Infant research and psychosomatic diseases

Empirical results stemming from infant research have contributed extensively to the understanding of coping with psychosocial stress and vulnerability for psychosomatic symptoms in later life. The interaction and the emotional exchange between caregiver and child in the first months of life lead to representations of interactions that will be the base for the quality of attachment. The mutual regulation of the caregiver-infant-pair enables the child to acquire a psychic capacity to regulate physiological requirements. This selfregulatory function determines the potential of the later adult to react to distress - in a symbolic way using words or more in a somatic way by developing psychosomatic symptoms. First experiences with the treatment of psychosomatic patients with respect to the new findings about self-regulation are reported.