This very complete review of symbolic interpretations of the asthma syndrome cannot but have a bewildering effect on the reader. All the historical, ideological

and psychogenic concepts are there. To name only a few: cell memory, psychic allergy, the trauma of birth, smothering at the breast, the vector approach, erotization of the turbinates and the symptom as an upwards displaced manifestation of unmastered flatus. However, critical discussion as well as case material is absent. A redundance of interpretation obscures the already overdetermined nature of the symptom, thus conflicting with the discipline of psychosomatic research.