M. Bucca, M.F. Petrigni, S. Cammarata - Vol. 6, Marzo 2000, num.1
Testo Immagini Bibliografia Summary Riassunto Indice
Dalle reazioni psiconevrotiche ai
disturbi somatoformi: il ruolo della psicodinamica nella letteratura sulle
nevrosi
From Psychoneurotic Reactions to the Somatoform Disorders: the role of
psychodynamics in the literature of neuroses
Background
In American psychiatric literature, there has been a shift in focus from a psychodynamic to a biological model.
The purpose of this article is to analyse the past and present weight of psychodynamic psychiatry in the international literature on neuroses.
Aim and Method
To attain this we examine the so-called somatoform disorders according to the APA’s DSM-IV classification. As reference model we consider the different editions (from 1967 to 1995) of the Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry. This is actually the text of choice of the US psychiatry. We analyze the chapters of the text dealing with these disorders assesing the quotations and bibliographies contained.
Results
Our analysis shows that the psychoanalytic-psychodynamic trend of the first editions (conspicuous to the third of 1980) has been followed by an emergent biological model. This development keeps up with the next editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Nevertheless the chapter on somatoform disorsers, in the last Synopsis of Psychiatry (Kaplan and Sadock’s, 1998), gives a larger importance to the unconscious. In fact, the unconscious is regarded as a factor which takes part both in the processes contributing to symptoms and in the motivation for symptom production. Moreover, a fairly good emphasis is assigned to another psychoanlytic concept, the development of the therapeutic alliance as a management strategy.
Conclusions
Accordingly to this we believe that psychodynamic therapies in the treatment of somatoform disorders should be increasingly employed.