Psychosomatic medicine, behavioral medicine, just plain medicine

Neurally mediated physiologic responses fulfill all of the criteria for behavior and obey all of the laws of behavior subject to the anatomic and physiologic constraints inherent in their structures and functions. It is illogical and wrong to assert that neurally mediated responses interact with behavior. THEY ARE BEHAVIOR. These principles are a legitimate and necessary part of the training of all medical students, residents, and fellows. The conceptual basis of psychosomatic practice does not need to be derived from the dualistic notions of psychoanalysis or from the dualistic notions of biobehaviorism. Psychosomatic medicine is an integral aspect of medical practice. It needs to exist because people act and react differently from one another, and because the same person acts and reacts differently from one situation to another. Psychosomatic medicine is not psychiatry in medicine. Each of the specialties and each of the subspecialties encounters its own set of psychosomatic problems; and treatment strategies to resolve these problems need to be integrated into the clinical practice of that discipline.