Psychoneuroimmunology: The problem of the situatedness of illness and the conceptualization of healing

Psychoneuroimmunology claims to go beyond narrow biological perspectives of illness to consider behavioral components as an integral part of health and disease. The conceptualization of the embodiment of behavioral dimensions and how they may be represented in terms of interaction between the central nervous system and the immune system are therefore central theoretical issues. Psychoneuroimmunology is thus an arena in which questions about the body and person in context should come to the fore. There are multiple approaches in the psychoneuroimmunological literature, including those which attempt to address in some fashion the issue of the situatedness of illness. It is argued here that the problem of the representation of situatedness is the primary axis of tension in current research and writing in psychoneuroimmunology. Diverse attempts to represent extremely complex (and non-linear) relationships between behavioral and biological dimensions of 'immune system' functioning drive a number of researchers, though they operate under disciplinary, institutional, and funding constraints in the U.S. which tend to work against the development of competing or radical models within psychoneuroimmunology itself.