This post continues the body topic. The following about somatisation was written by Robert Shaw which is perfectly embedding into my topic and meets my voice. Shaw is a Psychioterapiest and registered Osteopath in private practice (for note; see belowe).
The construct of somatisation, within the medical world, refers to bodily pain which does not appear to have an organic physical aetiology. Such pain represents a challenge to medicine, as it defies classification within a discrete pathological category. Nevertheless, the very naming of a specific category, in this case somatisation, does provide a medical label. However, people to whom thi label is attributed are often additionally classified by the medical profession as “crocks, turkeys, hypochondriacs, the worried well, and the problem patients” (Lipowski, 1988) There is a belief that pain is ‘all in the mind’ (Evans 1993). There appears to be an assumption that somatisation and psychosomatic disorders are linked, and of less importance than ‘real’ illness, where the patient has a demonstrable pathological label.
Somatisation is a ubiquitous phenomenon in primary health care settings throughout Western culture. Medicine is beginning to view the phenomenon with increasing interest, as the cost of treatment for people who are somatising is called into question. Other cultures have observed somatisation; for example shamanism acknowledges the existence of psychosomatic process (Achterberg 1985). In ancient Buddhism, it was believed that the conversation psychological pain into somatic pain was an adaptive achievement. In other cultures, there is an attempt to link affect to bodily organs, and thereby transcend the mind-body dichotomy; an example here is how Afghanis refer to ‘squeezing of the hart’ to denote sadness or depression. In Chinese medicine, somatic changes and emotions are linked by notions of the angry liver and the melancholy spleen (Ots 1990).
Somatisation, is a distinct category, does try to solve the problem of linking mind and body, bot does so only within the confines of reductionistic medical discourse. This problem has been noted by Ots, who rejects the notion of somatisation on the grounds that it is embedded in the mind-body dichotomy. In arguing against the use of the term somatisation, he makes the link with the body another way, and suggests that the German word ‘lieb’ could be employed. This would describe how mind, body, and person are considered to be all part of lived experience.
Note:
The Embodied Psychotherapist The Therapist's Body Story
Author: Robert Shaw
ISBN: 978-1-58391-269-0 (paperback) 978-1-58391-268-3 (hardback) 978-0-203-42081-2 (electronic)
No. of pages: 170
Originally Published On: September 2003
The construct of somatisation, within the medical world, refers to bodily pain which does not appear to have an organic physical aetiology. Such pain represents a challenge to medicine, as it defies classification within a discrete pathological category. Nevertheless, the very naming of a specific category, in this case somatisation, does provide a medical label. However, people to whom thi label is attributed are often additionally classified by the medical profession as “crocks, turkeys, hypochondriacs, the worried well, and the problem patients” (Lipowski, 1988) There is a belief that pain is ‘all in the mind’ (Evans 1993). There appears to be an assumption that somatisation and psychosomatic disorders are linked, and of less importance than ‘real’ illness, where the patient has a demonstrable pathological label.
Somatisation is a ubiquitous phenomenon in primary health care settings throughout Western culture. Medicine is beginning to view the phenomenon with increasing interest, as the cost of treatment for people who are somatising is called into question. Other cultures have observed somatisation; for example shamanism acknowledges the existence of psychosomatic process (Achterberg 1985). In ancient Buddhism, it was believed that the conversation psychological pain into somatic pain was an adaptive achievement. In other cultures, there is an attempt to link affect to bodily organs, and thereby transcend the mind-body dichotomy; an example here is how Afghanis refer to ‘squeezing of the hart’ to denote sadness or depression. In Chinese medicine, somatic changes and emotions are linked by notions of the angry liver and the melancholy spleen (Ots 1990).
Somatisation, is a distinct category, does try to solve the problem of linking mind and body, bot does so only within the confines of reductionistic medical discourse. This problem has been noted by Ots, who rejects the notion of somatisation on the grounds that it is embedded in the mind-body dichotomy. In arguing against the use of the term somatisation, he makes the link with the body another way, and suggests that the German word ‘lieb’ could be employed. This would describe how mind, body, and person are considered to be all part of lived experience.
Note:
The Embodied Psychotherapist The Therapist's Body Story
Author: Robert Shaw
ISBN: 978-1-58391-269-0 (paperback) 978-1-58391-268-3 (hardback) 978-0-203-42081-2 (electronic)
No. of pages: 170
Originally Published On: September 2003
2 comments:
Dear Laszlo,
I am so pleased that you are back. We need to have many, many angles to be published, thought about and talked about.
Thank you for your contribution.
Best Wishes, Judit
Thank you very much!
Laci
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