A model of psychosomatic illness.
An attempt is made to provide a general theoretical framework for psychosomatic disease. It is suggested that the convergence of a number of factors is necessary for the production of the illness. These factors include an individual's control or repression of emotional discharge over a long period. In addition, the affected person may show personality characteristics consistent with such control, and may live in a situation of unresolved conflict. The choice of illness might be determined by organ "weakness". The persistence of symptoms after resolution of the conflict is explained in terms of conditioning.
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