The Psychosomatic Diseases: A Hypothetical Formulation

Abstract

We need no longer dally over theories of the mind-body relationship; we need not even speak of the integration of body and mind, for that integration is not just the combining of parts to form a whole; the unity of any organism has existed from its first beginnings, evolutionary or individual. Myers (13) and Russell (18), by introducing a concept of “the directiveness of organic activities,” have defined this essential and intrinsic unity even more cogently than the many other exponents of the same theme. The unicellular amoeba, at one end of the evolutionary ladder, has all the biological capacities of man at the other end. The fertilized ovum develops from within itself all the specialized parts and functions of the higher animals. The unity, then, has been there from the beginning. The complexity of man is not an integration, but is a delegation of functions. As Russell says, the directiveness and creativeness of mind are but a specialized development of the directiveness and creativeness inherent in all living matter.