Can we really teach psychosomatic medicine? A review of successes and failures

Abstract

Medicine, it seems, is lately in a state of perpetual crisis. Some would attribute the problem, at least in part, to the enduring heritage of Descartes, who imprinted dualistic notions of a separation of mind and body upon medical education and practice. The perspective of psychosomatic medicine has long been hailed as the remedy for flaws in the way medicine has been taught and practiced for at least five decades. If medicine as a humanistic endeavor is to take account of the whole individual, it must encompass biological, social and psychological dimensions of the person. Many attempts at curriculum reform and postgraduate education have had variable success in countering the dualism of medicine. This presentation will discuss the challenge, the problems and the future of psychosomatic teaching, with illustrations from a variety of educational experiments.