YOGA AS THERAPY IN PSYCHOSOMATIC-MEDICINE

Yoga as therapy with psychosomatic disorders has been practiced for many centuries in India, and only recently has become utilized for this purpose in other countries. The yoga system evolved as a 'system of liberation' to allow man to discriminate between his ego-self and pure consciousness, and as such, its medical benefits are really 'side-effects'. Integral yoga practice, however, with which many other self-regulatory somatopsychic approaches have much in common, consists of a holistic technology which functions to restore optimal homeostatis by a variety of special techniques not found in other approaches. Clinical observations of psychosomatic patients indicate that their distorted somatopsychic functioning necessitates their practice of yoga or yoga-like therapy. A review of the clinical evidence available indicates that yoga practice has proven most effective with a wide range of psychosomatic and psychiatric disorders. The effectiveness of yoga can be partially understood in terms of neurophysiological theory.