Search

What are the typical aspects of a therapeutic relation, how does it develop and in what manner might it influence the therapeutic result? Encounter as therapy may open the chance to initiate self regulating forces that seem to be blocked by the 'disease'. The term 'disease' implicates the term 'therapy'. A real encounter demands trust and responsibility, unselfishness and readiness for risks from all persons involved (physicians and/or therapists as well as patients). The opposite terms, lack of trust, lack of responsibility, selfishness and lacking readiness for a risk mark the other side of the encounter, of the process of interaction. Encounter or the process of interaction always take place in time and space while persons define a situation. Rules and roles, patterns and exceptions are further structural characteristics of a situation.

These questions are addressed: What does it mean to be a physician, and how can a physician continue his education? Where is his place in family crises? The psychosomatic point of view of diseases is not a specialty, but a concept, a basic attitude, a global principle encompassing all medical specialties. In particular, disorders of relations and basic needs are discussed in the context of a novel therapeutic access. The doctor as a 'drug' corresponds to a therapeutic alliance, also in group work. The problems of communication, even as a flash, influence the language of the patient and the physician. In the tension between anxiety and trust, psychosomatic thinking and medical intervention come to life also for the experience of disease and in the search for a meaning. The physician is not as much an achiever than a provider.

Psychosocial dynamics within the family are first touched upon. Relationships between brothers and sisters play a special part in this respect, as do other factors related to personality development. It is one of the special tasks of the general practitioner to be alert to the first signs of emotional disturbances, for he is in an ideal position to intervene before more serious symptoms of illness appear. The physician has to acquire a valid picture of the family unit, with its physical and psychological strengths and short-comings. Continued flight from pressure of vital issues can lead to family neurosis in the long run. Then, the sick person is not really the carrier of disease in the traditional sense of germ or genetic consation. He is only a 'symptom' of a much more widely encompassing disease unit that has grasped a social cell like the family. Are we physicians and scientists in a position, as a consequence of our training, to see this possibility, or are such modes of thinking to be left to special fields like medical sociology? The isolated, sick person can show signs derived from a disturbed family relationship, particularly through psychosomatic disorders. Our 'psychosomatic confrontation' therapeutical method is introduced.

Psychosocial dynamics within the family are first touched upon. The physician should watch the signs and helpingly intervene. He has to acquire a valid picture of the family unit with its strengths an