The mind and body are not independent but parallel. “For there are not two processes, and there are not two entities; there is but one process … one entity, seen now inwardly as mind, now outwardly as matter, but in reality an inextricable mixture and unity of both. Mind and body do not act upon each other, because they are not other, they are one.” Baruch Spinoza, as paraphrased by Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, 1954.

An extensive review of the psychological and emotional aspects of digestive disorders is beyond the scope of this book. Because psychological factors do play an important role in gastroenterologic disorders, however, and patients certainly react emotionally to illness, we need to consider at least briefly the psychosomatic component of gastrointestinal disease.