Presidential address: The importance of teaching psychosomatic medicine as part of medical training.

Abstract

Teaching psychosomatic medicine is meant to acquaint the medical student early with the principles of ‘Ganzheitsmedizin’ and with the latest knowledge of psychosomatic pathogenesis. The graduated physician, however, irrespective of his specific field, needs also to be kept up with current developments in psychosomatic medicine, for psychosomatic medicine can only be successfully practised in interdisciplinary cooperation. Considering these tasks, it is evident that to achieve these aims specific institutes for psychosomatic medicine are absolutely necessary, an additional obligation of these institutes being the continuation of specifically psychosomatic research. The responsibility arising from psychosomatic problems is especially corroborated by futurological investigations, which state that psychosomatic cases, ten years from now, will range on the very top of the list of all psychomedical problems.