Masked depression: Progressive somatization as a response to object loss

Summary

The case history of a 46-year-old man is presented in an attempt to demonstrate progressive somatic equivalents of the psychic process of internalization as a means of coping with object loss, both before and after the fact. Practically, the paper underscores the importance of recognizing the entity of masked depression as early as possible in order to institute proper therapy, as well as the futility of reassurance in attempting to deal with the somatic manifestations of the illness. Lesse in a clinical survey has shown conclusively that the prognosis of such conditions is directly related to the duration of symptomatology, and that 84% of patients in the study had been ill for more than one year prior to psychiatric consultation.