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Biomedical subjects

J C Nemiah

Publications and source records attributed to J C Nemiah.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1989

The varieties of human experience.

The basic unit of study for psychiatric investigation is the individual human being in interaction with the environment. The psychological understanding of human biography provided by psychodynamic observation is now being supplemented by knowledge derived from phenomenological and neurobiological research. Phenomenology and neurobiology are at present primarily concerned with detecting correlations between clinical syndromes and pathological brain states; they are static rather than dynamic in approach. However, currently emerging techniques of brain imaging aimed at elucidating neurophysiological processes provide the basis for going beyond structural neuropathology to neuropathophysiology. It is suggested that the observations derived from the psychodynamic study of patients constitute markers of underlying brain function, and that the future investigation of psychiatric illness must include a correlative study of both psychodynamic and neurobiological processes.

Female↗
PubMed1981

The role of preventive psychiatry in physical disability.

Many patients suffering from injury or chronic illness appear to experience greater disability than one would expect from the nature of their physical lesion. Although one suspects that emotional problems are complicating their somatic illness, the defence of counterdependence masks an overt show of emotional disturbance. Furthermore, their personality structure places them at risk for developing chronic psychological invalidism, the prevention of which requires (1) an early diagnostic recognition of patients characterologically at risk for psychological complications, and (2) behavior of caretakers designed to foster the drive of each patient toward independence and to minimize the regression towards psychological invalidism.

Dependency, Psychological↗
PubMed1978

Treatment of anxiety: a comparison of the usefulness of self-hypnosis and a meditational relaxation technique. An overview.

We have investigated prospectively the efficacy of two nonpharmacologic relaxation techniques in the therapy of anxiety. A simple, meditational relaxation technique (MT) that elicits the changes of decreased sympathetic nervous system activity was compared to a self-hypnosis technique (HT) in which relaxation, with or without altered perceptions, was suggested. 32 patients with anxiety neurosis were divided into 2 groups on the basis of their responsivity to hypnosis: moderate-high and low responsivity. The MT or HT was then randomly assigned separately to each member of the two responsivity groups. Thus, 4 treatment groups were studied: moderate-high responsivity MT; low responsivity MT; moderate-high responsivity HT; and low responsivity HT. The low responsivity HT group, by definition largely incapable of achieving the altered perceptions essential to hypnosis, was designed as the control group. Patients were instructed to practice the assigned technique daily for 8 weeks. Change in anxiety was determined by three types of evaluation: psychiatric assessment; physiologic testing; and self-assessment. There was essentially no difference between the two techniques in therapeutic efficacy according to these evaluations. Psychiatric assessment revealed overall improvement in 34% of the patients and the self-rating assessment indicated improvement in 63% of the population. Patients who had moderate-high hypnotic responsivity, independent of the technique used, significantly improved on psychiatric assessment (p = 0.05) and decreased average systolic blood pressure from 126.1 to 122.5 mm Hg over the 8-week period (p = 0.048). The responsivity scores at the higher end of the hypnotic responsivity spectrum were proportionately correlated to greater decreases in systolic blood pressure (p = 0.075) and to improvement by psychiatric assessment (p = 0.003). There was, however, no consistent relation between hypnotic responsivity and the other assessments made, such as diastolic blood pressure, oxygen consumption, heart rate and the self-rating questionnaires. The meditational and self-hypnosis techniques employed in this investigation are simple to use and effective in the therapy of anxiety.

Anxiety↗
PubMed1975

Denial revisited: reflections on psychosomatic theory.

Certain clinical observations cast doubt on the validity of the traditional psychological explanation of psychosomatic disorders, which invokes the concept of a psychodynamic conflict derived from psychoanalytic theory. Psychosomatic patients appear to be unable to describe feelings in words, show a marked paucity of fantasy, and do not make significant internal psychological changes in these areas in the course of psychodynamically oriented psychotherapy. It is suggested that neurophysiological hypotheses may be more useful for understanding psychosomatic processes and specifically that disturbances in the function of the palleostriatral dopamine tract are related to psychosomatic disorders. Testable inferences from this hypothesis are proposed, including the suggestion that clinically and neurophysiologically, schizophrenia and psychosomatic disorders are the obverse of one another.

Denial, Psychological↗