Parental overstimulation in asthma

A discussion of "The Role of Primal Scene and Masochism in Asthma," by Cecilia Karol, M.D. The author presents case material corroborating Dr. Karol's hypotheses about the role of primal scene exposure and sadomasochistic fantasies in asthma and which documents the thesis that primal scene is a part of a global pattern of parental overstimulation which in the pregenital maturational phases establishes the predisposition to develop asthma. He further confirms Melitta Sperling's hypothesis that unconscious conflicts of the mother or father predispose a child to the development of psychosomatic disease and that specific parental habits and fantasies involving the lungs determine the choice of the respiratory system for symptom formation.