The effort to familiarize the imagination with this great idea has much in common with the effort of communing with a god, and its reaction on the mind of the thinker is in many important respects the same. It may not equally rejoice the heart, but it is quite as powerful in ennobling the resolves, and it is found to give serenity during the trials of life and in the shadow of approaching death. A. Mark Clarfield, Jerusalem, Israel. My experience as a sufferer and a psychotherapist has taught me a great deal. Two lessons stand out.
Symptoms are almost always real, and they cause suffering.
It is another matter whether the cause of the symptoms is organic or psychological, with obvious implications for treatment selection. Second, d o refer patients for psychological treatment, because psychotherapy works. The bowel has a very rich nerve supply. This is bad news and good news. The bad news is that some people unfortunately find it easy to channel their emotional distress into this organ system.