It is a privilege to introduce this unusual book. In a time when most docotrs practise medicine as a technical application of the natural sciences, the authors, both experienced clinicians, combine the use of modem techniques with human understanding and psychological management of their patients in the practice of internal medicine. Many of these patients suffer from "psychosomatic disorders", i. e. diseases in which emotional stresses play a major role in the production of the symptoms and/or signs. But just because such a large proportion of all illnesses seen by physicians fall within this category (whether functional or organic), this book is not only a guide to the theory of psychosomatic medicine; it describes the way in which the authors deal with patients in their daily practice. Based on many years of clinical experience and a critical appraisal of the literature, they have developed and tested an approach to what they describe as "psychological management". This is partly based on psychological and psychiatric principles but differs from specialised "psychotherapy" and can be learned and practised by physicians in combination with their technical medical treatment. Extensive attention is paid to the stresses, ambivalences and incompatibilities which the patients encounter in their communication with the key figures in their family and at work, and to which they have unsuccesfully tried to adapt without having been able to solve the problems actively.