Psychology and Psychosomatic Illness: Reflections on Theory and Research Methodology

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Abstract
The term ‘denial’, as commonly used in respect to patients with psychosomatic disorders, implies that the widely observed absence of affect and fantasy, in such patients, is the result of psychological defense mechanisms. Careful observation of the mental functioning of those with psychosomatic disorders discloses a basic incapacity in patients with these illnesses to experience or express affect and related fantasies that is different from that seen in patients with psychoneuroses, in whom psychological defense mechanisms are clearly operating. It is suggested that the phenomena seen in psychosomatic patients are not primarily the result of psychodynamic conflicts but can be better understood in neurophysiological concepts, and that further understanding of psychosomatic processes is to be sought for in an increased knowledge of brain function.

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