A model of psychosomatic illness.
An attempt is made to provide a general theoretical framework for psychosomatic disease. It is suggested that the convergence of a number of factors is necessary for the production of the illness. These factors include an individual's control or repression of emotional discharge over a long period. In addition, the affected person may show personality characteristics consistent with such control, and may live in a situation of unresolved conflict. The choice of illness might be determined by organ "weakness". The persistence of symptoms after resolution of the conflict is explained in terms of conditioning.
D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression; D000818:Animals; D001249:Asthma / Q000503:physiopathology; D002648:Child; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications; D004381:Duodenal Ulcer / Q000503:physiopathology; D000882:Haplorhini; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010551:Personality; D011602:Psychophysiologic Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D051381:Rats; D012094:Repression, Psychology; D012930:Social Dominance; D013276:Stomach Ulcer / Q000209:etiology; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000150:complications