Some contributions of psychoanalysis to theorical conception and practice of medicine

Abstract

Since classical Greek times, there have been two paradigms of illness and two conceptions of doctor’s function: one of them, an unicausal, linear and biologist one, and the other one, a more complex one, having in mind individual’s harmony and homeostasis. Psychoanalysis follows the second way of thinking and brings different theoretic explanations about illness and therapeutic function. The author summarizes the findings of the psychoanalytic psychosomatic schools (above all, those of Chicago and Paris) and those of Michael Balint, and his method of groups that can be helpful for doctors that have not received enough training on psychosocial aspects in their faculties of Medicine.