Omnipotence, Denial, and Psychosomatic Medicine

Seidenberg, Robert

doi:10.1097/00006842-196301000-00005

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 10 publications

(3 reference statements)

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“…Psychoanalytic clinicians possess both articulated and unarticulated theories about the link between mind and body in disease generally (Seidenberg, 1963), and in cancer in particular, and about the possible effect of psychoanalytic treatment on physical illness (Renneker, 1957). These theories derive from a blend of clinicians' personal, idiosyncratic beliefs and fantasies about mind-body links, and psychoanalytic psychosomatic thinking.…”

Section: Preliminary Sketch Of the Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

Seductive symbolism: Psychoanalysis in the context of oncology.

Bergner¹

2011

Psychoanalytic Psychology

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Beliefs about what caused their cancer are a central facet of patients' experience of illness. These beliefs make up the patient's theory of etiology, which derives from various sources, including conscious and unconscious fantasy. This paper highlights this dimension of patients' experience, and the possible interaction between patients' psychogenic theories of etiology and their therapists' potentially generated psychogenic theories regarding patients' disease. It is suggested that a countertransferential pull for therapists exists to generate psychogenic theory regarding patients' cancer in the face of the threat of impotency it presents. This is discussed as a seductive pull into symbolism-based understanding of patients' cancer etiology-a pull this paper aims to characterize. It is suggested that the seductive pull results from the influence of psychoanalytic psychosomatic theory in the context of the dynamic between the ill patient and the therapist. Some psychoanalytic psychosomatic theory posits symbolism-based linear psychogenesis and the possible correction of soma via psyche in a great variety of illnesses and conditions, including cancer, and the hypothetical effect of this literature on the clinician's mindset and clinical work is considered. Specifically, it is suggested that this portion of our literature might serve a psychological function for clinicians, as it can help to shore up an omnipotence defense against the undertow of chaos inherent in cancer-related bodily dysfunction. More generally, it is argued that the context of existing psychoanalytic psychosomatic theory characterized by a focus on symbolism-based linear psychogenesis is potentially influential, and that this influence needs to be examined.

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Section: Preliminary Sketch Of the Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

Seductive symbolism: Psychoanalysis in the context of oncology.

Bergner¹

2011

Psychoanalytic Psychology

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“…The agreement between her core fantasy about herself and my unquestioned theory might lead to my collusion with the patient's theory in the form of thinking something like this: yes, you are right, conflicted femininity does cause infertility, as it has in your case, so lets work to resolve your conflict, and lets not be too hopeful about the prospects for fertility here unless and until we first resolve it. Seidenberg (1963) characterized patients' search for a psychological cause to complex diseases such as multiple sclerosis, as traced to omnipotence, which can intersect with the therapist's own omnipotence-derived need to believe in the power of the mind over the body and lead to a pseudo cooperation between analyst and patient, and pseudo compliance on the part of the patient, instead of true analysis of vulnerability, omnipotence, and denial. Renneker (1957) wrote about countertransference phenomena in the psychoanalytic treatment of patients who have diseases the analyst wishes to understand or to study.…”

Section: Effects Of the Analyst's Psychosomatic Theoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Seidenberg (1963) characterized patients’ search for a psychological cause to complex diseases such as multiple sclerosis, as traced to omnipotence, which can intersect with the therapist’s own omnipotence-derived need to believe in the power of the mind over the body and lead to a pseudo cooperation between analyst and patient, and pseudo compliance on the part of the patient, instead of true analysis of vulnerability, omnipotence, and denial. Renneker (1957) wrote about countertransference phenomena in the psychoanalytic treatment of patients who have diseases the analyst wishes to understand or to study.…”

Section: Effects Of the Analyst’s Psychosomatic Theoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The analytic environment in times of bodily dysfunction: The effect of psychoanalytic psychosomatic theories.

Bergner¹

2009

Psychoanalytic Psychology

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This article examines the analytic environment in which psychoanalytic work occurs when patients struggle with complex somatic experiences, such as disease or physiological dysfunction. Patients express fantasies and beliefs about the etiology of their somatic experiences; they elaborate theories about why infertility, irritable bowel disease, or some other disease, syndrome, or crisis is happening to them. I consider these to be patients' multiply determined, fantasy-saturated psychosomatic theories, and suggest that the analyst's understanding of patients' ideas about their somatic experiences is organized by the analyst's both articulated and not articulated psychosomatic theories. Using brief clinical vignettes, I highlight the potentially constricting effect of clinicians' theories on their analyses of patients' psychosomatic theories. I examine psychoanalytic theories of psychosomatics, suggesting that adherence to the theories we have, which often posit linear psychogenesis of somatic phenomena, can result in collusion with, rather than analysis of, the psychic stances reflected by patients' theories. To address the problematic adherence to our theories, and characterize a less constricting clinical and theoretical stance, I critique aspects of the theories and suggest directions for replenishing them.

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Psychiatric Residency on a Medical Service

Fox¹

1964

Arch Gen Psychiatry

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Omnipotence, Denial, and Psychosomatic Medicine

Cited by 4 publications

References 10 publications

Seductive symbolism: Psychoanalysis in the context of oncology.

Seductive symbolism: Psychoanalysis in the context of oncology.

The analytic environment in times of bodily dysfunction: The effect of psychoanalytic psychosomatic theories.

Psychiatric Residency on a Medical Service

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