Psychosomatic

Abstract

Words with ambiguous meanings allow or promote uncaring relationships that are destructive to nurses and patients. The term "psychosomatic" is frequently associated with the connotation that the mind affects the body, but disregards the continuous and joint interaction of mind and body. he purpose of this study was to examine the connotative meanings of the term psychosomatic among people who were neither nurses nor physicians. An open-ended questionnaire designed to solicit information about the connotative meanings attached to the word psychosomatic was used to solicit persons. Findings revealed that the majority of subjects held a unidirectional definition of the term; that is, they believed that the mind influences the body but not vice versa. Negative thoughts and feelings were attached to the term. Nurses need to be aware of the meanings that words evoke when communicating with patients.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alexander, F. (1950). Psychosomatic medicine. New York: Norton.

Bartol, G. M. , & Eakes, G. G. (1988). The connotative meanings of the term "psychosomatic." Journal of Professional Nursing, 4(6), 453-457.

Bartol, G. M. , & Eakes, G. G. (1995). Study of the meanings assigned to the term "psychosomatics" among health professionals. Perspectives in Psychiatric Care, 31(1), 24-29.

Cousins, N. (1989). Head first: The biology of hope. New York: Dutton.

Dossey, B. M. (1995). Nurse as healer. In B. M. Dossey , L. Keegan , C. E. Guzzetta , & L. G. Kolkneier (Eds.), Holistic nursing: A handbook for practice (2nd ed., pp. 61-82). Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen.

Guzzetta, C. E. (1992). Nursing diagnoses, patient outcomes, implementation, and evaluation. In B. M. Dossey , C. E. Guzzetta , & C. V. Kenner (Eds.), Critical care nursing: Body-mind-spirit (3rd ed., pp. 83-92). New York: Lippincott.

Henker, F. O. (1982). Conflicting definitions of the term "psychosomatic." Psychosomatics, 23(1), 8, 11.

John-Roger & McWilliams, P. (1989). You can't afford the luxury of a negative thought. Los Angeles: Prelude.

Lipowski, Z. J. (1986). Psychosomatic medicine: An overview. In O. Hill (Ed.), Modem trends in psychosomatic medicine (pp. 89-121). Boston: Butlerworths.

10.

Martin, J. (1978). Psychosomatic medicine: A brief history. Psychosomatics, 19, 697-700.

11.

Reiser, M. F. (1984). Min, brain, body: Toward a convergence of psychoanalysis and neurobiology. New York: Basic Books.

12.

Shorter, E. (1992). From paralysis to fatigue: A history of psychosomatic illness in the modern era. New York: Free Press.

13.

Sicherman, B. (1979). The uses of a diagnosis: Doctors, patients, and neurasthenia. In W. R. Rogers & D. Barnard (Eds.), Nourishing the humanistic in medicine: Interactions with the social sciences (pp. 217-244). Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.