Psychophysiological Complementarity in Malignancies: Past Work and Future Vistas

An empirical study of the diathesis-stress theory of disease

“…He and others (Bahnson, 1969(Bahnson, , 1976(Bahnson, , 1980Bahnson & Bahnson, 1966;Kissen, 1964a,b;Kissen & Eysenck, 1962;Le Shan, 1961, 1977Schmale & Iker, 1971) used traditional theories linking cancer with suppression of emotional expression and failure to cope properly with stress, leading to feelings of hopelessness, and helplessness, and ultimately depression. Coronary heart disease was linked by Friedman and Rosenman (1959) with Type A personality (Price, 1982), and more specifically with reactions of anger, hostility, and aggression to stress (Eysenck, 1990;Friedman & Booth-Kewley, 1987a,b).…”

Social Psychotherapy and Course of the Disease

“…In a conflict situation they tend to put the blame on themselves and to react aggressively against their own person whenever a disruption occurs in their harmonious behavior towards other people, harmonious behavior which they themselves want. If sexual fantasies or any pattern of needs arise which clash with their rigid internalized structure of standards or with their code of values, cancer patients react in an extremely self-destructive way (Evans, 1926;Kissen, 1963;Bahnson, 1969;Grossarth-Maticek, 1979a,b).…”

Epistemological perspectives of physical disease from the psychodynamic point of view.

“…To a large extent, these have been concerned with variations in the size of the group in which the animals interact and in situations which lead to confusion over for example, that as the number of animals housed together increases, with all other factors such as genetic stock, diet, temperature, and sanitation kept constant, maternal and infant mortality rates rise, the incidence of arteriosclerosis increases, resistance to a wide variety of insults, including drugs, microorganisms, and X-rays decreases, and there is an increased susceptibility to various types of neoplasia.3 Lack of territorial control has been shown to lead to the development of marked and persistent hypertension in mice, to increased maternal and infant mortality rates, and to reduced resistance to bacterial infections and decreased longevity.' 4 In addition to demonstrating the health effects of variations of the social milieu, further animal studies have provided clues to the processes through which they may be produced. Changes in group membership and the quality of group relationships have been shown to be accompanied by neuroendocrine changes, particularly, but not exclusively, by changes in the pituitary and adrenal-cortical systems.'…”

“…An organ may be related subjectively to certain emotions and affects as the heart is to love (selected tree trunks in the spring may testify to this). 4 In classic dynamic theory, the external structure is understood as a displacement from the internal psychic structure, serving as an example or manifestation of an individual's intrapsychic state. What I am suggesting here is that, based on the "displaced" investment in, or cathexis of, the environment, the behavior of this environment may be translated back into the intrapsychic and modify its function and structure, in turn determining the somatic manifestation of the process.…”