When the Body Displaces the Mind

Jean Benjamin Stora is a psychoanalyst and psychosomatician, and a consultant in psychosomatics at la Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital, Paris. In 2006 he established the university diploma in integrative psychosomatics, psychoanalysis, medicine and the neurosciences, which he co-directs at the Faculte de Medecine, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris 6. He was president of the Pierre Marty Institute of Psychosomatics from 1989 to 1992, and of the Societe Francaise de Medecine Psychosomatique from 2000 to 2002. He is the author of many books, including 'Le Stress, Quand le corps prend la releve: stress traumatismes et maladies somatiques, Vivre avec une greffe: accueillir l'autre, Neuropsychanalyse, Controverses et Dialogues, When the Body Displaces the Mind', and 'La nouvelle approche psychosomatique: cas cliniques'.

• ContentsIntroductionObjectives and methodological approach1. Emotions and traumas 2. The economic viewpoint and mentalisation processes3. Amanda, Arnaud, Alice, Sandrine and Emma - somatisations and regressions4. Adrienne and Sanjay - progressive disorganisation and somatisations: the emergence of irreversible unstable equilibrium5 The psychotherapy of somatic patients - the case of Nina, a woman from the MaghrebBIBLIOGRAPHYAPPENDICESNOTES

'The boundaries between disciplines have recently been seriously challenged in the neurosciences. This has resulted, among other things, in a realisation that the brain cannot be understood in isolation from other bodily organs. This realisation, in turn, has produced important advances in neuro-endocrinology and neuro-immunology, to mention only the obvious instances. But certainly one of the most significant advances brought about by this development has been in the scientific understanding of emotion. Few neuroscientists today would deny that the brain mechanisms of emotion (and drive) are centrally embedded in brain: body relationships.It is very much to the credit of contemporary neuroscience that it has found a place for psychoanalysis in this interdisciplinary vortex, and it is likewise fortunate indeed that psychoanalysis has been able to make some significant contributions to the avalanche of neuroscientific discoveries that are now reported almost daily. These contributions have been limited almost exclusively to revealing therole of unconscious emotional processes in so-called neurobehavioural (or neuropsychological) syndromes. We therefore have reason to be grateful to Professor Stora for this pioneering volume, in which he makes a first neuro-psychoanalytic foray into the fascinating and important field of psychosomatic medicine. In this spirit, I unequivocally recommend his work to prospective readers, and encourage his colleagues to take up the many scientific challenges he here poses for them.' - From the foreword by Mark Solms