De funktionelle lidelser: sygdom, psyke og soma

Resumé

The understanding of the functional diseases is complex in many ways: The difficulties of language, the cluttered diagnostic categorisation and the unclear picture of what is causing the diseases. In this article, modern perspectives on comprehension are presented, and two contemporary and different psychological attitudes are discussed in relation to the diseases. Former views and explanations of the diseases have to be discarded in the light of new empirical findings, but new views and perspectives have not yet emerged as replacements. We have to navigate in uncertainty, which produces dilemmas. A more conscious handling of the tradition of health psychology and the tradition of psychosomatics may contribute to a psychological treatment that is more precise and more relevant to the patients.