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Somatisation Definitions, Symptoms and Causes
Somatisation Definitions, Symptoms and Causes
Linguistic.
Hollan (2004), in his account of an Indonesian man suffering from chronic
stomach pains and breathlessness, wondered whether these symptoms were the
result of guilt over youthful misdemeanors, which displeased his parents. This
epitomizes the suggestion that many somatic disorders – and perhaps particularly
somatic disorders – are channeled by linguistic factors.
Bodily metaphor plays an important role in shaping the expression of
distress, as of course does awareness of the autonomic and other physiological
changes that accompany emotion. But the linguistic ‘explanation’ of somatisation
is inadequate in itself. We can see from the examples described that the somatic
expression of distress may be best understood by referring to ethno
methodological understanding of how people in a given culture explain illness.
We have also seen that somatoform disorders consistently ovary with
psychological distress and psychological disorders. We must therefore abandon
any idea that (lack of) language categories may somehow prevent the experience
of psychological distress.