Psychological mechanisms of occurrence of psychosomatic diseases (Tabidze A.A.)

This paper shows that the content of the human psyche is a relatively stable system of psychological qualities, the features (or deformations) of which first lead to deformations of relationships, and then in a later period, when the body’s defenses are depleted, to deformations of bodily health in the form of the emergence of psychosomatic diseases.

To substantiate this position, it is necessary to choose objective experimental methods that have the ability to most fully and comprehensively determine this content of the psyche. Two complementary diagnostic methods were chosen. The first is a psychological, modified Cattell test, which allows you to get a psychological profile of a person’s personality in the form of 16 factors /1/. The second is the psychophysiological, instrumental (certified) electroacupuncture method Kuzmenko O.P., Maslennikova I.S. /2/ allowing to measure the electrical conductivity of 12 reflexotherapeutic meridians, reflecting the functional activity of all vital systems of the body (respiratory, digestive, endocrine, cardiovascular, etc. .), and correlating in turn with the psychological qualities of the individual and possible psychosomatic diseases.

Based on a large amount of experimental material, here, as a demonstration example, the results of studies of a successful business woman Natalia N., 31, without children, experiencing difficulties in starting a family and applying for building strong relationships with men, are presented here. On fig. 1 shows her psychological profile obtained using the Cattell test, consisting of 4 groups of factors — emotional, volitional, communicative and intellectual. Note that each factor here has its own sign and intensity, which corresponds to scientific measurements.

From this figure, it is immediately evident that the entire group of emotional qualities turned out to be negative (black) with high negative values ​​(emotional instability C = -3, suspicion L = -4, and anxiety O = -5 and internal tension Q4 = -5 took extremely negative values. Such a powerful negative emotional core and low self-control (Q3 = -4) clearly characterize the client as a psychologically immature person. And high values ​​of dominance E = +5 from the volitional group indicate her rigidity, perseverance and an active position in protecting her negative At the same time, neurotic manifestations of character (high emotional instability and suspicion) contribute to the transfer of this internal tension and anxiety to the outside world.

What kind of man would be able to stay in such an atmosphere for a long time?

On the other hand, her strong intellectual qualities (all intellectual factors B, M, N, Q1 are white) combined with H= +3 courage, G= +1 responsibility and, again, E= +5 authoritativeness, allow her to be successful in a business environment.

Rice. one . Psychological profile of Natalia N. according to Cattell (modified by Tabidze A.A.) /1/.

Upon reviewing this diagram, the client stated that for the first time she saw who she really was and she herself answered her own inquiry about failures in her personal life. To some extent, she was cathartic.

What can be said from this diagram regarding the presence of psychosomatic illnesses in client Natalya N.? She claimed that she was not sick with anything, she did not complain about anything, only by the end of the day she was falling down from fatigue.

Nevertheless, it would be useful to diagnose her predisposition to these diseases. In my opinion, as well as from some professional psychodiagnostic tests /3/, it is this emotional group (C, O, Q4, L) that is responsible for the occurrence of psychosomatic diseases. This diagram allows you to come in the first approximation to the differentiation of the causes of psychosomatic diseases. So from the logic of common sense it follows that at high values ​​of internal tension (Q4), leading to spasms of blood vessels, diseases associated with spastic processes can manifest themselves (these are spastic headaches and heart pains, high blood pressure, biliary dyskinesia, spastic colitis, bronchial asthma, etc.). On the other hand, stable values ​​of anxiety (O) usually lead to a constant production of stress hormones, and as a result, to the depletion of the hormonal system and the occurrence of endocrine diseases — diabetes, hyperthyroidism, etc.

The instrumental electroacupuncture method allows a more detailed differentiation of psychological states and related psychosomatic diseases compared to the Cattell test. Figure 2 shows the results of these measurements for the discussed Natalia N. /4/.

Fig.2. Modular portrait of Natalia N. (diagnosis card by O.P. Kuzmenko) /4/.

On this diagnosis-map, measurements are presented in the form of 12 modules (6 manual and 6 foot modules), located in various ways relative to the norm corridor (above, below, in the norm corridor) and with varying degrees of their coordinated interaction (ascending and horizontal modules are coordinated, harmonious modules (white), descending — inconsistent, inharmonious (black).

The module is a segment connecting the electrical conductivity readings of the symmetrical right and left reflexotherapy meridians. From this figure it follows that in the system of 12 meridians, 6 black meridians function inconsistently — MC, C, IG, TR, GI, VB. It is this inconsistency, these dysfunctions that lead to the emergence of various psychosomatic diseases. Black modules are like black marks. In this case, the combination of various black modules in this diagram from a medical point of view is deciphered as follows:

Table 1

C (black) + TR (black) — Probability of hyperthyroidism.

MS (black) + TR (black) — Probability of uterine fibroids.

IG (black) + TR (black) — Probability of neurosis.

TR (black, below the normal range) — The likelihood of overwork, low hormonal levels.

The severity of the disease is determined by the angle of inclination of the modules and their remoteness from the norm corridor. The absence of disease corresponds to horizontal modules located in the normal corridor.

And although the patient has the likelihood of these diseases — hyperthyroidism and fibroids are detected by this instrumental method, they have not yet been clinically confirmed. However, as it turned out a little later, it was these diseases that her mother had.

Her mother is currently undergoing active treatment for both hyperthyroidism and fibroids. Naturally, to compare the psychological profiles of the daughter and the mother, psychological testing of the mother was carried out using the Cattell questionnaire.

Figure 3 shows the results of the mother’s survey. As you can see, they match well with her daughter’s test results. And to be consistent, the psychological profile of the daughter almost completely repeats the profile of the mother. The mother is also lonely, the difference of the portrait is the mother’s high factors of alienation (A) and pessimism (F), which apparently appeared over time.

Rice. 3. Psychological profile of mother Natalia N. according to Cattell (modified by Tabidze A.A.)

Thus, both test and instrumental diagnostics are able to detect the presence of deformations in the content of the human psyche. Comparing the results of these three diagrams on the example of the fate of a daughter and a mother, we can conclude that these deformations first lead to deformation of relations in the external environment, to social diseases (for example, the inability to create strong gender relations), and then with age, when the body’s defenses weaken , to bodily deformations in the form of psychosomatic diseases (hyperthyroidism and fibroids in this particular case).

O.P. Kuzmenko in her medical practice, on the basis of a large clinical material, revealed that the analysis of a modular portrait (diagnosis card) has a certain universality and has ample opportunities for discussing diagnostic results from various positions:

– from a medical standpoint in terms of psychosomatic diseases,

— from the standpoint of everyday psychology in terms of everyday psychological qualities,

— from the standpoint of practical psychology in terms of scientific psychological qualities,

— from spiritual positions in terms of moral rules.

The choice of the language of discussion is determined by the task of the study. So, when using the language of the concept of personality, it seems to us that the modules in the diagnosis-map in Fig. 2 can be “subconscious (unconscious) attitudes of emotional response” (analogous to the attitude of D.N. Uznadze’s theory). From this point of view, the modules reflect some fixed psychological formations, reinforced physiologically and establishing a certain stationary atmosphere of an emotional background in the psyche. The state of the meridian, as a physiological formation, creates its own specific emotional background, which leads to an adequate or inadequate response to an incoming stimulus. The white color of the module indicates harmonious psychological states, the black color indicates disharmonious ones. For Fig. 2, we present some individual correspondences of each manual module to psychological states:

Table 2

GI (black) — state of anxiety, high, active position,

TR (black) — a state of disharmony, deep, fatigue,

IG (black) — a state of irritability, deep, passive,

C (black) — a state of resentment, low,

MS (black) — a state of alienation, below the norm,

P (white) — a state of respect, tolerance, norm.

Each specific emotional state has its own connotation. Their various combinations lead, as a result, to various psychosomatic diseases (see table 1). From the theory of emotions it follows that each emotion is accompanied by two reactions:

— unconscious emotional inner experience, which affects health;

— an unconscious impulse to action, which is reflected in actions and relationships.

This shows that there is a certain correlation between the quality of inner experiences and the quality of relationships. People actively seek out and even provoke social situations that contribute to the manifestation of their character traits. Based on extensive clinical experience, we can similarly build a table for Fig. 2, where each module reflects its own distinguished system of relationships:

TABLE 3

GI (black) — (the module is responsible for the attitude towards oneself) — inadequate, self-doubt;

TR (black) — (relation to the surrounding reality) — inadequate, uncomfortable;

IG (black) — (attitude to one’s own life situations) — rejection;

C (black) — (attitude towards relatives — juniors) — negative;

MS (black) — (relation to the opposite sex) — incredulous;

R (white) — (attitude towards relatives, elders), adequate, respectful.

The provisions of the psychology of relations are quite deeply developed by V.M. Myasishchev; in it, a person’s relationship to reality is distinguished by a number of features — integrity, selectivity, activity and consciousness (our italics). According to this theory, a person is predominantly a product of social relations and the first attitudes of the personality (in particular, neurotic formations) are formed in the family in early childhood, or rather, in ontogenesis.

Our experimental studies lead to additional conclusions. As shown in our work /3/, neurotic formations and psychosomatic diseases are transmitted mainly by inheritance, or rather reflect phylogenesis. At the time of birth, a person is not a blank sheet of paper.

If we imagine the time of the macroevolution of the psyche as a segment 1 meter long, then the time of the evolution of consciousness will correspond to a segment 1 mm long. This shows that the time of evolution of consciousness in the process of development of the psyche is approximately 0,1% of the time of evolution of the unconscious /5/. Therefore, subconscious processes in human life have a significant share and they should be given more attention.

Thus, based on the presented experimental material and its discussion, we can conclude that the mechanism of occurrence of psychosomatic diseases is determined by the presence of deformations in the content of the human psyche and is largely due to the transmission of mental qualities by inheritance. These deformations reflect the painful mental characteristics of his kind. And the task of modern medicine, and in particular psychotherapy, is to identify these psychological characteristics long before their social manifestations, long before their clinical somatic consequences, and to carry out appropriate psychocorrection. The new methods of early psychodiagnostics presented in this paper contribute to the solution of this problem.

Literature

1. Tabidze A.A. On the effectiveness of using the modified Cattell test in psychotherapeutic practice. — Journal of Psychotherapy, 2013, No. 6(126), pp. 93-96.
2. Kuzmenko O.P., Maslennikov I.S. Olga Kuzmenko’s method for assessing the physiological and psychological state of the body. — PATENT for the invention of the Russian Federation No. 2126241 dated 23.06.1998/XNUMX/XNUMX.
3. PSYPROFILE. Professional psychological tests. Version 4.01 dated March 14.03.2011, XNUMX for local PCs. Institute of Psychology RAS, «Cogito-Center».
4. Tabidze A.A. On the possibilities of instrumental psychodiagnostics. — Journal «Psychotherapy», 2010, No. 4 (88), pp. 29-34.
5. Antsupov A.Ya., Kandybovich S.L., Kruk V.M., Timchenko G.N., Kharitonov A.N. PROBLEMS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH. Index of 1050 doctoral dissertations. — M .: Studio «Ethnika», 2007, p. 39