Psychosomatic disorders: the canalization of mind into matter

Psychosomatic disorders represent a therapeutic conundrum. Despite compelling evidence to suggest the integrity of mind and body, humans are famously prone to experiencing them as separate. This paper explores the scientific challenges posed by psychosomatic disorders and how changing cultural notions contribute to their perplexing presentations. Excerpts of cases from patients with chronic pelvic pain, chronic fatigue, and a factitious disorder are presented as examples of the challenges that these patients pose in analysis. An explanatory model of mind/body interaction based on early maternal-infant interactions and the placebo response complex is proposed as the basis for how psychosomatic pathologies may develop. Finally, therapeutic approaches to the psychological treatment of patients with psychosomatic issues are considered.     

对颌骨骨折坚固内固定术患者心身感受的质性研究

了解颌骨骨折坚固内固定术患者不同阶段的心理和躯体感受,以便为其提供人性化的人文护理服务,使患者满意,使优质护理服务得到落实。采用立意取样法选取研究对象,对选取的31例颌骨骨折坚固内固定术患者采用质性研究中的现象学方法进行深度访谈,并对资料进行整理和分析。结果发现患者在三个阶段中的护理问题如下：（1）手术前;自我形象紊乱、功能障碍和焦虑。（2）手术后：舒适受到影响和愧疚感等。（3）出院时：渴求信息。本研究能规范颌骨骨折坚固内固定术患者人文护理的具体内容,改善其护理问题。     

Hearing the roar

In this paper I will discuss the case of an older male patient, Michael, and that of a little boy, Daniel. In both cases the archetypal image of a roaring lion has interesting clinical implications. However, the symbol of the lion had a totally different meaning for each patient as the case material will demonstrate.     

The animating body: psychoid substance as a mutual experience of psychosomatic disorder

Starting from Jung's hypothesis of 'the psychoid', the author suggests that the concept can be extended and understood as a dynamic, relational and interpersonal experience-especially in regressed analytic relations. The author then defines his use of the term 'animating body' as having to do with primitive animal imagery and with psychosomatic symptoms stemming from disturbed pre-verbal and pre-whole-object stages of development. A case of a borderline patient is presented, whose projective identifications into the analyst infected him with her psychosomatic disorder, with her internalized Oedipal confusion and necessarily induced a mutually similar animal dream symbolism. If these embodied countertransference experiences (of desperate merging and sickening identification) can be lived through (tolerated and survived), thought through and interpreted, then they can actually become enlivening and lead to a therapeutic psychosomatic co-ordination.     

The symbol in the body: the un-doing of a dissociation through Embodied Active Imagination in Jungian analysis

Jung understood dissociation as a natural state of the psyche, capable of turning defensive through development. Based on this premise, and its conception on the equivalence between psyche and matter, the present work describes the un-doing of a dissociation expressed through a chronic enterocolitis disorder. When the symbol remains closer to the body and its most instinctive manifestations, we need to descend to that level in order to let the vertical axis connection be gradually restored through the therapeutic relationship – the horizontal axis. In other words, this un-doing requires that patient and analyst follow the unconscious path proposed by symbolic expressions that gradually emerge through the patient’s body and active imagination. Movement is our most primitive and fundamental experience. Many authors (Stern, Panksepp, Gallese) have agreed that, in addition to being first in terms of development, movement continues to have primacy over any other experience throughout life. This means that emotions, bodily concepts and, later, speech, evolve from a somatic basis. In the light of such neuroscientific findings, Jung’s vision of the correspondence of psyche and matter will be revisited in order to portray how the analytic bond provides a context for the re-establishment of the linking/creative function of the archetype, and allows the restoring of the ego-Self axis connection by including non-verbal approaches, such as body-based active imagination, also known as Authentic Movement. Authentic Movement is an amplification of Jung’s active imagination method that enables a dialogue between the ego and the diverse configurations of the unconscious. When such dialogue is grounded in the body, there is an easier access to the affective dimension stored in implicit memory. That which was relived through the body can gradually be remembered, and affects hitherto rejected, find other symbolic ways of being expressed and contained in the analytic vas.     

高血压病临床决策的思考

高血压病防控形势不理想的现状要求临床决策要有新的科学思维。病因正本清源是基础,应该从生物、社会心理、环境生态等宏观与微观着手,真正把握高血压病这一心身性疾病的本质。临床药物干预是手段,用药诸环节要因人而异,既尊重人体自调适规律又成为有益的修正。随着对高血压病认识的深化,临床决策将永久处于相对不确定之中。思维上临床决策应从非线性思维出发,深刻理解诊疗指南的复杂表述;整体医学观上应有“天人合一”整体观念,统筹分析;同时卫生经济学上应坚持简、便、效、廉的基本目标。     

赖尔的行为主义心身关系论辩分析

现代哲学家赖尔把笛卡尔的学说称为"机器中的幽灵说",认为笛卡尔犯了范畴错误,并提出了自己所谓的心的理论。但是赖尔虽然正确指出了笛卡尔的错误,却仍然无法解决身心问题,其自身理论面临着困境。赖尔将心的本质理解为行为,然而哲学家对赖尔的批评表明对心的词汇的物理行为分析是不可能成功的。赖尔的困境是其哲学本体论的必然结果,在赖尔那里还是把世界描述为"心-物"的二元对立,而在二元论框架内是无法解决心身问题的。     

Fabricated bodies: A model for the somatic false self

This paper draws attention to a particular use of the body, one in which basic psychical security is achieved through a radical detachment from body vitality, necessitating the creation of a coercive regime of psychosomatic control and autostimulation for purposes of artificial enlivenment of the self. When the personality is organized predominantly along the lines of a systematic dissociation (and then pseudo-integration) of the mental and the somatic realms of psychical life, the psyche-soma undergoes a far-reaching transmutation: the desiring body is eclipsed and replaced with a fabricated body. Clinical observation of this set-up is obscured by the fact that, in these cases, the body is deployed in a 'realistic' manner, rather than in a recognizably symptomatic way. It is, indeed, the hallmark of a successful somatic false-self organization that the colonization of the body is disguised as natural, ego-syntonic and compatible with social norms. The treatment approach requires a broadening of analytic attention to apprehend shifts in states of consciousness and psychophysical cues.     

Psychosomatic complaints in adolescence: Untangling the relationship between offline and online peer victimization,psychosomatic complaints and social support

Offline peer victimization has been linked to psychosomatic complaints. As peer victimization is no longer limited to adolescents’ offline relationships, it is crucial that we investigate whether online peer victimization has similar negative consequences. To date, no study systematically investigated the unique contribution of online vs. offline peer victimization on psychosomatic complaints, and the possible protective effect of social support. The current study disentangled offline and online peer victimization by distinguishing four victim types: non-victims, offline, online, and dual victims (N = 897, 9-to-18-year-olds). In addition, we assessed perceived social support from teachers, parents, friends and classmates. A main effect was found for victim type on psychosomatic complaints. Victims (offline or dual) reported more psychosomatic complaints than non-victims. Notably, online victims reported similar levels of psychosomatic complaints compared to non-victims. Furthermore, although social support from parents and classmates was related to fewer psychosomatic complaints, only limited support was found for a buffering effect of social support.     

Assessment of hormonal parameters and psychological well‐being in healthy subjects after a Taoist qigong program: An exploratory study

Qigong is an ancient form of health maintenance, which is part of Traditional China Medicine. Numerous beneficial mental and physical effects have been classically ascribed to this traditional psychosomatic method. The purpose of this work has been to assess the effects of Taoist qigong practice on several hormonal parameters of the Hipotalamic‐Pituitary‐Adrenal axis and specific measures of psychological well‐being in healthy subjects. Forty‐three healthy volunteers participated in the study, of whom 22 were randomly allocated to the experimental group, and 21 were assigned to the control group. Experimental participants underwent a qigong training program for one month. Blood samples for the quantification of hormonal parameters, and several instruments to assess anxiety and depression symptoms as well as subjective sleep quality, were obtained before and after the program. Statistically significant differences were found between the experimental and control groups, with the experimental group showing lower blood levels of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). This study shows that Taoist qigong is a psychosomatic method able to exert a modulatory action on ACTH levels in healthy subjects. We consider the need to continue exploring the psychobiological modulation of this qigong method and its possible repercussion for human health care.