Introduction

Abstract

The dualism of medicine has endured for decades, making holistic medicine once again a remote goal. The history of psychosomatic medicine and consultation-liaison psychiatry is, in essence, the history of psychiatry itself, with its many efforts to reunite with its medical progenitor. Both psychosomatic medicine and consultation-liaison psychiatry have at times been described as disciplines that evolved to restore humanism to a biological medicine, endeavoring to bridge the so-called 'mind-body problem', through an integration of psyche with soma. Psychiatry's distance from medicine was partly self-imposed through the asylum (alienist) system. Then psychoanalysis, while enriching our understanding of mental illness, abandoned its relationship to medicine. Many of these obstacles have begun to 'fade into the woodwork' and the utility of psychiatry rejoining medicine has begun to reap tangible benefits in the important care of the chronically ill, elderly, complex medically ill and others. The integrationist movement attracted those in pursuit of a resolution to the 'mind-body problem', namely psychosomatists and consultation-liaison practitioners. Gradually, evolution of the concept and clinical application of psychosomatic medicine has surmounted many challenges and hurdles, some more successfully than others. This introductory chapter provides a brief description about psychosomatic medicine. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)