Pollock reviews the literature concerning the specificity concept of psychosomatic illness. He presents data which seem to indicate that specificity was at one time very implausible: namely, data were produced which suggested that specificity does not exist in regard to psychosomatic illness. Actually, the bulk of this article presents the opposite point of view: specificity does exist in psychosomatic illness, but the interrelating factors are much more complicated than heretofore seen. He discusses briefly a fascinating research project on children with which he expects to substantiate this view.