[Relationship between psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy in theory and practice]

Initially, the different operationalizations of 'psychosomatic' are presented. Etiological concepts of psychosomatic illness include stressful life events, developmental factors and the individual psychic structure. At the Department for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis of Vienna University, the initial diagnostic interview includes subjective illness theories as possible pathway to psychotherapy, motivational factors and the patient's ability to transfer the experience from this interview into psychotherapy proper. The psychotherapeutic method applied to psychosomatic patients should offer a theoretical concept concerning psychosomatic illness, as it is the case in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Finally, the importance of supervision for psychotherapists working in an institutional setting with in-patients is stressed.