The problem of integrating biological and psychodynamic views in psychotherapeutic training of physicians.

A clinical seminar was arranged for the purpose of examining the special problems of doctors undergoing supplementary training in psychotherapy. Diagnostic and therapeutic problems analyzed during the seminar could be attributed to a one-sided overemphasis of either somatic or psychodynamic findings. The physician tends to administer only pharmacotherapy for illness of supposed organic origin, and only psychotherapy for disorders of supposed psychological origin. Yet most of mental diseases require a synthesis of both biological and psychological procedures. There is no special psychotherapeutic technique, which distinguishes the medical psychotherapist but the ability to integrate psychological and somatic perspectives of the patient.