Psychoanalytic study of a Case of Essential Hypertension

Alexander, Franz

doi:10.1097/00006842-193901000-00010

Cited by 72 publications

(19 citation statements)

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“…These data lend some support to observa tions gathered in clinical interviews with hy pertensive patients [18,19]. Studies using standardized psychometric tests generally do not include thorough interviews, hence rele vant information may be lost.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 64%

A Double-Blind Study of Psychosocial Factors in 40-Year-Old Women with Essential Hypertension

Nordby

Ekeberg²,

Knardahl³

et al. 1995

Psychother Psychosom

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Most studies on essential hypertension have been performed in men. The aim of the present study was to describe psychosocial characteristics of 40-year-old women with never-treated essential hypertension. Psychosocial factors like childhood traumas, economy and education were studied, and psychological assessments of irritability, hostility, ‘John Henryism’ and type A behavior pattern carried out. Hypertensive premenopausal women (n = 29) were compared with healthy, age-matched, normotensive women (n = 18). Neither the women nor the examining physicians were aware of the subjects’ blood pressure status, and the setting, thus, was double-blind. All women were investigated in the same phase of the menstrual cycle, and in a random order. The hypertensives’ parents more often had hypertension than the normotensives’. The psychiatrist who conducted the interviews correctly classified the majority of subjects as either hypertensive or normotensive. Alexithymia and difficulties in coping with aggression were more prevalent among the hypertensives. Hypertensive and normotensive women did not differ in most of the psychosocial factors previously found to differ between hypertensive and normotensive men. Our data may imply that psychosocial as well as genetic factors may contribute differently to the etiology of essential hypertension in women than in men.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 64%

A Double-Blind Study of Psychosocial Factors in 40-Year-Old Women with Essential Hypertension

Nordby

Ekeberg²,

Knardahl³

et al. 1995

Psychother Psychosom

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“…Alexander's (1939) case account of a man with hypertension was noted earlier. Simon's (1948) article on the role of the psychiatrist in cardiovascular illness supported previous observations by Binger, Ackerman, Cohn, Schroeder, and Steele (1945) who implicated perfectionism in hypertension.…”

Section: Perfectionism In Hypertension and Cardiovascular Illnessesmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…This was illustrated in a case account in the very first issue of Psychosomatic Medicine. Alexander (1939) described a hypertensive, submissive man with an inferiority complex and a chronic need to be perfect and outperform others in order to establish his worth.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Perfectionism in Health and Illness from a Person-Focused, Historical Perspective

Flett

Hewitt

Molnar

2015

Perfectionism, Health, and Well-Being

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“…Indeed, as reflected in the historical review by , the notion that perfectionism is a vulnerability factor for many health risks is not new; this theme was clearly evident in the medical and psychological literatures in the 1930s and 1940s. As part of his seminal work, Alfred Adler (1938Adler ( /1998 posited that the behavior of striving towards complete (and unattainable) perfection represents a constant source of pressure within the self that can lead to physiological dysregulation, a notion that is supported by Alexander's (1939) account of a hypertensive man with an inferiority complex and a chronic need to strive for and demonstrate perfection. Pacht (1984) and Blatt (1995) both emphasized that perfectionism is driven by a fear of failure, extreme self-scrutiny, and self-criticism and underscored the notion that perfectionism is unhealthy.…”

Section: Perfectionism In Health and Illness In Healthy Samplesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Psychology of Perfectionism

Stoeber

2017

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OverviewIn this chapter, we advocate for greater attention to be directed at studying the influence of perfectionism on health and illness. It is from this perspective that our chapter presents a critical examination of the role of perfectionism in health outcomes. Although our analysis focuses primarily on how and why perfectionism relates to health symptoms, we also examine evidence linking perfectionism with difficulties in coping with chronic illness-an assessment that highlights how excessive striving for perfection may be a liability in the context of ongoing health limitations. We then focus on key mechanisms and processes that render certain perfectionists particularly vulnerable to health problems. A significant limitation plaguing the perfectionism and health field is that, aside from a few noteworthy exceptions, research has been largely atheoretical. To this end, we propose two potential pathways that may help further our understanding of why perfectionism might be implicated in poor health outcomes, namely stress and health behaviors.

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Psychoanalytic study of a Case of Essential Hypertension

Cited by 72 publications

References 0 publications

A Double-Blind Study of Psychosocial Factors in 40-Year-Old Women with Essential Hypertension

A Double-Blind Study of Psychosocial Factors in 40-Year-Old Women with Essential Hypertension

Perfectionism in Health and Illness from a Person-Focused, Historical Perspective

The Psychology of Perfectionism

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