interface. Drawing on elements of personality theory, the authors discuss the core conflicts and character structure inherent in both types of somatization and suggest treatment options appropriately geared toward the needs of each. Book jacket.

W. Lynn Smith, PhD, ABPN, was an associate clinical professor of anesthesiology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and for more than forty years specialized in the diagnosis and treatment of somatizing syndromes. He founded and operated the first hospital-based neuropsychological laboratories in the United States, Where he did considerable research in personality, chronic pain, and psychosomatics. Patrick W. Conway, MDiv, has more than thirty years of experience in the fields of pastoral ministry and counseling. He has practiced as a psychotherapist in hospital-based psychiatric settings and is certified in the delivery of Dialectical Behavior Therapy. Jonatham O. Cole, MD, ABPN, was professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a senior consultant at McLean Psychiatric Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts.