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A charming five year old boy was undergoing psychotherapeutic treatment owing to restlessness and lack of independence. In addition, he suffered from epilepsy, which began at the age of three. Since this time the boy had periodically fallen into epileptic states which could last almost a day. Conventional medicine alleviated the intensity of the fits, but did not prevent them from recurring. His parents sought help from an osteopathic physician, and after two years of treatment the frequency of the fits decreased to once or twice a month, and the fits manifested only as tongue clicking after which the boy fell asleep. After an additional year of psychotherapy this somatic response ceased as well, and has not returned.
A nine year old girl, who looked her age, spoke on a three or four year old level. She suffered enuresis and occasional encopresis.
A seven year old boy had an exceptionally unfavorable destiny because he had had surgery as an infant. Then, there were surgeries at three, five, and seven years. The last surgical intervention was undertaken due to an intestinal obstruction complicated by severe vascular and renal disease.
A very lovely, cheerful five year old girl had a genetic illness, which had been diagnosed in infancy. She frequently suffered illnesses accompanied by high fevers, and a cough that frightened all the doctors.
All of the children presented above are psychotherapeutic patients. These are only four examples of my patients from 5 to 9 years of age, who suffered somatic illnesses in addition to psychological manifestations of their problems. In this paper I would like to draw the attention of the psychotherapists to the somatic manifestations of the various conditions of poor health, that are exceptionally widely presented in children, as