A. Ronald Seifert - Böcker

An attractive feature of self-regulation therapies is that, instead of doing something to the patients, they teach them to do something for them­ selves. Furthermore, the fact that the patient is able to do something to cope with his or her health problem can produce a significant reduction in the stress that may have contributed to that problem and in the additional stress that it produces. While the idea that the mind can playa role in the health of the body and some therapeutic techniques based on this idea are not new, remarkable scientific advances have been made recently in the area of self-regulation and health. There has been an exciting and rapidly accel­ erating increase in our basic science knowledge of homeostasis, or, in other words, how the body regulates itself in order to maintain health. Technical and conceptual advances are increasing our knowledge of the details of such regulation at all levels-cells, tissues, organs, organ sys­ tems, and the body as a whole. We are learning how the competing demands of different elements at each of these levels are adjusted by the brain, which, with its neural and humoral mechanisms, is the supreme organ of integration of the body.

Although the injunction "Know thyself" was inscribed over the site of the Delphic Oracle, the concept is of much more ancient lineage. Thousands of years ago, the wise men of the East had learned to exert authority over a broad range of bodily experiences and functions using techniques that are still taught today. But it is only in the past few decades that the West has become aware once again of the range of control that the central nervous system can maintain over sensation and body function. Medicine has moved slowly in integrating these concepts into the classic medical model of disease despite a growing body of evidence that links emotional state, thought, and imagery to immunocompetence, tissue healing, and bodily vigor. It is precisely the role of a volume such as this, reflecting a fascinating conference in Munich, to emphasize and reemphasize these ideas. We are fortunately well beyond the sterile behaviorism of Watson with its com­ plete negation of the significance of mental operations. But many still consider suspect those forces and mechanisms, however powerful, that seem to originate from brain-mind activity. The chapters in this book, with their emphases on the mind-body continuum as a bridge to self­ regulation and health, provide a modern "School of Athens" in bringing these concepts to wider acquaintance.

Medicine has moved slowly in integrating these concepts into the classic medical model of disease despite a growing body of evidence that links emotional state, thought, and imagery to immunocompetence, tissue healing, and bodily vigor.