Comments on theory and therapy of psychosomatic patients with a follow-up study

Given the specific problems of the physically sick, the psychoanalytic therapy of psychosomatic patients normally calls for modification of treatment concepts that have proved viable for patients with mental disorders (neuroses) alone. The patients' difficulty in experiencing and expressing the experience of feelings as well as the fixation on one kind of physical complaint make it essential that the patient be unconditionally 'accepted' and offered translation aids so that within the patient-doctor relationship the 'mute' physical complaints can be assisted towards verbalisation and new emotional experiencing. The kind of special treatment forms indicated is determined by the extent of healthy personality elements. Here, in addition to nonverbal procedures, such techniques as combined inpatient--outpatient group psychotherapy, the subject of the present follow-up study, have proved to be helpful.