'I'm OK; you're not': medical socialization and psychosomatic illness

While it is widely recognized that there is universal experience of somatic manifestations of emotional responses, the objective mode used in teaching medical students about medical and psychiatric conditions ignores these common subjective experiences. The usual self-protective mind-set of the student or physician approaching a patient with psychosomatic complaints is often one of 'I'm OK, you're not'. Perhaps by emphasizing a recognition of the universality of psychosomatic experiences with a difference in degree, we can enhance the ability of students to assume an empathic approach to psychosomatic complaints and decrease the stigma felt by patients with such problems.