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This is a collection of papers written individually or collectively by the staff of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis since 1933 on the psychoanalytic study of patients suffering from psychosomatic disorders. Most of these papers have been published elsewhere; a very few appear in print for the first time; some like the symposium on Psychological Factors in Gastro-Intestinal Disturbances,1 are classic landmarks in the history of psychosomatic research.
The book begins with a brief introduction by Alexander in which he presents concisely the fundamental postulates and operational concepts underlying psychosomatic research. The thirty-four papers which follow are divided into eight parts, the first, General Principles, containing seven papers covering some important theoretical considerations. The first paper, Fundamental Concepts of Psychosomatic Research, by Alexander, presents a concise, clear-cut distinction in the psychological and physiological difference between conversion symptoms and vegetative neurosis. In this section are two other important papers, one by French, Physiology and Behavior