A Psychological Approach to the Problem of Asthma and the Asthma-Eczema-Prurigo Syndrome

Psychosomatische Aspekte des Asthma bronchiale

“…Zur asthmatischen Symptomausl ö sung kommt es vor allem, wenn Emotionen aufgestaut werden, die aus inneren oder ä u ß eren Gr ü nden nicht ad ä quat zum Ausdruck gebracht werden k ö nnen [23] . Bei Kindern mit Asthma bronchiale wurden Asthma-Anf ä lle besonders in Trennungssituationen beobachtet, aber auch in solchen Situationen, die durch eine besonders starke N ä he zur Mutter oder Mutterersatzfi gur charakterisiert waren [24] . Umgekehrt f ü hrte die Trennung schwer asthmakranker Kinder von ihrer Familie bei der H ä lfte der untersuchten Kinder zu einer deutlichen Besserung der Symptomatik [25] .…”

Psychogenesis in asthma

“…Jessner et al [5] feel that the mothers show a clinging dependence on the child, coupled, however, with a tendency to push them to premature independence, and see these as alternating, reciprocal facets of rejection. Rogerson et al [29] in early work from a psychological viewpoint, saw the maternal attitude as one of overprotectiveness compensatory to inner feelings of rejection of the child. Abrahamson[30] has viewed the situation rather as one where the parents and child are locked in mutual engulfment, an evocative term doing some justice to the complexity of these emotionally charged predicaments.…”

The Rorschach Method as an Aid to the Psychotherapy of an Asthmatic Child*

“…Hurst (1943) taught that the asthmatic personality is partly due to parental over-protection and partly to the asthmatic diathesis or constitution. C. H. Rogerson, D. H. Hardcastle & K. Duguid (1935) came to the conclusion that asthmatic children were usually over-anxious and had over-anxious parents. E. B. Strauss (1935) found that asthmatic children were either very much wanted or rejected children, and that they were overanxious and insecure.…”