ME/CFS SKeptic: A new blog series on the dark history of psychosomatic medicine

I often also see this as: motivated, competitive, aggressive Type A personality = patients who don't agree with me about this CFS thing.

But otherwise yes, you can fit almost everyone in those two categories if you try hard enough.

 

Another thought about being called Type A by that psych of long ago: here I was with an OK career, with one degree, being aggressively accused by someone with two degrees, and much better pay, that I was ambitious, competitive and aggressive.

Hhmmm......

 

In 1993 or 94, Dr. Cheney said there was a link between type A personality and CFS. He said I was a type A.

 

Absolutely, yes. I recall, the psychologist I saw over 30 years ago, felt very strongly that "cfs" was a mental health issue caused by a problematic personality type. I presented it as a physiological disease. This was aggressively disagreed with by the psych.

 

Anyone who can help finding this paper on psychoanalytic interpretation of peptic ulcer? It sounds amazing

PEP | Browse | Read - On the Pathogenesis of Peptic Ulcer (pep-web.org)

 

This seems to be the author, Angel Garma, the 'founder' of psychoanalysis in Argentina. He has his own Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ángel_Garma

 

Broadly, psychosomatic medicine changed into biopsychosocial model somewhere around the 1970s while psychoanalysis was replaced by cognitive behavioral therapy.

Given how absurd psychoanalytic theory was, I guess many students of psychoanalytic oriented professors must feel that great progress has been made during their careers. If you started out learning about "genital instinctive gratification" and "fear of genital castration" as the causes of peptic ulcer, then suggesting fear avoidance as a cause of medically unexplained symptoms might seem quite rational.

 

WTH did I just read? This is genuinely QAnon level of holy crap.

 

I am speechless... Well, it seems that psychoanalysis has something of the secret of a sect, since despite the many decades that have passed (this journal dates from 1950 !), it is still impossible to consult it unless you buy it. I only found the following article by the same author on this subject, but in French (use google translation to read it in English ). Although the review is from 2007, references in this article range from 1934 to 1958, and Angel Garma appears to have died in 1993.
https://www.cairn.info/revue-francaise-de-psychosomatique-2004-2-page-7.htm#no1

 

It says: "Le texte a été publié en 1961 dans la Revue française de psychanalyse"

So it was published in 1961 in another journal.

 

Merged thread

The dark psychosomatic history of rheumatoid arthritis

https://mecfsskeptic.com/the-dark-psychosomatic-history-of-rheumatoid-arthritis/

ETA: Showing as updated yesterday

 

My father had rheumatoid arthritis, and

"repressed hostility, a domineering personality and a rejection of the feminine role in society" fits him very well! Except that the hostility wasn't very well repressed.

That said, it was probably nothing to do with his rheumatoid arthritis!

 

Could it be this one?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1532726/pdf/califmed00273-0007.pdf

or this one :

https://www.proquest.com/openview/e...63f1860e29/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1818729

 

Thanks. The first article is by another author.

The second article is the correct one by I don't have access (as an individual you can't take a subscription to Proquest unfortunately).

 

"In the past, rheumatoid arthritis was sometimes described as a psychosomatic condition. This view was inspired by the periods of subsidence and recurrence seen in patients with the illness. Many thought that such fluctuations were due to psychosocial factors.
The foremost proponent of this view was Franz Alexander. Working at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, the Hungarian-born Alexander was one of the leading figures in the American psychosomatic movement. In a 1947 paper, he and his colleagues lied the groundwork for a psychosomatic theory of rheumatoid arthritis."

My bolding - is that what you call a Freudian slip?

 

"Well, this theory must be right, it uses an impressive word salad."

 

Thanks for highlighting!

 

I knew someone with severe rheumatoid arthritis over many years. Their joints were swollen, and finger joints looked as though they had marbles growing in them. I find it impossible to believe that such effects could be psychosomatic, and I find it incredible that anyone could take such ideas seriously.