Description
Book SynopsisJean Benjamin Stora has worked as a psychoanalyst and psychosomatist for almost five decades. The aim of integrative psychosomatics is to heal the body and mind in relationship to one another rather than treating the body as a machine with parts to be fixed. Thus, Stora explores a patient’s current and past life history in relation to physical illness and offers therapeutic support alongside medical treatments. To better understand this revolutionary approach, Stora presents fifteen case studies from the past twenty years. We read of George suffering from hyperlipidemia; Giles, a diabetic facing amputation; Elvira, an alcoholic; Dorothy, who complains the doctors treat body parts but not her; Beatrice facing a reappearance of breast cancer; and ten further patients. This complex process takes into account the fundamental role of the central nervous system in the relationship of mind and body. Thus, neuroscience is a key component of this holistic approach, as well as the new discipline of neuropsychoanalysis. This is most clearly shown in the case of Emma, suffering after brain surgery.
The Psychosomatic Therapy Casebook is an excellent introduction to integrative psychosomatics. The stories presented in the first four chapters can be read by anyone with an interest in the subject. The fifth and final chapter is aimed at psychotherapists, psychoanalysts, and doctors looking to gain a greater understanding of the practice. It contains a comprehensive review of the technical points involved and clearly shows the difference between psychoanalytic technique and the technique of psychosomatic therapy. This is an important book in learning to treat the person as a whole rather than split into mind and body.
Trade Review'Jean Benjamin Stora was President of the Paris Psychosomatic School in the 1990s. Subsequently, his work at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital led him to develop a new discipline, integrative psychosomatics. It was based on a scientific model called "metapsychosomatics", which supports the tension of knowledge between three disciplines: biomedicine, neuroscience and metapsychology. Following on from his previous works, this book explains the model and its paradigm in which the individual is perceived and investigated as a whole, in other words, as a "psychosomatic unit". Through fifteen clinical cases, Stora exposes the clinical and therapeutic orientations at play. This is an important book for doctors, clinicians, and psychological practitioners. It carries an obvious yet often overlooked message: that the care of patients should not focus solely on the sick organ or biological system as separate from mind and spirit, but should also focus on taking care of the person behind the illness.'
-- Dr L. Naccache, Professor at the Psychosomatic School of the Pitié-Salpêtrière
Table of ContentsAbout the author
Introduction
A mysterious word: “psychosomatics”
Chapter One
Doctors, patients, and mind therapists
Chapter Two
“A good enough mother”
Chapter Three
Serious illness and pain
Chapter Four
Psychosomatic enigmas
Chapter Five
From the originality of psychosomatic psychotherapy
Conclusion
From the clinic of psychoanalysis to that of psychosomatic therapy
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Appendix 3
References
Index
