Dal linguaggio degli organi di Adler alla nuova medicina di per sé psicosomatica

Adler’s theorizations foresaw the recent development of psychosomatic medicine: organ inferiority, psychic compensation, organs language are essentially psychosomatic concepts and predict the rise of the biopsychosocial (BPS) model in clinical and basic research. The BPS model showed that, with biological factors, psychosocial ones can be evidenced as causes, co-factors or consequences of many illnesses. The allostatic load, defense mechanisms and personality profile predict the response to different stressors. Neural processes, underlying these mechanisms, interact with biological substrate of somatic illnesses. Recent advancements in brain imaging about neurobiological and behavioral interactions of empathy and alexithymia support the crucial role of (psycho) therapeutic relationship in the whole medical practice. Because all these aspects influence the duration of illness and the quality of life – both for person and family - the economical consequences of this psychosomatic approach are important in general and speciality medicine. Current medicine, for being ethical and appropriate, is becoming, and will become even more in the future, an integrated science. It’s therefore necessary to reconsider the doctor-patient relationship as a psychotherapeutic process.