MIND, BODY, MIND
THE EFFECTS of mind and emotions on physical health are, in
a sense, much more widely understood today than a decade or two ago. The word
"psychosomatic" has become commonplace. "Just nerves" is an
often- heard expression. At every cocktail and dinner party, at least one
amateur psychiatrist announces, with an air of certainty, that so and so has
asthma or a backache because of a childhood emotional trauma, or that somebody
else only seems to be suffering from arthritis and the "dis- ease" is
imaginary, an effort to gain sympathy.
Occasionally, of course, the amateur
diagnostician may be right. But it is no easy matter to determine whether any
physical ailment is basically a result of an emotional problem. Emotional
problems can, indeed, cause physical difficulties, but the reverse is equally
true: any physical problem may produce emotional difficulties. To the word
psychosomatic in the language we should add somatopsychic. Not, by any means,
do all problems in either category require the intervention of a psychiatrist.
And if you understand the role emotions play in health and
disease, you may well be able to prevent certain ailments from occurring and
others, if they do occur, from progressing.
THE EMOTIONAL BASIS OF ILLNESS Can emotions really cause an
acute emergency such as a perforated duodenal ulcer? Can guilt feelings produce
sore throats? Can unexpressed resentment be responsible for elevation of blood
pressure or for migraine headache? In short, is there a direct link between
emotional turmoil and physical suffering? How can something as intangible as
emotional disturbance be translated into body disturbance? What is the
scientific evidence? The volume of research in this area has been huge, and
what follows is just a sampling. Investigators studied 2,000 Army draftees,
using a blood test to determine the level of stomach secretion in each man.
They also administered psychological tests.
On the basis of
the tests and measurements, they predicted that 10 of the men would develop
duodenal ulcers during a 16-week period of basic training. They were correct in
7 cases. In Cincinnati, student nurses were divided into two groups: those who
adjusted successfully during the first six weeks of training to their
separation from home, and those who failed to adjust well. The investigators
then predicted that the non-adjusting girls, those complaining of feeling
helpless or hopeless, would have a significantly higher frequency of physical
illness during their freshman year.
Their prediction was accurate.
One study covered nearly
3,000 people, Americans and Chinese. For many, life data extending back over a
period of at least 20 years could be collected. Episodes of physical illness in
this large sample of people, the study showed, tended to occur in clusters, and
the illness risk appeared to be linked not so much to actual life stresses as
to how the individual perceived difficult life situations. At certain times,
some given stress-a job difficulty, a family problem, a financial
reverse-produced more conflict in a given Individual than at other times, and
it was then that illness was more likely to occur.
