Family Dynamics and Family Psychotherapy of Psychosomatic Disorders

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Abstract
Family therapy of psychosomatic disorders is often difficult and comparable to the therapy of psychotic patients. Nonetheless, the results published today by authors such as Minuchin and Selvini and our own experiences are promising indeed. We have found that what seemed to be a deep-rooted psychic structure changed rapidly and enduringly if the relationship field changed. Amelioration of symptoms is in many cases easily attained if they are understood in their function within a relational system. Also, we regard the system or family approach as a chance for medical practice. The general practitioner who usually deals with family systems has, in our view, an ideal position to bring about change if he uses his authority and trust properly. He has to obtain a positive, not pathology-oriented view and should use family and social resources in spite of engaging in an often fruitless and endless contact with the designated patient, which only serves to maintain and even to increase the homeostatic lock of the family system.

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