Jean Benjamin Stora has worked as a psychoanalyst and psychosomatist for almost five decades. The aim of integrative psychosomatics is to heal the body and mind in relationship to one another rather than treating the body as a machine with parts to be fixed. Thus, Stora explores a patient’s current and past life history in relation to physical illness and offers therapeutic support alongside medical treatments. To better understand this revolutionary approach, Stora presents fifteen case studies from the past twenty years. We read of George suffering from hyperlipidemia; Giles, a diabetic facing amputation; Elvira, an alcoholic; Dorothy, who complains the doctors treat body parts but not her; Beatrice facing a reappearance of breast cancer; and ten further patients. This complex process takes into account the fundamental role of the central nervous system in the relationship of mind and body. Thus, neuroscience is a key component of this holistic approach, as well as the new discipline of neuropsychoanalysis. This is most clearly shown in the case of Emma, suffering after brain surgery.
The Psychosomatic Therapy Casebook is an excellent introduction to integrative psychosomatics. The stories presented in the first four chapters can be read by anyone with an interest in the subject. The fifth and final chapter is aimed at psychotherapists, psychoanalysts, and doctors looking to gain a greater understanding of the practice. It contains a comprehensive review of the technical points involved and clearly shows the difference between psychoanalytic technique and the technique of psychosomatic therapy. This is an important book in learning to treat the person as a whole rather than split into mind and body.
Jean Benjamin Stora is the Honorary Dean of the Faculty of the School of Higher Commercial Studies of Paris (HEC) and a practising psychoanalyst and psychosomatist. His professional practice began in 1973 and his teaching in 1960. He chaired the Institute of Psychosomatics “Pierre Marty” from 1989 to 1992 and the French Society of Psychosomatic Medicine from 2000 to 2002. He created and ran the consultation of psychosomatics from 1993 to 2015 at the Hospital La Pitié-Salpêtrière, and the Diploma of Integrative Psychosomatics, Psychoanalysis, Medicine and Neurosciences at the Faculty of Medicine of La Pitié-Salpêtrière, UPMC Paris 6 from 2006 to 2015. He is the current Director of the Institute of Integrative Psychosomatics of the Society of Integrative Psychosomatics.
Dr L. Naccache, Professor at the Psychosomatic School of the Pitié-Salpêtrière –
‘Jean Benjamin Stora was President of the Paris Psychosomatic School in the 1990s. Subsequently, his work at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital led him to develop a new discipline, integrative psychosomatics. It was based on a scientific model called “metapsychosomatics”, which supports the tension of knowledge between three disciplines: biomedicine, neuroscience and metapsychology. Following on from his previous works, this book explains the model and its paradigm in which the individual is perceived and investigated as a whole, in other words, as a “psychosomatic unit”. Through fifteen clinical cases, Stora exposes the clinical and therapeutic orientations at play. This is an important book for doctors, clinicians, and psychological practitioners. It carries an obvious yet often overlooked message: that the care of patients should not focus solely on the sick organ or biological system as separate from mind and spirit, but should also focus on taking care of the person behind the illness.’
H. S. K. Boerboom, Neuropsychoanalysis, Apr 2024 –
‘There are five themes in the book, each illustrated with vignettes. Together, you get a clear picture of what, I would say, is the third generation of psychosomatics. […] I have read this book with pleasure. The chosen cases well illustrate the breadth of Stora’s approach. His practical advice and the appendices are down to earth and I think usable. Solms’s recommendations for the first two books are also applicable to this book: a worthwhile read.’