The Philosophical and Scientific Basis for the Integration of Medicine and Psychology

The chapter describes the basis for the integration of medical and psychological sciences and practices, which the authors consider essential for the development of the psychoneuroendocrineimmunology (PNEI) paradigm in research and the clinic. PNEI is not neuroendocrineimmunology. PNEI describes the relationships of mutual influence between psyche and biological systems, showing the scientific inconsistency of the reductionist dogma that makes the psyche a mere epiphenomenon of brain activity. We are in a phase of research that allows the definitive overcoming of the dualistic conception of the human being without falling into the trap of the mind-brain identity, in the reduction of the psychic dimension to the biological dimension, from which it undoubtedly arises but on which it influences from the earliest stages of individual life. To this end, it is essential to criticize the philosophical basis of contemporary reductionismReductionism and, at the same time, to present the scientific evidence documenting the reciprocal influence of the psyche and biological systems in health and illness. The scientific paradigm of PNEI can profoundly change the medical and psychological sciences and their respective clinical practices, integrating psychology and biomedicine, which, remaining separate, are incapable of unfolding their full potential for understanding and treating the human being. The chapter consists of two sections: in the first, the philosophical and in the second, the scientific foundations of the integration of biomedicine and psychology are laid.