The opening paper profitably links psychosomatic disorders to alexithymia, the absence or deadening of feeling, the inability to identify or express emotion. Alexithymic individuals are particularly prone to disease as a result of the faulty processing of emotions that leads to cognitive deficit in coping with stressful affects. Animated case reports on specific disorders-anorexia, arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, even (speculatively) miscarriage-balance consideration of developmental questions and treatment issues (transference/countertransference) and techniques. From a historical essay on Freud's view of the mind-body connection to explorations of the complicated role of trauma and PTSD, the contributions to Dr. Finell's collection demonstrate intellectual energy and clinical creativity.