抄録
Our routine psychosomatic techniques include interview counseling approaches combined with simplified versions of psychoanalysis, as well as behavioral modification techniques. Our somatopsychically oriented approaches include "body learning" such as self-examination of bodily functions (e. g. blood pressure, etc), biofeedback, bioenergetic therapy, Morita therapy, fasting therapy, art therapy and Yoga training. Psychopharmaceuticals are also routinely used with problems at all levels, whenever necessary. On route to actualizing the integration of these varied approaches we feel we are discovering some important clinical principles. One is the primary importance of restoring an optimal level of interoceptive awareness to the patient so that he, or rather his body, can learn prohomeostatic selfcontrol. Secondly, the natural state of consciousness (so-called ASC) induced by somatopsychic approaches generally serves as a desirable preparatory condition for orthodox psychosomatic approaches. For instance, fasting therapy, a unique Japanese somatopsychic therapy, provides us with a unique medium for psychotherapeutic approaches by facilitating a kind of ASC. Bioenergetic therapy, scream therapy, Gestalt therapy, etc. can, for example, be very useful in promoting insightive processes (as in psychoanalysis) by actively stimulating abreaction through somatopsychic techniques.Another important principle is the general clinical effectiveness of patients' learning to become aware of their 'observing' selves and learning to positively accept existential anxiety. For example, positive acceptance of existential aspects can be a basic goal in the management of patients in clinically extreme situations. As these various levels of anxiety exist simultaneously in many patients, it becomes a difficult problem to make a correct diagnosis and to select suitable therapeutic techniques. We are now focusing on this kind of training in our department.
