Summary

Psychosomatic medicine is an interdisciplinary medical field that focuses on the influence of psychological and behavioral factors on bodily processes, particularly by studying nonphysical factors that adversely affect somatic functioning. Dysfunction in processes or structural damage in bodily organs or systems is thought to emerge as the consequence or concomitant of emotional states. Some psychosomatic theorists focus on specific personality traits of the patients in whom symptoms appear, and others on situational vulnerabilities or emotional stress.

The American branch of the field began to take shape in the United States in the early 20th century and rose to prominence and popularity in the 1920s and 1930s. By the 1940s, there were several competing varieties of psychosomatic medicine, and the field generated popular interest as well as both professional enthusiasm and resistance. American medical experience in World War I and World War II provided incentives for interest in the field and clinical encounters that led to the clarification of certain of the field’s ideas and approaches. But many other developments in American medicine besides wartime experience contributed to the field’s popularity, especially in the 30 years between the United States’ entry into World War I in 1917 and 2 years after the conclusion of hostilities in World War II.