Hostility in Cases of Essential Hypertension

On So-Called Psychogenic Influences in Essential Hypertension

“…The nature of the emotional tension has been ascribed to inhibited, but not deeply repressed, aggressive impulses. Saul's view (11), based on analytical evidence obtained from 7 hypertensive patients and 8 controls, conforms to Alexander's. He has not encountered hypertension in patients who, though they exhibit the same conflicts as hypertensive individuals, have nevertheless found workable solutions for their difficulty; and he suggests that "the status of the conflict may be peculiar to cases of essential hypertension.…”

“…Studies of the personalities of sufferers from essential hypertension conducted by a number of independent observers are in rather remarkable agreement (1- 3,5,7,8,[10][11][12]18). What emerges from these studies is evidence of certain kinds of emotionally con- flictive states which these patients seem unable to resolve.…”

Cardiovascular Lesions of Probable Psychosomatic Origin in Arterial Hypertension

“…In a recent review of the "Pathogenesis and Treatment of Hypertension" (8), references are made to some of the psychological aspects in a section devoted to that subject. There mention is made of the psychoanalytic studies on hypertensive patients by Alexander (7), Menninger (5), Dunbar (j), Saul (6) and Hill (4) who have called attention to the hostile, aggressive impulses that are neither, thoroughly repressed nor adequately expressed and which, therefore, serve as a constant stimulus to the circulatory system. Alexander speaks of the overly inhibited and yet at the same time intensely hostile and aggressive personality of the hypertensive individual.…”

Psychologic Processes and Ischemic Stroke (Occlusive Cerebrovascular Disease)

“…Many patients make an effort to become self-sufficient through work in order to avoid danger (8). These patients can give in neither to being passive and dependent nor to being hostile and aggressive (52). Thwarting of such goals or failure to realize the rewards of such efforts threatens to evoke outbursts of anger and are the conditions said to be conducive to the development of malignant (accelerated) hypertension (10,53,54).…”