Protection by drugs and psychotherapy against delayed psychosomatic responses: The role of positive autokinesis

Abstract

This paper presents an interpretation of the delayed psychosomatic response and how it can be therapeutically alleviated by drug administration or by psychotherapeutic acquisition of insight. If the delayed psychosomatic response is indeed related to Gantt's negative autokinesis in dogs, it should ultimately become amenable to treatment based on the concept of positive autokinesis. Psychotherapy henceforth should put more emphasis on the learning processes, if only because the learning processes, as visualized in positive autokinesis, may be required to make drug therapy more effective. For all practical purposes the placebo effect can be considered a real effect proceeding from changes in neurochemical processes triggered by the belief of the patient.