Integrative psychosomatics is a new approach to explaining illnesses and how patients relate to their problems. This new discipline draws on psychoanalysis, medicine and the neurosciences, rather than solely on psychoanalysis, which has inspired all the psychosomatic approaches until now. Amongst the fascinating and compelling questions that this book raises are: how can we understand an illness if we only analyse the psyche? How can we understand patients if we only take account of their biological data? Are hypochondriac problems generated by the mind, as some doctors believe, or are the problems in fact more complex? The author also considers whether traditional psychoanalysis and medicine might actually distance practitioners from an understanding of patients and illnesses. For integrative psychosomatics, the psyche or the mind can play either a greater or lesser role in illness: advances in research in the neurosciences and biology over the last twenty years have uncovered many biological and genetic processes involved in the relations between the central nervous system and the other systems that constitute the human psychosomatic entity. Consequently, we can now understand illnesses much better and care for patients with regard to how they relate to their illnesses.

Integrative psychosomatics is a new approach to explaining illnesses and how patients relate to their problems. This new discipline draws on psychoanalysis, medicine and the neurosciences, rather than solely on psychoanalysis, which has inspired all the psychosomatic approaches until now. Amongst the fascinating and compelling questions that this book raises are: how can we understand an illness if we only analyse the psyche? How can we understand patients if we only take account of their biological data? Are hypochondriac problems generated by the mind, as some doctors believe, or are the problems in fact more complex? The author also considers whether traditional psychoanalysis and medicine might actually distance practitioners from an understanding of patients and illnesses. For integrative psychosomatics, the psyche or the mind can play either a greater or lesser role in illness: advances in research in the neurosciences and biology over the last twenty years have uncovered many biological and genetic processes involved in the relations between the central nervous system and the other systems that constitute the human psychosomatic entity. Consequently, we can now understand illnesses much better and care for patients with regard to how they relate to their illnesses.

Can the mind really generate a physical disease? Conversely, can the body cause mental illness? What do we know today about their interaction? The relations between body and mind are the source of many problems that are currently treated separately by psychoanalysts and doctors because of the compartmentalisation between their disciplines. Despite differences in clinical practice, we all stand to benefit from a common understanding of the reciprocal influences of the mind and the body and the ways in which these are interrelated. It is time to stop treating the body in isolation from treatment of the mind and to understand that where the psychic apparatus fails in its key task of managing the excitations generated by the tensions and frustrations of everyday life, it is the body that takes over. With a wealth of clinical examples, the author proposes an innovative theoretical and clinical approach that seeks to break down the barriers between biology and psychoanalysis; he also demonstrates its benefits for the health and recovery of patients and its implications for disease prevention.

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.

"This book translates three of Stora's published works into one concise, scholarly, and welcome survey.... Accessible to the nonspecialist.... Highly recommended for all levels." —Choice Foreword by William B. Quandt A particularly vicious and bloody civil war has racked Algeria for a decade. Amnesty International notes that since 1992, in a population of 28 million, 80,000 people have been reported killed, and the actual total is almost certainly higher. This terrible war overshadows Algeria's long and complex history and its prominence on the world economic stage—second in size among African nations, Algeria has the longest Mediterranean coastline and contains the world's fifth-largest natural gas reserves. Algeria, 1830-2000 is a comprehensive narrative history of the country. Benjamin Stora, widely recognized as the leading expert on Algeria, presents the story of this turbulent area from the start of formal French colonialism in the early nineteenth century, through the prolonged war for independence in the latter 1950s, to the internal strife of the present day. This book adapts and updates three short volumes published originally in French by La Découverte. For this English edition, Stora has written a new introductory chapter on Algeria's colonial period (1830-1954) and has revised the final section to bring the volume up to date.

A particularly vicious and bloody civil war has racked Algeria for a decade. Amnesty International notes that since 1992, in a population of 28 million, 80,000 people have been reported killed, and the actual total is almost certainly higher. This terrible war overshadows Algeria's long and complex history and its prominence on the world economic stage -- second in size among African nations, Algeria has the longest Mediterranean coastline and contains the world's fifth-largest natural gas reserves.

Algeria, 1830-2000 is a comprehensive narrative history of the country. Benjamin Stora, widely recognized as the leading expert on Algeria, presents the story of this turbulent area from the start of formal French colonialism in the early nineteenth century, through the prolonged war for independence in the latter 1950s, to the internal strife of the present day.

This book adapts and updates three short volumes published originally in French by La Decouverte. For this English edition, Stora has written a new introductory chapter on Algeria's colonial period (1830-1954) and has revised the final section to bring the volume up to date.

In War and the Ivory Tower, David L. Schalk explores the public role of the intellectual in times of national crisis. He compares American responses to the Vietnam War and French responses to the Algerian War, finding many similarities in the way intellectuals voiced their outrage at the policies of their governments. At a time when national crises abound, but protest is out of fashion, and intellectuals possibly a dying species, this book presents a needed reexamination of what it means for intellectuals to speak out on issues of international importance. David L. Schalk is Kenan Professor of History, Emeritus, at Vassar College. Benjamin Stora is a professor of Maghribi history at the National Institute of Oriental Civilizations and Language in Paris. His works include Algeria, 1830-2000: A Short History. George C. Herring is the Alumni Professor of History at the University of Kentucky and the author of America's Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975.