The historical development of modern medicine: implications for an approach to psychological problems in the medical practice

Abstract

Patients with psychological problems are very common in the offices of general practitioners. Grouped according to their incidence these problems include somatoform disorders and episodes of depression with somatic symptoms. These disorders have no organic basis or known physiological cause. In its early beginnings, medicine and medical regard were classificatory. Disease was organized hierachically into families, genera and species. The role of the physician was to discover the patient’s disease. The disease presented itself through symptoms and signs. Medical practice was based on anatomical pathology and physiopathology. Due to this secular tradition during which he was conditioned to investigate the “organic”, the physician is not prepared for providing care to patients whose problems are of psychological nature. The anatomical and physiopathological substrate he was trained to discover is lacking.  The “Balint group” represents a proposal for capacitating the general practitioner for dealing with the emotional in his medical practice. This is done in two-weekly seminars during a two-years’ period, based on case reports. The objective of this initiative is to provoke a limited but significant change in the personality of the general practitioner for enabling him to provide care to his patients presenting with psychological problems.