Methods and Principles of Research on Psychosomatic Fundamentals

Das Konzept des funktionellen Schwindels

“…Schwindel kann demnach als somatisches Affektäquivalent verstanden werden 26 , d. h., die biomedizinischen Aspekte der Affekte (z. B. Tachykardie) werden von den Betroffenen bevorzugt registriert und im Sinne der 2-phasischen Verdrängung 27 als Verstärkung der innerpsychischen Abwehrmechanismen eingesetzt. In der Folge geht der Betroffene davon aus, dass bei ihm eine organische Erkrankung vorliegt, begleitet von wiederholter Inanspruchnahme des medizinischen Versorgungssystems und einer Chronifizierung der Symptomatik 2 .…”

About Imagination to Heal

“…After vomiting, I feel very relieved, as if a heavy load had been lifted from me". 5 Based on the balance model, 6 I decided to address the patient through the power of fantasy, with the aim of tapping into her unconscious longings behind the symptoms (or in other words, to get the patient in touch with the needs she was not living). I offered the patient to choose a picture and offered her a mountain landscape and alternatively a picture with a beach.…”

Acute episodic psychophysiological decompensation (AEPPD)

“…manoeuvres which are (3) either nonexistent in his life style or blocked by external or internal restraints, there (4) ensues a state of perpetuating emotional arousal which, when not relieved, (5) causes an inappropriate activation of the autonomic nervous system and/or endocrine glands, leading to an acute psychophysiological manifestation in a vulnerable organ. In other words, we do not regard the turning-on point and mechanism as depending exclusively either on the patient's personality (Dunbar, 1943 ;Hollman & Hantel, 1949; Lang, 1950; Ruesch, 1948), or on the concepts of hopelessness (Engel, 1962; Greene, 1954), loss (Schmale, 1958), stress (Mitscherlich, 1961) or nonspecific stress adaptation (Wolff, 1953). Rather, this point results from the dynamic interaction of several sets in multiple systems, all coinciding to escalate the patient's emotional arousal.…”