Body and symptom in the somatizing patient: A psychodynamic view

Abstract

The text addresses the dual conception of the body for psychoanalysis resulting from the psychic constitution process, which begins in sensation, through memory and coming in the representation and symbolization. Then it discusses the concept of symptom, presenting a brief view into the main psychosomatic schools, aiming to bring the divergence in relation to the symptom to carry a meaning or not. Despite the controversies and divergences in the care of somatizing patients, there is agreement in relation to some characteristics of somatizing patients: affective dissociation; difficulty of symbolization and in the establishment of affective bonds. The clinical management of these patients requires adjustments, the analyst must constitute a transferential link that allows for the translation or naming of the unnameable, its interpretation and reframing for integration in the psyche.