Towards An Anthropological Conception of Emotions in Psychosomatic Medicine

Emotions are historically and epistemologically of central concern in psychosomatic medicine and philosophical anthropology for the understanding of the embodied self. Yet, depending on the field of study, the term is imbued with distinct and often unrelated meanings. Drawing on historical and current concepts and empirical findings of emotions applied in psychosomatic medicine and considerations of emotions developed in philosophical anthropology, the article pleads for the development of an anthropological conception of emotions as necessary and appropriate for a medicine of living persons (Weiner).