Psychosomatic concepts in the works of Shakespere

Psychosomatic medical theory of the late European Renaissance is reflected in the works of Shakespere. The period's conceptions of cardiovascular involvement in emotion, experiential causation of psychosomatic disorders, and repression of emotion as pathogenic, are described with reference to quotations from the Shakesperian plays. It is concluded that the premodern holistic approach to organismic functioning lends itself well to interpreting psychophysiological phenomena, and that contemporaries could profit from a philosophical reorientation concerning mind—body relationships in the disease process.