Although we have known for decades that the psyche has an influence on the body, we have not developed appropriate technologies yet, which can make the most of this knowledge and its implications in the healing process. In the public imagination we keep on struggling with the dilemma how to treat the disease: a malfunction of our body, a kind of mistake to be corrected, an enemy to be fought by all means, an ugly twist of fate or a message with precise meaning.

The NPT PsicheSoma is a variation of the Therapy of inner core, which aims to cope with the roots of mental, emotional and cognitive diseases, or of diseases of the body. In the past they were defined as psychosomatic illnesses, i.e. somatic diseases whose origin is psychic.

However there are no 'psychosomatic' diseases, since there are no "not psychosomatic” diseases. Excluding purely environmental disorders (as in the case of poisoning caused by chemical agents, poor diet, inappropriate lifestyle, use of substances, etc..), every disease has inevitably a psychic "cause" (in the same way as every psychological problem has a somatic side).

It happens that the functional processes influence the psychical ones, which in their turn influence the somatic ones, which then influence the psychical one and so on, in a reverberating circuit in which the linear causality is completely lost, replaced by a circular one, typical of complex systems as the psycho-physical organism.

We can affirm it with absolute certainty when we cannot draw a clear demarcation line between psyche and soma. Even if they are two quite different dimensions, it is not possible to separate them in any way. If we're flying over the border between two countries and we know that here is one country and there lies the other, we cannot see the boundary that separates them, since it doesn’t exist tangibly.

Moving from these obvious assumptions we can conclude that the disease, particularly if serious, is the result of the functioning of the whole body, in its two dynamically and constantly interacting aspects: psychic and somatic.

When we consider the disease as a combination of psychic and somatic factors we have to cope with the need to consider it as characterized by a meaning. Not considering it, would mean excluding the involvement of the psyche, as a "place of meaning." This is not a purely philosophical problem, because from this choice derive significant implications both for therapeutic and for medical research.

With regard to the therapy, if we deprive it of its meaning, we cannot but fight against it as if it were the "enemy of health." If we decide to give it some meaning instead, it then becomes necessary to catch and use it, like a signal which tells us something that is important for us to know, as in the case of the lights that light up on the dashboard of our car. If we want to continue our journey, we must have a look at them.

With regard to the research, ignoring the question of the meaning of the disease will lead us to investigate its "molecular" dimension, to move towards the "world of the smaller and smaller”, studying the sophisticated cellular and molecular mechanisms. If we consider it as significant, this will increase our attention to its "molar" dimension, i.e. the individual considered as a whole. Here the patient becomes as important as the disease.

From cybernetics we know that any complex system has an internal controller, i.e. an element capable of controlling it, thanks to the fact that they have more possibility of choice or variability, or more options than others.

It should be noted that the concept of controller suggests a structural or hierarchical view of the processes mind / body, even if that vision has already been replaced by a theory based on the synchronicity, focused on the concept of coordinator.

This refers to the function, in fact, of coordination -i.e. the ability to organize - performed by a biological factor (e.g. a molecule or a body) or psychological (such as an emotion or a belief) on a certain process or phenomenon in the body.

According to this view and to the concept of “field”, typical of quantum physics, rather than to the concept of linear causality coming from the old physics, the organic dimension (biology),the psychic one (psychological) and the bioenergetical one (physics) are the constantly interacting poles of a continuum (or a field) where there is no beginning and no end, no before and no after, no cause and no effect, but the reality of the body is seen as a diamond with its different facets.

The Psyche-Soma NPT considers the hypothetical system controller mind-body not from a descriptive or explaining point of view, but from a purely pragmatic point of view, in terms of utility of the intervention.

In more concrete terms, this particular way of seeing things can benefit the patient (used to see things in a perspective of causality), when we deal with his disease and with the mechanisms that govern its occurrence.

Returning to the possibility of choice linked to the controller, the control degree implemented by each member of a particular system is thus proportional to the number of such possibilities. We can always obtain examples of this, simply by observing human relationships.

Children often end up controlling the adults who take care of them, because they are not limited by their own thought patterns, as well as the wittiest member of a couple is able to influence the decisions of the other, the most ingenuous.

In the army, there is a general who commands the officers, who command in their turn the soldiers. We can compare the pathogenetic mechanisms that governs the occur of the disease to the officers and the soldiers, and the controller to the general. The former are often well known, while the latter remain in the background.

In animal and human social systems, the presence of a controller who governs the maintenance of a specific order within the system (order which guarantees the existence as such) is evident. From social insects to human societies, there are members who carry out this task, protecting the system from the chaos that could develop under the influence of environmental factors.

Inside the human psychophysical body the presence of a controller is intuitively evident in the innate tendency to maintain a constant functioning of the body and psyche, despite climate, food or lifestyle variations, which could produce the disease as a dysfunctional phenomenon. In this case we can define it as a sense of homeostasis.

The state of health is the result of the alignment of different bodily functions, as it happens to the water flowing in a river, which goes entirely in the same direction.

The disease would be, therefore, the signal of a disturbance in this homeostatic trend. The manifold pathogenetic mechanisms that lead to disease are, in their whole, a causal chain and in theory, beginning from the disease, considered as the final link we can come to the first one. The problem is that if we go and look for the primum movens of the disease we often get into a spot.

If we ask ourselves 'why does it happen? ", we might conclude that the cause of disease X is the alteration of some organic pathogenetic mechanism Y, which lies at the basis of the various mechanisms Z1, Z2, Z3, etc... If at this point we wonder what has led to the alteration of the mechanism Y we could however not find a suitable answer.

Why do we get sick? Why is that particular function or that organ involved? Why namely in that way? Why in that moment of our lives? Why with certain events?

We are used to ask ourselves these questions about illnesses, which require an answer and the explication of their meaning. The questions, which we have been accustomed to by the science, seem to be focused on the “how”, i.e. o the identification of pathogenetic mechanisms that govern its occurrence. We do not consider the reason why we mutilate the mechanisms related to the “how”.

If we were dealing with a chain, from a link to the other we would have reached the hypothetical final link to realize, shocked, that this chain is suspended in a vacuum, not being tied to anything. Knowing the pathogenetic mechanisms that underlie the occurrence of a disease, we are therefore not satisfied, yet. The reason why it has manifested is still missing.

Despite the fact that our natural inclination, which appears around the age of three, makes us look for the “why” for anything we do not like, for every problem, every strange phenomenon, when it comes to the disease we ignore this rule: we are satisfied just by the “how”.

Referring these considerations to the army, focusing on the “how”, we cannot find the general who gave the order to attack, which is the force that has disturbed the natural homeostatic tendency which should ensure the health, which has acted on the controller of the whole system, overwhelming it.

If the soldiers - that is the pathogenetic mechanisms associated to the question "How has the disease come out?" - received the order to attack, they are doing it and, as a consequence, we will have to cope with them too. But if in the meantime we have discovered and neutralized or made the general our ally, we will know that they will not receive that order anymore.

A first interesting observation that we can do about the distinction between the diseases as a phenomenon with a particular meaning and not is that our culture, which has roots in the Enlightenment and in the Industrial Revolution, is responsible to have stripped the meaning from the disease. In traditional cultures the disease is considered as the effect of the transgression of a religious or social rule, the infringement of a taboo, the possession by a demon or a spirit

This inheritance of a magical and superstitious mentality seemed to be completely abandoned when Freud, studying some functional disorders (such as certain forms of blindness, paralysis, anesthesia), found their psychogenic root, i.e. a precise meaning in the emotional and relational sphere, defining them as symptoms of conversion hysteria.

In the thirties the PNEI (Psycho-Neuron-Endocrine-Immunology), the new branch of modern medicine begun with the now well-known research on stress by Selye, clarified that from a functional point of view psychic phenomena, the nervous, endocrine and immune systems are integrated into a common network. The PNEI defines the disease as "an alteration of the balance and the communication between the nervous, endocrine and immune systems."

When we take in consideration the "psyche", from the Greek “breath, air, soul”, we are considering first of all emotions. Our emotions and in general what we feel – including then also the feelings related to our needs - are the forces that motivate us, that control our behavior for better or for worse and act then - as it has been clearly shown PNEI – even in the psychophysical organism.

We know what people can do when they are moved by intense emotions: the noblest gestures as well as the most atrocious deeds. But even behind these behaviors, apparently lacking in emotion, there are values, and, which is important to us, a kind of emotionally charged beliefs.

If we consider emotions as "forms of psychic energy, in concordance with the first law of thermodynamics, or the energy conservation principle, we must conclude that they are not created because they are innate (since they are part of the store with which nature has provided us in order to adapt to our environment) and may not even be destroyed. We know what happens when we try to deny or refuse a deep emotional state: we keep it inside us for a lifetime!

The principle of the conservation of energy is the most important of the laws of conservation in physics. In its most intuitive form, it asserts that, although it can be transformed and converted from one form to another, the total energy of an isolated system is constant, i.e. its value remains unchanged with the passage of time.

If energy cannot be destroyed, it can then be transformed. The question then is: "Which forms can take the emotional energy when not properly elaborated?”. This question would be important in case of traumatic situations, in which emerge particularly intense emotional states, deep and unpleasant, that is a significant amount of psychic energy is involved.

To answer appropriately we should clarify what we mean by isolated system with reference to the human organism and by adequate elaboration of an emotion. In reality, the answer to both questions lies in the Latin etymological root of 'emotion', i.e. emotus, past participle of emovere, which means "take out".

When emotions arise, they tend, therefore, to be carried out, i.e. expressed, shown, and displayed. If, under the influence of culture rather than social or environmental factors, this does not happen, with regard to this form of energy, the body would function as an isolated system. The total amount of energy would remain constant even if its shape tends to change.

Somatic illness may consist in a simple alteration of pathogenetic mechanisms, or in an organic alteration. It is as if the flow of the river, in those parts that correspond to the altered functions, were blocked or diverted. In physics we talk about “work”, and to create it a certain amount of energy is necessary.

This is a possible answer to the previous question, ""Which forms can take the emotional energy when not properly elaborated?". The emotional factor would be the primum movens, the first link of the chain which ends with the occurrence of a functional or organic disorder.

Moreover, it would represent the meaning of the disease. In fact “meaning” and “sense” are similar concepts and "sense" has the same etymological root of "hearing". In addition, the term "pathology" derives from the Greek p*thos, which means affection, pain, emotion, pain, passion, and suffering. Also, when we talk about the disease, we say someone is “affected”. Thus the link between emotions and health becomes clear.

Referring to the emotional states not adequately prepared, the questions which appeared unanswered “Why do we get sick? Why is that particular function or that organ involved? Why namely in that way? Why in that moment of our lives? Why with certain events?” can finally be answered.

Recently, through a method called Bio-Explorer, which allows the instrumental detection of biochemical processes of cerebra-spinal and somatic areas, the very close correlation between emotional states, the biochemical cerebral and somatic picture, the functional predisposition to illness has received an adequate experimental support.

Because of its emotional meaning the disease would be, therefore, a form of communication or a message. If you absolutely want a person to have your message, you can send him an SMS. If he gives no sign of having received it, you will send him an e-mail. If you still do not receive any feedback and if you think that the message is very important, you may write him a letter or go to his house and ring the bell. If you still receive no answer, you may batter down the door to gain entry.

This is the description of a disease, namely if serious: a very important message that we have not accepted yet, and so it becomes necessary to batter down the door in an attempt to let it gain our conscience.

This message then takes the form of language function and language organ. They both refer to a code of correspondences, the oldest of which is certainly the one developed by Chinese medicine.

It sees the emotions as movements of Ki, which is the vital energy. The emotions classified are five: anger, euphoria, thought, sadness and fear. These are the primary movements and they are the root of all the other feelings that inhabit the human soul.

Every emotion is the expression of one Zang (organ): euphoria is the heart, thought corresponds to the spleen, sadness is the lung, fear is the kidney, and anger is the liver. When feelings are produced with measure and orderliness, there is harmony, otherwise an imbalance originates, which can manifest itself differently, depending on the situation.

Many idiomatic phrases about the body refer to diseases affecting the body function, as in the case of "Living a suffocating relationship" (respiratory problems), "Swallowing a toad" (digestion problems), "Do not see farther than your nose "(sight problems), and other organic diseases, such as "eat your liver because of anger"(liver problems)," Having a hard heart "(heart problems)," To have a lump in the throat (throat problems) "Being paralyzed by fear" (problems of the locomotor system).

These linguistic expressions, as the correspondences between organs and emotional states in Chinese medicine, would indicate the symbolic meaning of the disease, namely the general meaning, equally applicable to all individuals who are affected by it.

This level of meaning would correspond to the archetypical plan, born after millions of years of phylogenic evolution, grounded on a biological and instinctual basis, common to all humanity. Alongside this meaning there would be also a personal one, which is identified with emotional states that illness brings with itself and with the peculiar characteristics of the traumatic situation in which they originated.

The issue of illness as a message forces us to reconsider the concept of “illness”. Hidden aspects, such as altered pathogenetic mechanisms, or the apparent ones, i.e. the symptom or the organic alteration? What counts in a message is it to be understood, which requires the involvement of the awareness.

By identifying the message that the disease would bring, we may focus on the phenomenological point of view, so that the disease is what appears to the patient, i.e. what he considers as such, without taking in consideration the definition given by a doctor.

In the field of relations between mind and body it may still be useful to think that every mental phenomenon may have a functional or organic equivalent, as if between the two plans there were an implicit link, which works continuously (see Chinese medicine). This link is highlighted in particular by emotions, which are situated on two levels: the psychological experience and their biochemical correlates.

If we consider primary emotions such as fear and anger, they are biologically related respectively to adrenaline and noradrenalin. Emotions are thus between the two worlds, psychic and somatic, and they represent the bridge that bridges the quantum gap between matter and energy. As there are well-known correlations between specific emotions and specific molecules, they could exist also between any physical and somatic function.

If we assume that the disease bears a meaning and that it is a message addressed to the awareness of the patient, we must necessarily associate to the concept of energy as source of work that of intelligence. This would correspond to what Aristotle called final causality, which means moving from the result which is to be achieved and going backwards (teleological vision).

Returning to the example of the river, when I decide to divert its course, I have to embank it or even build a dam if I intend to block it. While I am doing it, I am moved by the goal that I want to achieve (e.g. to create a reservoir or irrigate a parched land), so I have to act in a certain way, on the basis of a project divided into several phases.

It is clear that this requires intelligence. When a disease considered as a message develops, a certain amount of emotional energy would then be used by some form of intelligence, to modulate different pathogenetic mechanisms according to a precise sequence.

At this point we must introduce other concepts, which in the case of the disease are rather disturbing: those of will and intentionality. Intelligence is, in fact, moved by the will or the intention to proceed in the direction of the disease, modulating the pathogenetic mechanisms that govern its occurrence.

Considering again the example of the river, if you see a yard, which is building new embankment walls or a dam, you cannot but think that somebody has built it! This is a work which involves the use of resources, which have to be managed intelligently, through successive stages of development and aiming at a precise result.

Here we can begin to draw a conclusion. Disease – in particular a serious one - would not be, therefore, the result of a malfunction or failure of the organism, nor a freak of nature or of unfortunate circumstances. Comparing it to the political regime of a country, it would be a sort of putsch: the controller that guarantees the welfare is ousted by another one, whose aim is to establish the disease.

What we have stated so far leads us to the equally disturbing conclusion that a kind of inner director has the implicit knowledge (see the concept of intelligence) of the pathogenetic mechanisms and the power to control them at his will in order to produce the disease. Will and intentionality towards the disease cannot refer to the patient, who wants to be healthy! But then, what or who should we look for?

We often hear people saying: “'There's a part of me that leads me to ... but the other part wants to…”, “At that very moment it was as if I were no longer myself”, “It was as if I were another person”, “Something inside of me took over" and so on.

If we consider these idioms not as simple idioms, but as linguistic indicators of a subconscious reality (i.e. we de-metaphorize them), they show us parts of the personality. Sometimes these parts can be very powerful, real nuclei of awareness and decision, arisen with traumas of childhood, which have never been developed.

In this complex framework unpleasant emotions, the core of traumatic situations would also represent the energy that governs the whole process. The director - or controller - is the depositary of this energy, which he can use in an intelligent way to realize his project: the disease.

Until now, studying and treating the diseases, we have not taken into account the factor of direction, which plays the main role, if assuming the disease as a phenomenon with a precise meaning.

If therapy, whatever it is, did not take in proper account the will, it would risk in some way to be neutralized, or, if it had success, it would risk to trigger a chain reaction, replacing the old disease with another, as new message.

If you really want to communicate something to someone first of all you send him an e-mail, if he does not answer you can make a call, if nobody answers the phone, you write a letter, if you still have no answer you go to his house and ring the bell.

Therapy of the inner core, or NPT, addresses to parts of the personality, which are characterized by unpleasant emotions, arisen because of old traumas. The accumulation of unelaborated emotional energy that emerged during the various traumatic situations of childhood would occur in the core personality, which in NPT is called "refused Child".

This is the immaterial psychic container, typical of the old suffering, which is looking for recognition, acceptance and understanding, in a word of approval. Its energy charge would sometimes be so powerful to produce both psychological and somatic symptoms. This is how the diseases, especially the serious ones, crippling or invalidating diseases, represent the metaphor of traumatic situations of childhood.

Deprived of the opportunity to satisfy his need of approval, the “refused Child” finds the path of the body, creating the disease, which is expression of the ancient suffering. The dimension of the reality would be, thus, the last attempt to reach the awareness of an adult, in order to satisfy that need.

The action of our inner core can create the conditions for mental disorders to occur, as well as somatic. In this case, infantile emotions, coming from traumatic experiences, were not accepted with consciousness, but remained at the stage of floating energy in search of an adequate recognition.

On the basis of this order of the inner world of the patient, we may study a way to treat the disease, moving from the idea of direction, which implies the idea of awareness and intentionality. The aim is to conform the psychical reality of the patient to the somatic action, in order to stimulate his deep resources and amplify beneficial effects through the alliance with the deep nuclei.