Abstract
Understanding psychosomatic disorders implies on the one side the information processing abilities of the brain and on the other side the affective dimensions of a subject. The Paris School of Psychosomatics considers the origin of psychosomatic illness as an excessive drive and physical sensation that cannot be thought about and made sense of, the so-called speechless mind. Patients with psychosomatic disorders have great difficulties to fantasize and express feelings, demonstrating emotions in somatic manifestations. According to the attachment theory, somatization is the failure to build up a secure attachment in infancy; in early development, the integration of the sensory, visceral, and motor excitations with images and words does not take place. Both theories contain the idea that psychosomatic illness results from disturbances in early development.
In children, psychosomatic symptoms are relatively frequent as children are not as able as adults to separate psychic conflicts from somatic sensations. Somatic dysfunction without detectable somatic substrate may show up in motor, sensory, visceral, and other functional areas. For the assessment of psychosomatic symptoms in infants and young children, it is essential to consider developmental aspects. Psychological distress may have a visible or sometimes more hidden impact on the body. A clinical vignette illustrates a psychotherapeutic intervention with a child presenting psychosomatic symptoms.
The human body is the best picture of the human soul.
(Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1889–1951)
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Notes
- 1.
Tactile stimulation by massage (moderate pressure stroking) and kinesthetic stimulation by exercise (passively moving the limbs into flexion and extension) increase weight gain in preterm infants, as studies by Field (2014) demonstrate.
- 2.
According to Anzieu the “skin-ego ” is a containing envelope, built up by proprioperception and epidermal sensations. Anzieu enlarged this concept to psychic envelopes.
- 3.
The Greek word ψυχή = psyche from the verb ψύχω = blowing, breathing, meaning soul, life, and spirit
- 4.
For the history of psychoanalytic psychosomatics, see Smadja (2011).
- 5.
The Paris School of Psychosomatics was founded in 1963 by Pierre Marty. Today it is referred to as the Paris Psychosomatic Institute (IPSO = Institut de Psychosomatique).
- 6.
Alexithymia : in Greek λέξις (lexis = word) and θυμός (thumos = soul), and α = alpha-privative, meaning deprived of words of the soul.
For a psychoanalytical conception of alexithymia and operational thinking, see Pirlot and Corcos (2012).
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Steck, A., Steck, B. (2016). Somatization-Psychosomatics. In: Brain and Mind. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21287-6_12
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