ABSTRACT
The rapidly converging knowledge in psychology and the neurosciences makes it increasingly untenable to make a clear distinction between mental problems that are “really due to a chemical imbalance” and others that are “really all in the head.” The fact is, of course, that all mental representation necessarily is processed on a biological level. The symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which have long been understood to have a clear psychobiological foundation, were first called a “physioneurosis” by Kardiner (1941). The availability of animal models of inescapable shock and the understanding of the biological effects of disruptions of attachment in nonhuman primates make psychological trauma a particularly promising area to explore the interface between mind and body.
