Long-term observation of a female patient presenting with psychosomatic disorders and followed in psychotherapy
Consoli, S.
La Semaine des Hopitaux Organe Fonde Par l'Association d'Enseignement Medical des Hopitaux de Paris 60(13): 909-915
1984
ISSN/ISBN: 0037-1777 PMID: 6326272 Document Number: 240464
The author analyzes data assembled during psychotherapy of a 38-year-old woman who had experienced serious obstetrical difficulties, with two deaths in utero late in each pregnancy, ascribable, at least in part, to toxemia. These difficulties are brought into connection, in particular, with the patient's subconscious conflicts and the ambivalence of her planned motherhood. During psychotherapy a new pregnancy was successfully completed: the psychotherapy plan, at first indistinguishable from the request for medical help, especially as the treatment was undertaken in a general hospital, has been nevertheless progressively extended beyond the psychosomatic symptom to aim at a greater general comfort.