Abstract

Traditional Chinese medicine as anchor and drive force in the psychosomatic medicine: Based on the Chinese medical classics and ancient philosophy

Author(s): Isabel Wendt-Christodoulou

Psychosomatic is composed of the combination from the ancient Greek words psyche (`soul, psyche’) and soma (`body’) and refers to the fact that illness and health are to be understood in the relationship between psyche and body. That fact is an important part of the traditional baseline knowledge in Chinese medicine, which has its seeds in the source of Taoism classics and in the bock of changes. The essence of traditional Chinese medicine is not the technical detail, it is the symbolistic alchemy of holistic relationship to the cosmic, earth, and physical level. The connecting link of the Chinese holistic is the force shén (spirit), which is effective due to the transmissivity in the entire cosmos and in humans in the form of “psyche”. If shén is not permeable or continuous, pain ( tòng) arises at all levels according to the baseline of (bung the tong - `If there is no transmissivity, the pain will exist.’) Therefore, every psychosomatic or somatopsychic perception requires the perception and treatment of shén in the context of its transmissivity (taang). The Chinese classics lead to an understanding of deeper contexts, which turn in a groundbreaking for the diagnosis and therapy of Chinese medicine and carry profitable conclusions for today´s’ psychosomatic medicine.