Introduction.

In earlier publications, the author has already addressed the topic of the possible influence of the Evolutionary Concept of Psychosomatogenesis [1-9], which he has been developing for a number of years, on the practice of treatment and prevention of bodily diseases [8,9]. In this paper the author simultaneously pursues two goals: a) to give a brief but, if possible, complete description of his own psychosomatic concept in the form of a sequence of its ideas (hypotheses); b) to indicate the relationship of these ideas with the already existing and developed by the author psychological (and psychopharmacological) methods of treatment and prevention of somatic diseases. Each such hypothesis and each method of treatment and prevention of somatic diseases is presented in the form of a separate abstract.

Before beginning the presentation of these abstracts, the author considers it necessary to point out that his Evolutionary Concept is a development of V.S. Rotenberg's and V.V. Arshavsky's ideas about search activity as the most important factor of the organism's ability to counteract disease formation processes and negative aspects of stress experience [10]. In addition, in its formation, the author was guided by modern ideas about the aging process as a system of “tools” developed by evolution for its own acceleration (through the change of generations), as well as other modern ideas that have emerged in recent decades in evolutionary biology and medicine [11-16]. Importantly, the author also proceeded from the fact that the evolution of biological species includes not only the development of anatomy and morphology, but also the development of psychics and behavior. And part of such development can occur not between generations (as most of biological evolution), but during the life of each individual.

When the author speaks about psychological methods of treating somatic diseases, he does not limit himself to the topic of treating only “psychosomatic” diseases, and, importantly, he does not only mean searching for and working out the psychological causes of somatic diseases (“psychosomatotherapy”). In such activities, he also includes work on the psychological mobilization of bodily systems to counteract illnesses, and work on creating internal conditions for an individual to actively fight his or her illness [17-19].

Abstracts.

1. The general context of the Evolutionary concept of psychosomatogenesis is created by the following idea (hypothesis): the mechanism (or mechanisms) of transformation of psychological causes into somatic consequences is an instrument of that part of the psychic aspect of biological evolution that occurs in the individual lives of individuals of higher animal species. That is, the function of this tool is to promote the health of those individuals who, in the course of their own lives, accrue new behavioral, intellectual, and emotional solutions (or otherwise participate in their evolution), and to promote the ill-health of those who refuse such participation in the evolutionary process [1,2].

As the author suggests, this tool can contribute to the psychic evolution of species through:

a) the compulsion of the sick individual to seek new forms of adaptation, due to the impossibility of relying on all the habitual forms of activity common to the healthy state;

b) the fact that in social animal species, a healthy individual is usually more dominant than an unhealthy one, so it is more likely to transmit its “developments” to the population;

c) the more probable removal from the population of individuals “not inclined” to psychic evolution [4,5,8,9].

2. The core of the Evolutionary Concept is the hypothesis about the mechanism of psychosomatogenesis itself. In its original formulation, the author assumed that the actual and potential activity of the systems of counteraction to pathogenic factors of any (somatic or psychosomatic) nature increases when an individual actively participates in their psychic evolution and decreases in the opposite case [2,4,5]. In addition, the author initially assumed that in the latter case specific disease-forming factors are also formed [1,2,4,5], but this idea was not formalized in the further development of the author's concept.

3. The author believes that the existing concepts of psychosomatogenesis fit into the overall context of his concept. The vast majority of these concepts describe precisely the conditions for triggering this mechanism, the main ones of which are usually considered to be:

a) chronically unacknowledged and unmet important needs;

b) chronically unresolved internal conflicts;

c) unrealized in activity or prolonged stresses;

d) unexperienced psychological traumas [20-22].

However, it is obvious that these conditions for triggering the psychosomatic mechanism are a consequence of such rigidity of the psychic organization of the individual that does not allow personal development to take place. Indeed, when:

a) those needs whose realization does not correspond to the absoluteness of the beliefs structuring his personal organization, including those needs that could act as a stimulus for personal growth, are not recognized and are not realized;

b) internal conflicts cannot become a source of development, but only a source of suffering;

c) stresses do not trigger the search activity to develop new behavioral, intellectual and emotional solutions;

d) severe psychological traumas do not cause such a complication of psychic organization that would help to overcome them,

i.e. when psychic evolution of an individual is clearly blocked and therefore does not occur, then, based on the existing psychosomatic concepts, the mechanisms of psychosomatogenesis undermining health should be triggered. This includes the mechanisms of formation of disease-forming factors described in the works of S. Freud [23], G. Groddeck [24] and F. Alexander [25].

4. In the context of the Evolutionary Concept of Psychosomatogenesis, the role of psychotherapy in the overall structure of the psychological approach to the treatment of bodily illnesses is seen somewhat differently. It is usually assumed that with the help of psychotherapy we remove specific causes of somatic disease, for example, we help to resolve a specific intrapsychic conflict. However, the causes that triggered the formation of a bodily illness do not always continue to work after it has been triggered. In addition, the targets of work in different psychotherapeutic approaches may differ dramatically, while the overall result is recovery of the body. The author believes that the most important healing factor may be “taking off the brake” of already overdue psychic (usually personal) development and, at the same time, realizing the development itself in the course of psychotherapy, which (see the second abstract) in turn activates mechanisms of counteraction to pathogenic factors [8,9].

5. For a similar reason, in an individual's search for ways to heal themselves, not only the result is important, but also the search process itself, which is a type of psychic evolutionizing [8,9].

6. Within the framework of the Evolutionary Concept of Psychosomatogenesis, of interest are the cases, which seem to be quite common in psychosomatic work, when, in order to compromise the internal conflict, an individual seeks (usually unconsciously) and finds a way to become ill. More precisely, those cases when it may be a question of finding a way to become ill with a particular disease. The paradox here is that without the individual having the “skill to become ill” with a particular disease, such a search is a certain kind of psychic evolutionizing. As the author suggests, such a search here is not essentially “evolutionarily significant” for the individual [3] (see the seventh abstract) and its healing effect is therefore weaker than the “result”. However, the most important assumption here may be that in these cases a certain healing effect can be observed for other diseases. On the basis of this can be constructed such a way of self-healing: an individual who is ill with a severe and dangerous disease conducts (already quite deliberately) a search for a way to fall ill with some “mild” disease, thus strengthening the resistance to the disease that really constitutes his problem. Moreover, the confirmation of the existence of this effect in empirical studies can serve as direct evidence of the validity of the Evolutionary concept of psychosomatogenesis itself.

7. The author considers it important to distinguish between forms of psychic evolutionizing:

a) by motivation, it can be a search for a necessary solution in a very urgent situation, or it can be guided by “inquisitive interest”;

b) by the “area” of the search, which can occur in the field of behavioral, intellectual, emotional and personal solutions;

c) by the specific “content”, by the specific topic of the search (within the “areas”);

d) by the level at which development occurs, e.g., at the level of specific decisions or at the level of acquisition of new qualities.

Earlier, the author suggested that these different types of psychic evolutionizing may have different degrees of influence on the activation of counteraction to pathogenic factors, because they have “different evolutionary significance” [3,8,9]. What is important, we can think about both constant regularities for a given species and individual psychosomatic “weights” of different ways and specific topics of psychic evolutionizing, characteristic for each individual at a given moment of their life. Earlier the author put forward a formula: in order to optimally contribute to the preservation and return of health, we must be able to determine the “main vector” of our own psychic development (“what our own evolutionary process wants from us”) and be able to realize this “vector” in our own lives [2]. It is clear that both the elucidation of general regularities of the influence of different types of psychic development and the development of methods for determining “individual vectors” are topics for further research.

8. The author proposed to develop a new type of psychological help, which is a means of both prevention and treatment of somatic diseases - “Coaching of Individual Psychic Evolutionizing” (“CIPE”) [9]. At the initial stage of its development, the CIPE method can be an assistance to the client in forming a design of his/her psychic development, taking into account the totality of his/her current problems, interests, aptitudes, and abilities (resources). It is clear that after successful realization of the research mentioned in the previous abstract, the individual developmental design formed with the help of CIPE may become optimal [9].

9. Earlier the author suggested that the duration and quality of participation of an individual (including human individual) in psychic evolutionizing is determined by some detector neurons or even detector structures in the brain. Their activation (or its absence) in turn activates (or deactivates) systems of counteraction to pathogenic factors [2,4,5]. If such systems are discovered, it may serve as an important proof of the correctness of the Evolutionary concept of psychosomatogenesis in general.

10. Also, the discovery of the above-described structures can equip medicine with a powerful etiological method for treating a variety of diseases: by artificially (e.g., psychopharmacologically) activating these structures, one can imitate “qualitative” evolutionizing [9]. However, the author is sure that such a method should be a supplement to psychotherapy, which removes limitations from personal development and CIPE, and not their alternative!

11 The hypothesis presented in this abstract was formed by the author as a development of the idea described in the second abstract about the content of the mechanism of psychosomatogenesis. The author suggested that depending on the participation of an individual in their psychic evolutionizing, not only the activity of systems of counteraction to pathogenic factors, but also their systemic conjugation with each other may change [6]. Together they constitute a more general characteristic, which the author called “capacity”.

As the author believes, in the case of more coordinated work of various systems, each of which is aimed at the realization of its specific goal, there is a greater “reasonableness” of the work of this “system of systems” than in the work of each of them, as well as greater conformity with the goal of survival and recovery of the individual. This more integral system can realize some functions of reflection of the situation in which the organism finds itself in connection with the action of pathogenic factors on it and functions of creating and checking the effectiveness of the “algorithm” of counteraction to the disease. The author called this level of systems integration “Intelligence of Somatic Processes” (“ISP”) [6].

According to the author's assumption [6,9], the work of the ISP is realized primarily through the functioning of bodily, not brain systems, although including the functioning of neural systems located directly in bodily organs and tissues. And already as a rather unified system, the ISP interacts with the CNS.

An important part of this hypothesis is the assumption that, having arisen as a tool for promoting psychic evolution, such a mechanism of enhancing the power of counteraction to pathogenic factors can be triggered by other contexts as well. For example, “miraculous” placebo cures can be explained by the action of this mechanism as an executive one [6,9]. (As a trigger, in the work of the placebo effect, as the author believes, the mechanism of a certain type of self-suggestion “works” [6].)

The author also believes that the idea of ISP can be considered as a quite independent idea outside the context of the Evolutionary Concept of psychosomatogenesis.

12. For a number of years, the author has been developing the method of emotional self-regulation and somatic self-therapy Recoding (formerly Stress-Aikido) [26-28]. The effectiveness of his practices is often extremely high, and not only in the moments of their invention, when the effect can be explained by an intense creative process. In part, the effectiveness of Recoding can be explained by the fact that the principle of increasing the complexity of the interaction between the conscious-volitional and unconscious bases in the realization of controlling and searching activity is inherent in the formation of its practices, which also makes it possible to increase the influence of the psychic on bodily processes [28]. However, the author believes that in the practices of Recoding, ISP can act as a performing mechanism in certain cases [9,28].

Conclusion.

It is possible to notice that in the proposed work some ideas of the Evolutionary Concept of Psychosomatogenesis are presented from a somewhat “different angle” than before and, even, are presented for the first time. The author hopes that the thesis and relatively brief form of presentation of the presented material will make this article not only a significant addition to the previously published papers on this topic [8,9], but will also serve to further familiarize a wider professional audience with the ideas of the author's psychosomatic concept and their application in clinical practice.