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Psychosomatic medicine without the label has been practiced since very ancient times, but it was only in 1939-1940 that psychosomatic medicine was officially born as a recognized discipline, with the formation of a national organization and a journal. I belonged to the generation of psychiatrists then recently graduated from medical school and swept with enthusiasm by the high promise of this movement, dominated as it was by some of the more charismatic figures in psychoanalysis. The results of the ensuing decade were so disappointing as to be experienced as disastrous. There were many failures and deaths of hospitalized patients suffering from such psychosomatic diseases as ulcerative colitis. Something was unmistakably wrong. The predominant method of treatment was that of classical psychoanalysis, conduced mainly by young psychiatrists themselves in similar personal psychoanalysis and supervision. The conclusion was that this form of treatment was a fatal error.
By 1949-1950, I had become drawn to the complex mind-body problem through a group of patients suffering from collagen or connective tissue diseases; they appeared to be literally destroying themselves with their diseases. They also interested me because of the possible connection between the physical symptoms and emotional disturbances. These patients were on a medical research service where the author was a liaison psychiatrist. They were from all parts of the country and had come expressly to receive the newest form of treatment, namely, steroid therapy. This consisted of cortisone-ACTH