The psychodynamic dimension of pain disorders

Authors

  • Stavros Mentzos

Abstract

The primary normal and protective mechanism of the pain reaction is in the beginning a purely somatic process which, however, later on, and as a result of a "functional change", is signalling not only somatic but also psychic, mental distress and "pain". This connection between somatic and psychic pain has been lately impressively confirmed by the findings of brain research. On the other hand, within the psychodynamics there is another "functional change" of great importance and this is (a) the unconscious and automatic use of somatic pain to express psychic suffering -without conscious knowing of this connection - and (b) the involvement of somatic pain in so-called masochistic strategies in order to compensate guilt or shame feelings or controlling the partner in disturbed relations. In doing so, many disastrous vicious circles are resulting in consequent therapy difficulties. It is very important to take into account these circular casualties within the therapy.

Keywords:
Psychodynamics of pain; Masochistic strategies; Pain reaction; Neuronal correlates of pain

Author Biography

Stavros Mentzos

Prof. Dr. med. Stavros Mentzos, Psychiater und Psychoanalytiker, geboren 1930 in Athen. Seit 1957 erst in der Psychiatrischen Universitätsklinik in Hamburg und dann ab 1967 in Frankfurt am Main tätig, seit 1971 Professor und Leiter der Abteilung für Psychotherapie und Psychosomatik im
Klinikum der J.-W.-Goethe-Universität. Zahlreiche Veröffentlichungen, u. a. die Bücher „Interpersonale und institutionalisierte Abwehr“, „Hysterie“, „Neurotische Konfliktverarbeitung“, „Angstneurose“, „Psychodynamische Modelle in der Psychiatrie“, „Der Krieg und seine psychosozialen Funktionen“, „Depression und Manie“. Seit der Pensionierung 1995 Supervisionen von Psychosentherapien, zahlreiche Vorträge, Seminare etc. zur Psychosentherapie, aber auch psychosoziale Anwendungen der Psychoanalyse (Krieg, Feindbilder).

Korrespondenz: Stavros Mentzos, Beethovenstraße 15, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Deutschland

Downloads

Published

2005-10-01

How to Cite

Mentzos, S. (2005). The psychodynamic dimension of pain disorders. Psychotherapie-Wissenschaft, (4), 146–153. Retrieved from https://psychotherapie-wissenschaft.info/article/view/349

Issue

No. 4 (2005): Psychotherapie Forum 13/4 (veröffentlicht bei Springer Wien New York)

Section

Special Issue

License

This journal provides open access to its content in accordance with the basic premise that the free public availability of research benefits the exchange of knowledge throughout the world.

Authors wishing to publish in this journal agree to the following:

  1. The author/s retain/s the copyrights and consent/s to initial publication of the work in the journal under a Creative Commons Attribution licence, which allows third parties to use the work by citing the name/s of the author/s and this journal as initial publisher (in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 DE-Licence).
  1. The author/s can enter into additional contracts for the non-exclusive distribution (e.g. publish in a collection or book) of the version published in the journal, if the journal is cited as initial publisher.