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The symposium is opened by Dr. Otto Lowenstein's discussion of General Principles of Psychosomatic Relations of the Eye. He stresses the importance of the psychological situation for the processes of apperception, but primarily attempts to explain the 'psychosensory restitution phenomenon … the mechanism by which psychogenic symptoms which have not entered and cannot enter consciousness are brought about'. This phenomenon is illustrated in the eye by the sudden overcoming of the exhaustion of the pupillary light reflex when a psychological or sensory stimulus is interposed between two light stimuli. The center for this psychosensory restitution phenomenon is in the posterior part of the hypothalamus, and its effect is based partly on the liberation of adrenalin in the periphery, partly on central disinhibition of the parasympathetic.
In a paper, Psychosomatic Phenomena in Vision, Dr. Edward Hartman covers briefly 'all of the disturbances and diseases which may interfere with normal vision and which directly or indirectly can have been brought about or aggravated by changes in the mental status'. He relates an interesting case of intermittent diminution of hyperopia in a woman in her late forties. Fear that her son would marry produced an irregular hyperglycemia which caused swelling of the lens and a concomitant diminution of her usual hyperopia.
Dr. Bernard Kronenberg's paper, Methods of Determining Psychogenic Factors in Disturbances of Vision, describes a complicated apparatus and method for differentiating psychogenic and organic amaurosis. He also mentions characteristic field disturbances in hysteria.
Dr. Mark J. Schoenberg opens his Remarks on Psychosomatic Factors in Glaucomatous Hypertension with the following conclusions: '1. States of anxiety precipitate an increase of intraocular pressure in a certain percentage of glaucoma patients. 2. Some glaucomatous crises can be prevented by avoiding emotional upsets. 3. The diagnosis and treatment of glau