Family Crisis and Psychosomatic Illness

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Abstract
Experiences of the past decades have shown us that, especially with psychosomatic illnesses classified as ‘somatic neuroses’, it is not enough to treat merely one member of the family through combined organic and psychiatric therapy, coupled with exercises in relaxation. If a patient who has been brought back to health is sent home to an unchanged pathological family situation, either the patient suffers a relapse or another member of the family becomes ill. The family presents its ‘sick one’ as a standard-bearer for a disturbed family structure in which very often a somatically healthy family member acts as the real psychotoxin. The attention of psychosomatic research has recently been highly concentrated on the relationship between the condition of the family circle and the psychosomatic illness of a member of that family and, therefore, on family therapy.

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