[Psychological and psychodynamic aspects of the diabetic]

The diabetic patient, because of his similarities with the psychosomatic one, became an interesting subject of study for the clinical psychologist. Also, the question has been raised of the relationship between diabetes and depression, particularly in their somatized or disguised states. The present study reports data about the psychological characteristics as well as the psychodynamic structure of the diabetic patient. Twenty diabetic women (with a mean age of 36 years) were examined through a personal data questionnaire and the Szondi Test (five applications). Responses showed many family and personal psychopathological histories as well multiple psychosomatic complaints. The results of the projective test were compared with those of twenty depressed women. The differences appeared highly significant. This results shows that the psychodynamic structures of the diabetic and the depressed individual are quite different. However, in agreement with the results of previous researchers, we cannot consider the diabetic structure to be a specific one, since it appears to be quite similar to the psychosomatic one. It seems that we are here dealing with the "common person" basic structure, adapted to the milieu in a defensive manner and maintaining a rigid control over his drives. When discharged, these tensions manifest themselves in a preferred implosive manner, thus producing psychosomatic symptoms. From this point of view, the diabetic illness appears to be related to a psychodynamic cluster which utilizes the somatization as the preferred defensive mechanism. The relation, however, does not seem to be a causal one, but it seems rather to be parallel to the somatic problem of the diabetic subject.