WHAT IS PSYCHOSOMATIC MEDICINE?
Lets start off with some good old fashioned linguistics. There is great power in words. Not only in understanding the world you experience, but in creating it as well. According to etymonline..
psycho-
word-forming element meaning "mind, mental; spirit, unconscious," from Greek psykho-, combining form of psykhē "the soul, mind, spirit; life, one's life, the invisible animating principle or entity which occupies and directs the physical body; understanding, the mind (as the seat of thought), faculty of reason" (see psyche).
somatic (adj.)
"pertaining to the body" (as distinct from the soul, spirit, or mind), 1775, from French somatique and directly from Latinized form of Greek sōmatikos "of the body," from sōma (genitive sōmatos) "the body"
So…what he have here is a name that describes a perspective relating to ailments or dis-eases that takes into account how the mind, psyche and even spirit relate to and are intertwined with the body.
Don’t let the word ‘psycho’ scare you. Although they were both good movies, there’s nothing crazy about psychosomatic illnesses and manifestations. They are universal, and some extent we as humans experiences ‘psychosomatic’ phenomena almost everyday. What do I mean by that? Look a little closer…
A blush when embarrassed
Butterflies in the stomach
A pimple coincidentally right before that important date, meeting or event
The feeling of chills or chicken skin when you hear that song, or those words
The tears
The voice crack, just as you were about to say something you didn't know if you should
One wouldn't really call these manifestations ‘symptoms’ in the common sense, mainly because the word symptom is commonly understood as having a negative connotation, but they are symptoms/symbols of feelings and happenings residing outside the realm of conscious awareness. Did you consciously command your cheeks to blush? Voice to crack? Or set those butterflies loose in your tummy?
psy·cho·gen·ic
/ˌsīkōˈjenik/
adjective
having a psychological origin or cause rather than a physical one.
"psychogenic ill health"
Not so much. Your unconscious mind acted on your behalf. Those phenomena experienced in your body, by your ego were generated by your brain in reaction to something and they are speaking a language. Understanding this is key to psychosomatic medicine. True, no one goes to the doctor for butterflies in their stomach, but what happens when the symptom is painful, life altering and doesn’t seem to go away? We go to the doctor, but we forget just how powerful our mind is, and do not see that the link between the ‘psyche’ and ‘soma’ is still very present, even when the symptoms turn into medical conditions.
So why would a part of your brain induce pain and symptoms? Is there a part of you that is trying to harm or hurt you? It almost sounds like there are more then one person manning the sails of this ship.
Lets see how Freud viewed what he observed in his long careers of studying us interesting creatures.
In the perspective of psychsomatic medicine, it is the conflicts and relations from the different and sometimes opposing parts of ‘ourselves’ that create symptoms. Our primitive parts of the brain begin to rebel, causing enormous amount of emotions, which stay in the unconscious until the pressure is too much. Once the threshold is reached they start to bubble over. You can see that by how people commonly fall ill after some emotionally intense times in life. The Ego, (gatekeeper ) cannot allow these powerful emotions out. A symptom is created to divert attention from these feelings. The world around you cannot know of the intense feelings that lay within you, it goes against all the super ago stands for! A distraction is produced to absorb your attention. Then you are not angry, you have back pain, you are not nervous, you have IBS, you have not turned on yourself, you develop an autoimmune condition. All of these are symptoms (symbols) of the intensity of the activity in the unconscious. They are not meant to hurt you, but protect you and those around you from knowing just how angry, sad, jealous etc. you may be feeling. Crazy right?
So how do we stop it?
The practitioner, healer, doctor, guide, cannot heal you in this kind of medicine. Only help you see yourself more clear, to understand yourself more, to act as a mirror.
You must be willing to look within, so see the origen of your dis- ease. The understanding of the symptoms, what they are saying about our inner conflicts, beliefs and emotions are they key to dissolving them. Understanding….who we are …Bringing the unconscious to consciousness, accepting…acknowledging.. expressing… The tension and stress leaves like this.
Moving back into harmony and health.