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Three main events were held during 2012. In February, a study day focused on the use in psychotherapy of body relaxation as a preliminary to psychosomatic psychotherapies. For some patients with serious difficulties in mentalizing, it is recommended to build up a self psychic image using body therapies; starting with the body helps to construct a mental apparatus and strengthen defenses. Dr. Myriam Brun-Valicon, SPI vice-chair, Dr. Pierre Bonnardot, vice-chair of the French Society of Psychosomatic Medicine, and Eric Hadjeri and Thierry Villac, psychotherapists, gave presentations that are now available on the SPI websites:
On 31 March, the study day was devoted to the role of pain in the psychosomatic equilibrium of somatic patients. Jean Benjamin Stora (Chairman of the SPI, Endocrinology Service) gave a presentation on the role of pain, illustrated by case material; Dr. F. Tafforeau and Dr. Joseph Lore spoke on the neurophysiology and clinical approaches to pain; and psychotherapist Nadine Henri gave a presentation on the incidence of pathological mourning in chronic pain.
Finally, every year SPI organizes a symposium on integrative psychosomatics with a medical service. This year, Prof. Patrice Debré, Head of the Department of Immunology Ap-Hp, unité Inserm UMR-S 945, gave a presentation entitled “From Passive Defense to the Targeted Attack: The Comparative Evolution of Immunology.” Dr. Frédérique Tafforeau used a psycho-neuro-immunological approach with a contribution linking the immune system and the central nervous system. Dr. Tafforeau is a doctor in the intensive-care unit of Vannes Hospital and a member of the association “La cause des bébés,” chaired by Myriam Szejer. She is involved in research integrating epigenetics, the mental apparatus, and the central nervous system. Jean Benjamin Stora chaired the symposium “Hypothesis of Interrelationships between the Immune an