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Beyond Biofeedback – Drs Elmer and Alyce Green

Psychosomatic disease can be thought of as a distortion of healthy mind-body functioning that begins when psychological stress is allowed to disrupt the neural and humoral sequences of homeostatic events. A mechanical structure, or physiological process, that is strained beyond its elastic limit often cannot regain its original shape or function when the stress is relieved, even if an outside force is applied in the opposite direction. For instance, sudden powerful psychological stress can strain the human psychophysiological apparatus beyond its limits of natural recovery. Reference to this phenomena is repeatedly heard in such phrases as "His hair turned white overnight" and "She'll never be the same."

It is not necessary for stress to be overpoweringly traumatic or unpleasant, however, for it to result in psychosomatic disorder. For instance, a verbal insult often results in nothing more than a momentary feeling of discomfort. But if its effects are allowed to persist, through brooding over the memory and re-experiencing the emotions, physiological changes are bound to take place sooner or later. Voluminous neurological and biochemical evidence scattered throughout the literature testifies that chronic emotional strain is accompanied by chronic changes in homeostasis.

The good side of this tight mind-body correlation is the implication that an emotional state may be volitionally selected for correction of an undesirable physiological state, such as a psychosomatic disorder or a drug-dependency problem. And now biofeedback (which shows the physiological response to a new emotional state) is available as a new and powerful tool for implementing psychophysiological self-regulation and psychosomatic health.