"As workers in the field of rehabilitation we are realizing more and more that we do not "rehabilitate" people. Rather we must be able to reach the heart and mind of the individual with whom we are dealing, so he will want to avail himself of the services our program can provide for him. His drive to accomplish his own rehabilitation must come from within himself and we must be sensitive too in the factors that can help or hinder establishing this indispensable primary base for rehabilitation. Increasingly we are learning that human motivation is influenced by many things. Especially important are the psychological and social factors of an individual's life. These factors are important to consider early in our planning for the whole program of rehabilitation for the individual and in the evaluation of each step of its development. This bulletin was written primarily for vocational rehabilitation counselors. It is expected that it will assist them in planning better rehabilitation programs. The need for awareness of the psychological adjustment mechanisms of the physically disabled is not confined to the counselor, however, and it is hoped that physicians, social workers, psychologists, and placement specialists may profit from the contents of this publication. The cooperation and coordination of the various specialties is the most important element today in providing rehabilitation services for the disabled whereby they may take their rightful place as contributing members of society. The interest and cooperation of the authors and the organizations many of them represent is a practical demonstration of the vital nature of the material presented herein. We are aware of the fact that successful rehabilitation programs depend on integrated community activity and in a sense this bulletin epitomizes that approach."--Foreword

A relationship between the disciplines of psychology and medicine is evident in writings from the beginnings of recorded history. This inter action was characterized in some epochs by mutual interest and support, only to be followed by periods of relative disinterest. During the past century there have been several formal attempts to acknowledge this interdependence and to revive and codify on a more permanent basis the working relationships between practitioners and scientists from both psychology and medicine. These twentieth-century waves of interest, which have also come and gone, have been identified by such names as psychosomatic medicine and rehabilitation psychology. For a variety of reasons, notably the lack of a sufficient knowledge base in either disci pline, the desired partnership has not come to full flower. This state of affairs seems to be changing as we enter the last two decades of the twentieth century. In the American Psychologist in September, 1980, I reviewed recent developments in psychology and in medicine and in federal and private funding patterns, which give evidence of revitalizing this partnership between these two disciplines and their relevant subspecialties. For ex ample, after six decades of spectacular biomedical scientific advances which have all but eradicated such life-threatening diseases as polio myelitis and tuberculosis, leaders in medicine, the behavioral sciences, and other segments of society reached a consensus during the 1970s that the behavior of the individual is one of today's unexplored frontiers for modern medical practice and related good health care.