Structure Mission The mission of the American Psychosomatic Society is to promote and advance the scientific understanding and multidisciplinary integration of biological, psychological, behavioral and social factors in human health and disease, and to foster the dissemination and application of this understanding in education and health care.

The Annual Meeting in March is an open scientific and clinical forum where investigators from allied disciplines communicate, pool their knowledge, consider problems of conceptual relationships, and develop ideas which will stimulate further research. Typically, the three-day meeting is devoted to the presentation of scientific papers, symposia, workshops, poster sessions, invited lectures and addresses. Roundtable luncheon discussions, as well as business meetings for the Society's membership and Council, and the Journal's editorial board are included. The reception and annual banquet close the meeting on Saturday.

As the official publication of the Society, the purpose of the Journal, Psychosomatic Medicine, is to present experimental and clinical studies dealing with various aspects of the relationships among social, psychological, and behavioral factors and bodily processes in both human and lower animals. It is an international, interdisciplinary journal devoted to experimental and clinical investigation in behavioral biology, including the relationship of experience to bodily functioning, or psychiatry and psychology to clinical medicine, or early experience to later behavior and physiologic function, of behavior to brain function, and of data derived from animal studies to clinical hypotheses, all of which provide a rational basis for understanding and treating complex disease states. The Journal is published nine times a year; supplementary issues may contain reports of conferences at which original research was presented in areas relevant to the Society or may consist of other features.

Membership in the Society includes specialists from all medical and health-related disciplines, the behavioral sciences and the social sciences. There are four categories of membership: Regular, Associate, Emeritus, and Corresponding. Applicants must be sponsored by a Society member. Potential applicants who do not have a sponsor should contact us for help. Members receive a discount on annual meeting registration fees. Regular, Associate, and Emeritus Members receive the Society’s journal, Psychosomatic Medicine, at no extra charge.

Regular Membership: Regular membership is open to professionals in medical, behavioral, scientific and related fields concerned with the treatment and study of psychosomatic processes in health and disease and who are qualified representatives of their respective disciplines. Regular members will normally hold the highest degree appropriate to their field. Evidence of noteworthy contributions to psychosomatic medicine or a comparable level of professional achievement will be acceptable in lieu of these requirements. Annual dues are $190, which include a subscription to the Journal. Applicants must be recommended in writing by one regular or emeritus member. Annual dues are $190, and include a subscription to the Journal.

Associate Membership: Associate Membership is open to students and trainees in medical, behavioral, and related fields concerned with the treatment and study of psychosomatic processes in health and disease who are enrolled in baccalaureate or post baccalaureate training. They have all rights and privileges of regular members with the exception of holding office. Annual dues are set at a reduced rate of $60, and include a subscription to the Journal Psychosomatic Medicine. Applications must include verification in writing from a faculty advisor testifying to the applicant’s trainee status and interest in psychosomatic medicine.

Emeritus Membership: Emeritus Membership shall be granted upon request of the member to individuals with at least 15 years of regular membership in the Society, and upon reaching either the age of 70 or retirement. Dues are waived while still receiving all benefits of regular membership..

Corresponding Membership: Corresponding membership may be extended to professionals who meet the criteria for regular membership and also reside in developing countries. Applicants must be recommended in writing by one regular or emeritus member. Corresponding members pay reduced, or no, dues as set by the Council. A Journal subscription is available at the reduced rate of $50.

The affairs of the Society are governed by a Council of 17 members, seven of whom are ex-officio, 3 elected annually, thirteen of whom are elective, serving three-year terms, and one elected for a two year term. The ex-officio members are: the President, the President-elect, the Secretary-Treasurer, the outgoing President, the Journal's Editor-in-Chief, the Program Committee Chair and the Newsletter Editor. The elected members are chosen to provide appropriate representation to the following fields: internal medicine; psychiatry; pediatrics; neuro-anatomy; physiological sciences, neurophysiology and psychophysiology; psychology; clinical psychology, sociology; anthropology; and public health.

Inception: The American Psychosomatic Society grew from a desire among several academicians, practitioners and foundations to link developments in psychology and psychiatry to internal medicine, physiology and other disciplines.

In 1936, Mrs. Kate Macy Ladd, the philanthropist and founder of the Josiah Macy, Jr., Foundation, directed the Foundation to provide support for the fledgling field of psychosomatic investigation. The initial project, undertaken by the New York Academy of Medicine's joint committee on Religion and Medicine, was to assemble a bibliography of the "psychosomatic" medical literature, 1910-1933, together with publications examining the relationship of religion to health. The task was undertaken by Dr. Helen Flanders Dunbar, director of the joint committee. The first volume was published in 1935 as "Emotions and Bodily Changes." Two further revisions brought the literature survey up to 1945.

Journal: With further financial assistance from the Macy Foundation, the National Research Council's Division of Anthropology and Psychology, Committee on Problems of Neurotic Behavior began publication of the journal, "Psychosomatic Medicine," in an effort to encourage collaboration among the medical specialties, psychology and the social sciences. The Journal's first issue appeared in 1939 under the editorship of Dr. Dunbar. Thereafter, research in the field expanded rapidly, but there was no permanent forum other than the Journal for the exchange of data and ideas. Accordingly, in December 1942, the advisory board of the Journal voted to establish the "American Society for Research in Psychosomatic Problems."

Former editors of the Journal are Drs. Carl Binger, Morton F. Reiser, Herbert Weiner, Donald Oken and Joel Dimsdale.

Society Founders: Gathered together at the organizing meeting were representatives of the several centers where psychosomatic research was under way, including Drs. George Daniels, George Draper and Helen Dunbar, Columbia-Presbyterian; Drs. Stanley Cobb, Hallowell Davis, Alexander Forbes, Walter B. Cannon and Eric Lindeman from Harvard; Dr. Harold G. Wolff and his group at Cornell-New York Hospital; and the group from Temple University in Philadelphia under Dr. Edward Weiss who, with Dr. O. Spurgeon English, delineated the "field" in 1943 in their textbook, Psychosomatic Medicine.

Council: The first meeting of the Council was held on May 11, 1943, at the Hotel Statler in Detroit under the honorary presidency of Dr. Adolf Meyer. At the meeting, Dr. Tracy Putnam was elected the first president of the Society. Dr. Winfred Overholser, president-elect and Dr. Edwin G. Zabriski, secretary-treasurer. The first scientific meeting was held jointly with the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in 1943, and in conjunction with the AMA meeting in New York in 1944. That year, the Society was incorporated under the laws of New York State and control of the Journal was shifted from the National Research Council to the Society. Beginning in 1946, the annual meetings were held independently of other organizations. In 1948, the Society's name was changed from "American Society for Research in Psychosomatic Problems" to "The American Psychosomatic Society."