Psychosomatics today: a review of contemporary theory and practice.

In the past few years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of psychoanalytic publications on the topic of psychosomatic illness, including edited collections and special editions of psychoanalytic journals. This paper is a critical conceptual review of the topic of psychosomatic illness using the material contained in a number of these recent publications as a basis, but also drawing on other works by the key authors of the publications discussed herein. This paper proposes that currently there appear to be two schools of thought around the origin, development, and treatment of psychosomatic symptoms. The first of these is the well-established "Paris School of Psychosomatics." The second approach does not formally exist, but is referred to in this paper as the "Attachment approach" since there are a number of authors who theorize about the treatment of psychosomatic symptoms in a similar and important way. The paper will compare and contrast the two approaches with respect to their underlying theories, treatment approaches, and conceptualization of the mind-body problem, with particular attention paid to how this is related to mentalization. The understanding of how problems in mentalization may be linked to psychosomatic illness can be conceptualized as the "speechless mind" from the perspective of the Paris School and as the "speaking body" by the Attachment approach. The paper concludes by engaging with these two conceptualizations and suggests that in order for an individual to achieve both psychological and physical health, the work of sensation must be located primarily in the logic and function of the body, while the work of making sense of these sensations and interpreting them must be located in the mind.
PMID: 23421661