This book presents the first systemized philosophical analysis of psychosomatic theory collected in one volume. The author critically examines traditional psychosomatic theories, paying special attention to certain philosophical issues such as the mind-body problem and efficacious mechanisms of interaction between meaning, understood as psychosocial factors, and that which is traditionally called the "body."

The Mysterious Life of the Body: A New Look at Psychosomatics (Linkoping Studies in Arts and Science)

Medical Books

Bullington, Jennifer

Research

Almqvist & Wiksell Intl

This book is a contribution to the understanding of psychosomatic health problems. Inspired by the work of the French phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty, a phenomenological theory of psychosomatics is worked out as an alternative to traditional, biomedical thinking. The patient who presents somatic symptoms with no clearly discernible lesion or dysfunction presents a problem to the traditional health care system. These symptoms are medically unexplainable, constituting an anomaly for the materialistic understanding of ill health that underlies the practice of modern medicine. The traditional biomedical model is not appropriate for understanding a number of health issues that we call 'psychosomatic' and for this reason, biomedical theory and practice must be complemented by another theoretical understanding in order to adequately grasp the psychosomatic problematic. This book establishes a complementary understanding of psychosomatic ill health in terms of a non-reductionistic model allowing for the (psychosomatic) expression of the lived body. A thorough presentation of the work Merleau-Ponty is followed by the author's application of his thinking to the phenomenon of psychosomatic pathology.

The Expression of the Psychosomatic Body from a Phenomenological Perspective (SpringerBriefs in Philosophy)

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Springer

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Books by Bullington, Jennifer