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Biomedical subjects

J Frommer

Publications and source records attributed to J Frommer.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2003

[The significance of structural dynamics for a theory of neurosis and personality disorders].

Following the psychopathological approach of Janzarik (structural dynamics), this paper develops a two-dimensional theory for the understanding of neuroses and personality disorders. The dynamic dimension serves to describe the symptomatology between the two poles of anxiety and depression. The structural dimension differs according to the maturity of the personal identity between mature neurotic personality organization on the one hand and severe personality disorder on the other.

Anxiety Disorders↗
PubMed2002

[Psychiatric disorders caused by global social change. Traumatization among the inhabitants of the former GDR].

More than a decennium after the reunion of East and West Germany, the psychological sequelae of traumatic experiences of East Germans are still evident. There were not only about 300 000 people imprisoned for political reasons in the German Democratic Republic between 1945 and 1989, partly exposed to physical and psychological torture, but also much more people subject of subthreshold traumatic experiences by harassment in public and private life. As a result, under a psychiatric perspective it should be taken into account not only specific post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD), characterized by relieving of the traumata in intrusive flashbacks, avoidance of circumstances associated with the traumatic experiences, and increased psychological sensitivity and arousal, but also specific Adjustment disorders, or cultural shocks: many people of the former GDR had to deal with adjustment difficulties of different types to the new cultural environment after the reunion, which could be characterized as becoming intimate with post-modern Western culture within a process of identity development. This process encloses different phases or stages discussed under psychopathologic and psychodynamic perspective.

Germany, East↗
PubMed1999

[Not Available].

Endometriosis is one of the most frequent gynecological disorders in the reproductive age. Discrepancies between clinical findings and subjective Symptoms cause the question of the determing factors for the subjective experience. In the present study an hermeneutic, sense-orientated approach was employed by using qualitative methods of research. Eleven interviews with endometriosis patients were recorded on tape and transcribed, followed by an individual-case and a comparative analysis in partly deductively and inductively defined categories. The psychosexual development has been found as negatively influenced. Endometriosis patients show conflicting concepts of their sex-specific role. A found aggression conflict manifests itself in the pain Sensation, at an intrapsychic land an interpersonnel level: it influences the relations with other persons, in particular, the doctor-patient relationship. Changes of sense in the doctor-patient-relationship and recent concepts of psychosomatic disorders are discussed.

Endometriosis↗
PubMed1999

Psychopathologic and zoological aspects of acarophobia.

Acarophobia represents a nosologically inconsistent psychiatric clinical picture which is exceptional in that it is noticed among the clientele of those in charge of pest control, hygienists, health department medical officers and dermatologists rather than in psychiatric practice or mental hospitals. Apart from acarophobia in the course of schizophrenic, affective and organic psychoses as well as cases in which the phobia was induced by another individual, roughly half of the cases were 'pure' forms, i.e. monosymptomatic psychoses mainly occurring at advanced age and in females. Putative parasitisation relates not only to the subject's skin, but also to the premises where the person affected is living. Social isolation appears to rank high among essential causes. Four cases from a pest controller's practice are reported which could not be properly treated because of the subjects' lack of insight into their condition. In this light, it was the aim of the present study to focus the attention of pest controllers and hygienists on interdisciplinary co-operation with psychiatrists as well as with public health departments.

Aged↗
PubMed1998

[Max Weber's disease. Research on the disease and therapeutic management at the turn of the century].

This article on the German economist and sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920) continues our pathographic and psychohistoric studies on the interrelations between his life, his illness, and his work on "Protestantic Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism". In a former paper (Frommer u. Frommer, 1993) we focussed on Weber's definition of modern society as an "iron cage" determined by Western rationalism. His theory, which shows that this cultural background demands a great amount of role conformity from the individual, converges with current psychopathological approaches on the personality of depressed patients. In the second article we report on results of our research on further personal documents, and some medical certificates by Weber's physicians. These documents demonstrate the diagnosis of a severe depression in a narcisstic and hypernomic personality.

Depression↗
PubMed1997

[New approaches for understanding borderline personality disorder].

The concept of Borderline Personality Disorders was developed from North-American psychiatric and psychoanalytic thought. During recent years different contributions on this disorder emerged from several psychological paradigms. Four current trains of research are reviewed: Approaches based upon the five-factor-model of personality, Linehan's behavioristic approach, interpersonal concepts as shown by Benjamin and a self-developed subject-centered approach focussing on the patients' subjective theories of illness. These models converge into a concept which interprets Borderline Personality Disorders as disturbances of personal identity. The patients fail when attempting to overcome the tension between being a person and being a subject in their interpretation of the world and themselves. At the end of the article consequences for therapy are highlighted.

Borderline Personality Disorder↗
PubMed1997

[From hysteria to nervousness. Comments on Willy Hellpach's sociopathologic prognoses for the 20th century].

The very rich, extensive, and complex work of the psychologist, doctor of medicine, and politician Willy Hellpach (1877-1955) is largely forgotten today. Our article sheds light upon his contribution to the nosology of neuroses, which emphasizes the impact of history, society, and culture on the neurotic syndromes. Hellpach states that during the process of civilisation hysteria is more and more replaced by nervousness. In contemporary nosology this hypothesis leads to the discussion how the relationship of neuroses with depressive symptomatology on the one hand and neuroses with panic attacks and phobia on the other should be conceptualised.

Germany↗
PubMed1996

[Methodologic aspects of the body-mind problem in psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy].

Adequate research strategies in Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy require a variety of different epistemological approaches. This paper emphasizes to replace the dichotomy between nomological explanation of physical processes versus intentional understanding of psychological phenomena by a combination of the discrimination between psyche and soma and the discrimination between causal explanation and intentional understanding. As a result there are four categories of research: scientific research in biological objects, nomological research in psychological phenomena, ideographic and qualitative research in psychological phenomena, and holistic-systemic research in biological phenomena. The relationship of research results from one of these paradigms to results from another paradigm will be discussed at the end of the article.

Humans↗
PubMed1995

[Eccentric path and schizophrenic ego splitting. Friedrich Hölderlin's philosophical writing fragments in their relation to his life and illness].

Psychopathography usually intends to point out the impact of pathological feelings and behaviour on the work of the artist. Our own approach is different from this definition. The article emphasizes that Hölderlin's philosophical manuscripts, developed in the context of German Idealismus, examine more closely the psychopathology of schizophrenic experience of the own self and the world. In these manuscripts Hölderlin discusses the relation of freedom and bonding and the relation of being a solipsistic subject versus being part of a holistic system in a fundamental way. He understands human biography as an excentric path. This means the intention to reunite subject and world, which is only possible symbolically in poetry. Thus Hölderlin's philosophical writings on poetology, human self, and personal identity can be understood as a valid contribution to the psychopathology of schizophrenia because of their anticipation of a description of the fundamental disturbances in self-awareness and self-consciousness of schizophrenics. These patients are unable to see themselves in a consistent way as both an object and a subject, which the author describes as Grundverhältnisstörung (basic proportion disturbance).

Ego↗
PubMed1995

[Personality structure and subjective illness concepts of neurotically depressed patients. Qualitative comparison of 11 individual cases analyses of initial psychotherapy interviews].

Verbatim transcripts of 11 psychotherapeutic interviews with patients suffering from depressive neurosis were examined, focusing on subjective theories of illness, biography, and descriptions of the patient's own personality. The results of our qualitative content analysis allow reconstruction of some characteristic features of these patients, like over identification with social roles and norms (1), feeling of being dependent and injured by another person (2), problems of self-esteem (3), shyness (4), unfulfilled wishes to be loved and accepted (5). These findings are discussed in the context of psychopathological and psychoanalytic concepts of depression.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

[Personality structure and subjective illness concepts of phobic anxiety neurotic patients. Qualitative comparison of 12 individual analyses of initial psychotherapy interviews].

Verbatim transcripts of 12 psychotherapeutic interviews with patients suffering from phobia and panic disorders were examined, focussing on subjective theories of illness, biography, and descriptions of the own personality. The results of our qualitative content analysis allow the reconstruction of some central features of these patients, like characterizing the own personality as normal and without any problems in a stereotype way (1), at the same time feeling wrong understood and exploited from other persons (2), feeling as an outsider and left alone (3), and being no more able to compete with others (4). These and other findings are discussed in the context of psychoanalytic concepts of phobia and panic disorders.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

[How should emotional crises be diagnosed?].

Psychic crises alter the personal identity as a whole in the sense of a global loss of relations and orientations. Thus they represent problems of personal values, which cannot sufficiently be described in terms of criteria and behavior orientated diagnostic systems, which believe according to the philosophy of logical empiricism, that psychiatric and psychotherapeutic diagnoses can be conceived as genus and logical classes. As alternatives we discuss two other approaches: the prototype theory and the ideal type theory. The more attractive one of the two approaches seems to be Max Weber's theory of act, not only for it's acceptance in contemporary social sciences, but also because it enables the integration of qualitative and quantitative empirical research, aspects of subjectivity and personal identity, and--last not least--socio-cultural aspects. As a result of these methodological considerations the author developed the research paradigm of qualitative diagnostic research. The application of this approach to psychic crises will be discussed at the end of the article.

Affective Symptoms↗
PubMed1995

[Music therapy single case research--a qualitative approach].

A qualitative approach for describing music psychotherapy treatment is developed. For this purpose we employ the methodological principle of triangulation of perspectives (patient, therapist, independent observers, composers). Our approach is based on the concept of the resonator function describing the perceptive capacity of all participants for effective and relationship-referred significance of the work produced during the treatment. The qualitative method importing and extending the knowledge of the inner context of the case is illustrated by two musical improvisations from the treatment of a female patient suffering from chronic migraine.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

[Max Weber's illness--sociologic aspects of the depressive structure].

Between 1897 and 1902 the economist and sociologist Max Weber from Heidelberg suffered from a severe depressive crisis with multiple recurrences of its symptomatology in the following years. The biographic background of the disease process is examined. Questions regarding the specific diagnosis are discussed. Furthermore, his work shows that Weber was indirectly deeply concerned with the cultural, historical and social background conditions of depressive experience and behavior in the context of his study on Protestantic Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism. Weber's definition of modern society as an iron cage, determined by Occidental Rationalism, shows that this cultural background demands a great amount of role conformity from the individual. Weber's theoretical approach should spark interest in the current psychopathological discussion of the characteristic structural features of a depressed personality.

Christianity↗
PubMed1993

[Psychosomatic aspects of essential blepharospasm].

Relative to nosological classification and therapeutic strategies essential Blepharospasm is discussed controversially in Neurology, Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and other related branches. From an integrative point of view the clinical symptomatic is a result of psycho-social factors as well as organic factors. Two own cases are reported. The diagnostic, therapeutic, and prognostic core problems are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

[Schizophreniform psychosis in paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis].

Paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis is seldom mentioned in the psychiatric literature and premortem diagnosis is rare. Affective symptoms, agitation, and memory impairment are the core features, which can predate the diagnosis of carcinoma. We report the case of a patient with bronchial carcinoma, whose clinical picture could hardly be distinguished from that of endogenous schizophrenia.

Adult↗