Integrative psychosomatics east–west in pain treatment

Abstract

Asian and western cultures have developed different concepts of the connection between body, mind and spirit strongly influenced by culture, worldview and spirit of the age. These concepts are reflected in different medical systems, their different diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. An integration process of different psychosomatic concepts is going on in east and west. In the last decades the west has become increasingly interested in the holistic/psychosomatic approach of acupuncture, Ayurveda and Tibetan medicine. After the integration of western scientific medicine China is looking more and more for western mental health strategies, respectively, for western psychotherapy and its broad spectrum of schools. Based on the different historical and cultural background the process of integration is different. In this context also the phenomenon of pain is differently understood in east and west. It cannot be separated from the laws of universe and nature as well as from the human nature. The concepts of acute and chronic pain are diverse. Chronic pain is a specific reaction and part of a long time process of imbalance in the relations between the somatic, energetic/psychic and mental level of the patient. The treatment of pain should be an integrative therapeutic setting of different biomedical and CAM strategies including diagnostics and methods of Asian medical systems, their specific psychotherapeutic settings in combination with western psychotherapeutic interventions. The concepts of Asian medical systems are opening the possibility to work out an individual and specific therapeutic setting.