BEHAVIORAL MEDICINE AND CHRONICAL ILLNESS

Behavioral medicine as psychotherapy as a whole does not have a tradit ion in dealing with people suffering from chronic illnes. The paper tr ies to point out specifities of chronic illness and discusses the need of adaptation of psychotherapeutic interventions. Possibilities of a different way to treat chronically ill patients lead to considerations in terms of a different model of illness that stresses the positive p erspectives in the illness rather than the deficits.