PSYCHOSOMATIC MEDICINE LOOKS AT MEDICAL SPECIALIZATION *

"PSYCHOSOMATIC medicine no longer needs an apology. It has passed that stage. One may consider the acceptance of this fact as the first phase of the problem. The second phase which we are now entering consists of the task of teaching this new discipline to students and to those physicians who are interested in reorienting themselves to medicine. " The above quotation comes not from one of our psychiatric journals but from an ex-cellent and comprehensive article in the American Journal of Medicine.1 This paper will concern itself with the problems of this second phase, i.e., the teaching of this new discipline to those interested in reorienting themselves to medicine. It will attempt to outline some of the aspects of this phase and to indicate certain avenues leading to possible resolutions of the problem. How long has it taken us to pass through this first stage of development and acceptance of psychosomatic medicine? This is a matter of considerable conjecture. Some feel that psychosomatic medicine is a relatively ne