MELLEM SUNDHED OG SYGDOM: REFLEKSIONER OVER SOMATISERING

Abstract

Embedded in the concept of somatization, lie two of the most difficult problems of psychology: the relationship between body and mind and the question of causality, the term »somatization« presupposing both psychophysical dualism and psychological etiology. The implications of these positions for diagnosis and treatment are discussed in relation to the two different meanings of the concept: 1) as medically unexplained physical complaints, and 2) as a process of psychosomatic disorganisation, with or without objective anatomical and/or physiological etiology. It is in the
latter connotation, inspired by recent french psychoanalytic thinking, that the author finds the use of the term somatization justifiable and clinically meaningful.