[Psychological characteristics of the asthmatic child]

The author's statements are based on monographic studies. They rely on his double experience as a pediatrician and a child psychiatrist. 1. The asthmatic child personality is extremely various. It cannot be included in traditional psychiatric perspectives or psychological scheme. 2. The classical features of behaviour such as dependence and negation of aggressivity can appear frequently but are not specific. 3. In more than one third of cases, a particular system of interaction may occur, called "allergic relation", characterized by a) A lack of personal attachment (objectal relationship poorly differentiated), b) A need of fusional grasping to people and environment, c) A blocking-up the separation-individuation system. 4. In most cases a) A high emotional receptivity to traumatisms, b) Psychosomatic vulnerable structure of various types, b) Mental mechanisms leading to psychosomatic disorganization, especially a kind of depression quite obvious in severe forms. 5. So inferences may be drawn a) About the genesis of the asthmatic disease in which the immunologic personality cannot be parted from the whole, b) About the psychosomatic approach of asthma and its prevention. 6. These considerations are basically founded on the recent book of L Kreisler "L'enfant du désordre psychosomatique" (The child with psychosomatic disorders) Ed. Privat-Toulouse (France) 1981.