Man is a very complex living being and there are various points of view from which he can be studied: biological, psychological, social, spiritual.

Science started from philosophy, as an intellectual search for truth and has arrived at the scientific method, based on hypotheses and experimental verifications, shared by the majority of scholars. Being a man so complex it is difficult to apply this method, which instead turned out to be very useful in the study of nature in its physical, chemical and biological aspects. A tendency towards the specialization of studies was then verified in an attempt to simplify and dividing man into various parts, each science has deepened a different aspect with its own theories and methods. Psychology has encountered even more difficulties, since the mind and human behavior are influenced by many internal and external factors, which are not scientifically controllable. As is well known, a medicine has developed that separates the various organs, the nervous system and the mind, which instead are all closely connected. Subsequently, the development of psychosomatics, which studies the reciprocal influence between the psyche and the body, has shown this unity now clearly for everyone. The same psychology in its attempt to become scientific had used models, such as the animal and the computer, which do not correspond to the specific human reality and had focused attention on internal, unconscious aspects, neglecting others. Today we are witnessing a great interest in natural medicine and psychosomatics, so much so that in Italy there is talk of over 9 million people, constantly increasing, who are already turning to these therapies and a bill has been presented to regulate the sector, as happens in other European countries, being already active in many Italian hospitals of natural medicine departments.

A new and positive trend is towards an integration of the sciences which thus recover the global vision of man that the ancients already had. Even within psychology and medicine there is a tendency to put back together those parts that were separated for study reasons, but that are in continuous interaction. Furthermore, psychology, medicine, and natural medicine in particular, can integrate with each other, responding better to the diagnostic and therapeutic needs of people, now disappointed by traditional medicine and some forms of psychotherapy and psychiatry that little considered the body unit - mind.

'Realtà medica 2000', INI magazine n. 1/2004