Psychosomatic Specificity. Volume I, Experimental Study and Results: Edited by Franz Alexander, M.D., Thomas M. French, M.D., George H. Pollock, M.D. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1968. 263 pp.

This work presents the historical background, the methodology, and the statistical findings of the fourteen years of research in psychosomatic medicine done by Franz Alexander and his co-workers at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. The operational hypothesis tested was that 'a patient with vulnerability of a specific organ or somatic system and a characteristic psychodynamic constellation develops the corresponding disease when the turn of events in his life is suited to mobilize his earlier established central conflict and break down his primary defenses against it'.

The authors present brief psychodynamic formulations for the seven diseases under study; namely bronchial asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis, essential hypertension, neurodermatitis, thyrotoxicosis, and duodenal-peptic ulcer. The study was aimed at testing the ability to diagnose the seven diseases through psychoanalytic anamnesis, sufficiently detailed to elicit basic psychodynamic material. The authors point out that this study has allowed them to modify and improve their previous formulations, and they promise an additional volume which will detail these formulations. The promise of an additional volume may account for the fact that less than thirty pages (three small chapters) are devoted to general historical comments, summaries, conclusions, and further theoretical formulations. The remainder of the book is devoted to reviewing some of the statistical and methodological problems.