The Clinic of the Psychosomatic Patient: Searching for the Meaning of Symptoms

Lazslo Antonio Avila

Abstract

Abstract This paper focuses on some problems emerging from the doctor-patient relationship, when subjectivity is identified and considered. We discuss the passivity and alienation of the patient manifest in the current medical approach to sickness. Then, we stress the role of psychotherapy in allowing apprehension of the meanings that all diseases have, when lived as personal illnesses. We present a case report of a ‘difficult’ patient treated by psychodynamic psychotherapy

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