1st Edition

When the Body Displaces the Mind Stress, Trauma and Somatic Disease

By Jean Benjamin Stora Copyright 1999
    214 Pages
    by Routledge

    Can the mind really generate a physical disease? Conversely, can the body cause mental illness? What do we know today about their interaction? The relations between body and mind are the source of many problems that are currently treated separately by psychoanalysts and doctors because of the compartmentalisation between their disciplines. Despite differences in clinical practice, we all stand to benefit from a common understanding of the reciprocal influences of the mind and the body and the ways in which these are interrelated. It is time to stop treating the body in isolation from treatment of the mind and to understand that where the psychic apparatus fails in its key task of managing the excitations generated by the tensions and frustrations of everyday life, it is the body that takes over. With a wealth of clinical examples, the author proposes an innovative theoretical and clinical approach that seeks to break down the barriers between biology and psychoanalysis; he also demonstrates its benefits for the health and recovery of patients and its implications for disease prevention.

    ContentsIntroductionObjectives and methodological approach1. Emotions and traumas 2. The economic viewpoint and mentalisation processes3. Amanda, Arnaud, Alice, Sandrine and Emma - somatisations and regressions4. Adrienne and Sanjay - progressive disorganisation and somatisations: the emergence of irreversible unstable equilibrium5 The psychotherapy of somatic patients - the case of Nina, a woman from the MaghrebBIBLIOGRAPHYAPPENDICESNOTES

    Biography

    Jean Benjamin Stora