[Inhibition of expression as a component of psychosomatic disorders]

This short and far from comprehensive survey on the rôle of inhibitory mechanisms in psychosomatic disorders is intended to draw attention to the fact that there is a large scientific interest in this issue which surpasses the classical psychodynamic aspects of deficient emotionality. From the point of view of behavioral medicine, social psychology, emotional psychology, and psychophysiology this problem is an imminent topic for scientific research. Inhibition considered as an active process in the individual must be included among those mechanisms of auto- and behavioral regulation where psychic and somatic processes are of mutual influence upon one another. It is suggested that a better understanding of this mutual influence might lead to an improvement of intervention techniques in behavioral therapy. It might, e.g., help to decide to what extent the training of an adequate expression of emotions is indicated in psychosomatic disorders, the kind of training incorporated for instance in concordance therapy (Gerber, 1982). Specific attention might be given to processes of socialization since research findings suggest that conditions of socialization characterized by a hyperactive system of behavioral inhibition make children particularly susceptible to psychosomatic disorders (Buck, 1984).