What are psychosomatic illnesses?

Illnesses with an “emotional background”, illnesses of the psyche.

Hello friends!

At the beginning of psychoanalysis, in fact, before the beginning of psychoanalysis, Freud – who lived in Vienna, Austria – went to study with Charcot in Paris. Charcot had become known worldwide for his work at the Salpetrière, especially with hysterical patients. In summary, we can say that Charcot was able to demonstrate that hysteria was not an organic, physical illness. With hypnosis, he could remove the patient’s symptom and even insert a new symptom.

Nowadays, sometimes we hear of someone who went to the doctor and heard from him that his illness had an emotional background or that what the patient was feeling was a nervous symptom, of stress, anxiety. All these causes (emotional, nervous background, etc.) mean the same thing: the origin of the symptom is not organic, it is not in the physical, in the body. It is therefore a psychosomatic illness.

Definition of psychosomatic

The word psychosomatic is of Greek origin. It is a combination of two Greek words: psyche (psycho – soul) and soma (body). And, in this way, a psychosomatic illness is one that is not exclusively somatic, bodily, but originates in the psyche, in the soul. Of course, it is difficult to say clearly what the psyche is. However, the idea is simple: the psyche includes everything that we cannot locate in the body in a specific way: our emotions, feelings, thoughts. Even with the discoveries of neuroscience, there are still many questions to be clarified regarding the location in the brain.

Anyway, it is easy to understand if we take an example.

For example, you wake up one morning and start to experience headaches and body aches. You go to a doctor and he confirms that what you are feeling was caused by a virus, the dengue virus. In this case, the symptoms are explained by a physical agent, a virus.

Now, if at another point in your life you go to the doctor and complain of headaches and, after many examinations and tests, he comes to the conclusion that there is nothing wrong with your body, he can then say that the pain headache is a psychosomatic illness. As he said, perhaps this is not the word used, perhaps the doctor uses stress, anxiety or emotions as causes.

But the words used are indifferent. What must be distinguished is between a cause that is physical and a cause that is not physical. Or rather, until now it is still difficult to locate in the nervous system, so we use the term that has been enshrined in history (psyche or soul).

The meaning of psychosomatic illnesses

If we are honest with ourselves, in our internal world, we will see that in many circumstances we may have had psychosomatic illnesses. A headache, a cough, a bowel stuck or too loose, heartburn, among others. However, can we find a meaning in this type of manifestation? That is, does each psychosomatic illness have a meaning?

For example, some authors argue that headaches (without a physical origin) are the result of excessively self-critical or perfectionistic behavior.

So, we would have:

– psychosomatic headaches = self-criticism, perfectionism

The idea is interesting and we could list other senses:

– stuck intestine = unresolved problems

– cough and respiratory allergies = irritation with something in the environment

And so on. This type of chart of meanings of emotional illnesses is interesting because it would be a way out for the cure. If I’m having a headache, I assess whether I’m criticizing myself. If it’s true that I’m criticizing myself, I try to stop criticizing myself so the headache goes away. If I have a stuck intestine, it’s because I have a problem to solve. If you solve the problem, the intestine works normally again.

That is, we would have the elucidation of the psychic cause and then we would have a “remedy” so that the cause was eliminated and the symptom cured.

The point is that, since psychoanalysis, it has been proved that these general senses are very general. In other words, the sense, the meaning will be individual. It may perhaps be true that headaches are related to self-criticism, but while that is true in most cases, it will not be true in all of them. And thus, some cases will be excluded from the possibility of cure.

In fact, if the disease is a disease of the soul, of the psyche, the treatment to be sought is not with the doctor, because the doctor will not find anything to be treated in the body. The way forward is to seek psychotherapy: psychotherapy with a psychology professional.

Note: in many cases it is really recommended to have a checkup to see if it is not an organic problem.

With psychotherapy, the person will have at their disposal a professional who will know how to lead in the elucidation of the individual, particular, unique meaning of the symptom.

For example, as I said, it may be true that an allergy is a sign of (emotional) irritation with an environmental stimulus. But for one person, what irritates is the neighbor, while for another, what irritates is his partner…

In psychotherapy, therefore, it will be possible to discover better and deeper the causes of the symptom and, more importantly, find ways to solve the symptom, the symptom.

Know more – Psychotherapy: Know the 8 Main Types

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