The concept of hysteria has undergone many changes and eventually been lost from the international diagnostic criteria. In Japan, the term "hysteria" may vanish, whereas "neurosis" would remain for another long period of time. Immediately after World War II, there were many typical hysteria cases, especially those with physical symptoms, just as described in textbooks : opisthotonus, blindness, hemiparesis, Ganser's syndrome, fugue, and generalized amnesia were not infrequently observed. Since then, the situation seems to have totally changed. These conspicuous cases have been replaced by those with autonomic nervous signs (whose relations to hysteria were controversial in the debate on pithiatisme) or psychosomatic diseases, the only exceptions being hyperventilation syndrome and eating disorder. However, the recent emergence of dissociated identity disorder has raised renewed interest in the concept of hysteria. In my own experience, most conspicuous hysteria cases had organic brain disease or other physical diseases, which lead me to believe that these conditions tend to prompt the hysteria symptoms. Here I will introduce the original works of Charcot, along with theories of Babinski and others'. I believe that hysteria should occasionally be discussed explicitly, rather than faded out to leave with many unsolved questions.

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The following states are recognized as the mechanism of onset in our 13 cases of spasmodic torticollis (ST) . (1)The presence of aggression, (2)the presence of stressors, (3)overadaptive states prior to the onset of ST, and (4)organ choice. The organ choice of ST (i. e., the reason why the neck is involved) is considered to be as follows : Iocal harmful stimuli to the neck such as muscle abuse, stiff neck, finger-pressure therapy, cooling down of the neck by air-conditioner, the common cold, unusual or abnormal posture of the neck for a prolonged period, and symbolic reason for ST such as denial to see one side. Then, the muscles around the neck can malfunction due to psychosomatic reasons. In summary, when aggressive persons are overadaptive to situations with stressors, or are unable to verbalize well the stressors and the aggression, and get harmful direct stimulation to the neck, they experience the onset of ST. As for organ choice in general, on the other hand, the following mechanisms have been considered so far : emotional specificity, symbolical meaning, specific emotional conflict, personality type, organ inferiority, and conditional reaction. Among those, organ inferiority (i. e., peripheral or local disorder of the neck) seems to be the most important factor in the cases of ST.

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Regarding the organ selection of asthma, 2 major hypotheses were published around 50 years ago, one ' of which is based on psychoanalysis and the other on the conditioning theory. Weiss, Alexander and their coworkers proposed from the standpoint of psychoanalysis that an asthmatic attack could be evoked or exacerbated by suppressed anger or anxiety related to the dependency needs on parents. On the other hand, Dekker and his coworkers reported asthmatics who had a psychogenic attack induced by a conditioning mechanism without any allergen. These hypotheses had been historically contributed to the development of the research for the onset mechanism and treatment of asthma. It is thought according to recent findings on asthma, that the organ selection of asthma may be determined by the interaction among 3 factors ; genetic factors, environmental factors and individual factors such as psychosocial problems and change of allergic conditions with the growth of a child, so called allergy march. The contents of the 3 factors are as follows : 1) Genetic factors : Major genetic factors of asthma consist of genetics of atopy and bronchial hyperresponsiveness, which are confirmed by both family and twin studies, 2) Environmental factors : Environmental factors such as allergens, including house dust mites or pollens, viruses or bacterias causing airway infections and air pollution by NOx or DEP (diesel exhaust particulates) play an important role in the onset of asthma. 3) Individual factors : It is thought that allergy march is related to the maturing of the digestive organ, gonadal organ and immune system. Our studies regarding the psychosocial problems suggested that asthmatics might experience many more stressful life events before the onset and the exacerbation, or relapse after a long-term remission of asthma compared to controls, and that the clinical course might be closely related to the stressor and coping behavior. Asthmatics seem to suppress their own feelings during interpersonal conflict and adapt to other people and not to ask for social support even in difficult situations. In addition to these, about 20 to 40 percent of asthmatics in our study answered that their asthmatic attacks were sometimes induced in specific situations related to suggestion or conditioning mechanism, and the ratio of asthmatics who had these tendencies were higher in severe cases or female patients. Finally, concerning the onset mechanism of asthma, I had reviewed and discussed the increased bronchial responsiveness and lgE production and suppression of immune function by experimental stress in animal models, and recent findings about conditioned anaphylaxis.

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Recently type A behavior pattern as the coronary-prone behavior pattern by Friedman and Rosenman has come under revaluation. Hostility, one of traditional type A behavior components, is reviewed as the most closely related factor with coronary heart disease. However, in Japan, several studies reported on lower hostility and more workaholic, hard driving tendencies in type A behavior (called Japanese type A behavior pattern) . From the standpoint of organ choice, the author attempted to examine clinical studies about the relationship between Japanese type A behavior pattern and coronary heart disease. In connection with type A behavior formation, the relation between type A characteristics and parental child-rearing attitudes has a value to pay attention. Anxiety is the most common psychological factor that provokes type A behavior manifestation. Usually type A behavior modification is difficult in a case of anxiety-induced type A behavior, unless cognitive approach (to reduce patient's anxiety based on malcognition) is used. As to depressive states, depression-related personality resembles Japanese type A behavior pattern, and as a result of over work caused by workaholic tendency, physical and psychological exhaustion connects with reactive depression. Severe depressive state sometimes appears just before the onset of myocardial infarction. Type A behavior patients are supposed to have cardiovascular hypersusceptibility of the sympathetic adrenal medullary system. Beta-blocker trial on type A hypertensives suggests a possibility of type A modification by β-blockers. From these findings about organ choice of type A behavior pattern and coronary heart disease, some useful suggestions were obtained for prevention against coronary heart disease.

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Stress (spurious) polycythemia is a pathological condition induced by psychosocial events and emotional stress in which the erythrocyte component in the blood abnormally increases. It induces increased blood viscosity and may cause thrombus formation, which may develop into the cerebrovascular accident or ischemic heart disease in a certain condition. We studied the etiology and involvement of psychosocial stress factors, and physiological factors, and considered the relationship between the stress and organ choice. Stress polycythemia is often seen in very active individuals when they are driven into a stressful situation, but some distorted personality such as neurotic state, cyclothymia, or depressive state may also participate in the formation of polycythemia. Erythrocyte component often increases or decreases with the change of circumstances and sometimes returns to normal when sufficient relaxation is acquired. Elevation of erythrocyte component may play a more important role than relative water loss for the formation of polycythemia because viscosity of whole blood increases as the hemoglobin increases whereas plasm viscosity does not. When people have certain physiological propensities of the autonomic nervous system and endocrine system along with certain personal trait and behavioral characteristics, they may develop polycythemia under psychosocial or physical stress. Our studies showed that the elevated plasma catecholamine often associates with the elevation of red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets and PF4 (platelet factor-4) . It is essential to pay more attension to the distorted behavior of daily life and alteration of life style is important for prevention and treatment of circulatory disorders induced by the stress polycythemia.

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Organ selection theory of stomach and intestine was investigated by comparing non-ulcer dyspepsia (NUD) with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Sex and age were the same in NUD and IBS. Symptoms of NUD and IBS were the same except for gastrointestinal symptoms. In psychological test with EGOORAM, NUD was AC predominant, but IBS was FC predominant. In colonic manometry, sigmoid colon of NUD showed a small reaction to neostigmine administration. Regarding familial aspect of IBS, no common psychological factor was found in these 2 groups. In a long follow-uped study of IBS, abnormal bowel movements showed no change in spite of various stresses. It is considered that differences of personality profile, intestinal reactivity and learned condition may be main factors in organ selection.

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lrritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is defined as one of functional gastrointestinal disorders characterized by sustained abdominal pain and/or abdominal discomfort in association with abnormal bowel habituation, i.e., diarrhea and/or constipation. Most of IBS patients have dysmotility of the colon and the small intestine, visceral hyperalgesia, and/or psychological deviation. These pathophysiological phenomena had been investigated independently. However, recent progression in IBS research clarified that IBS is a disorder of brain-gut interactions. (a) In most of IBS patients, psychosocial stress induces or aggravates IBS symptoms. (b)Treatments for psychological deviation with psychopharmacotherapy or psychotherapy often improve gastrointestinal symptoms in IBS patients. (c)Visceral stimulation induces changes in neurotransmission in the brain as well as reflex changes in gastrointestinal motility. (d)IBS patients do not have somatic hyperalgesia but have visceral hyperalgesia. (e)Prospective study on acute enterocolitis revealed that patients who originally had psychological deviation developed IBS several months later. (f)IBS patients show exaggerated response of colonic motility and plasma adrenocorticotropic hormone secretion to intravenous administration of corticotropin-releasing hormone. These data suggest that IBS is a disorder of brain-gut interactions and that IBS patients have exaggerated reactivity in the brain and the gut to multiple physiological stimuli including psychosocial stress. Substance and gene regulating the vicious cycle of brain-gut link will be a key factor solving IBS, the prevalent and often intractable disorder.

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It is well known that appreciating music has some effects on our feelings. We conducted an experiment in order to specify what kinds of effect appreciating music have on our emotion. The subjects of this experiment were 31 healthy female university students whose ages varied from 18 to 23 years old. These subjects were exposed to three different conditions. Under one condition, they were asked to rest without music. In the other two conditions, they were asked to rest while listening to two kinds of music, which were a piece of classical music (Ravel's "PAVANE POUR UNE INFANTE DEFUNTE") that was selected by an examiner and the music preferred by the subjects. All the music was selected in order to relax the subjects. The session made up of these three conditions was held three times on separate occasions. In each session, we asked them to relax on the body sonic device with their eyes closed. The results of the session were analyzed using the Profile of Mood States (POMS), which is a psychological test to measure emotional condition. As the result, a change in emotion was observed evidently after listening to music for a short time. Moreover, a consistent pattern was observed regardless of the genre of music. Our finding was that each factor of POMS suggested a homeostatic change as the tendency of emotional change due to appreciating music. Over all, we concluded that appreciating music could help keeping our mood in good conditions.

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