From Soma to Symbol: Psychosomatic Conditions and Transformative Experience

Phyllis L. Sloate

Apr 2016 · Karnac Books

About this ebook

 This book traces the theoretical history of psychosomatics in psychoanalysis, and with it the ways that psychoanalytically-trained clinicians have tried to understand and treat patients with complex psychosomatic symptoms. It offers a rethinking of the mind-body relationship in psychoanalysis, eschewing past dichotomies between the psychological and the corporeal, and today's either-or distinctions between symbolizing and non-symbolizing patients. Theoretical and clinical issues are considered from a broad and integrative perspective. Psychosomatic patients' best interests are served neither by an indiscriminate embrace of dazzling new findings, nor by discarding established ways of understanding them. This volume exemplifies an approach that takes advantage of the rich history of the past as well as exciting new work in the neurosciences. 

The opening historical chapter delineates the evolution of the field of psychoanalytic psychosomatics. Out of the reductionism and divisiveness of the past, through a growing rapprochement between the American and French psychosomatic traditions, to the thoughtful integration of the work of allied disciplines, an emerging international perspective has emerged that has re-energized interest in psychoanalytic psychosomatics and holds much promise for our patients.

This is also a clinician’s book, however, aimed at helping psychoanalytic and psychodynamically-oriented clinicians to work more comfortably and productively with psychosomatic patients. The case histories are full of useful ideas about how to engage and maintain these challenging and vulnerable people in treatment. Clinicians will find many imaginative approaches to helping a patient know her own mind (often for the first time), and become capable of genuine aliveness, relatedness, and mutuality. There are also hints for dealing with the intense countertransference almost universal with these patients, which may be the analyst's chief source of understanding when words fail or are absent altogether. In addition, richly detailed discussions suggest how the new theoretical and clinical integration may apply to other patients with impaired symbolizing capacities, greatly extending the book’s clinical usefulness.

About the author

 Phyllis L. Sloate, PhD, FIPA, is a training and supervising analyst at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR) and the Contemporary Freudian Society (CFS). She is also faculty and supervising analyst at the Westchester Center for the Study of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (WCSPP) and at the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. She has served as the Chair of the APA’s Psychosomatic Discussion Group since 2006, and leads the New York Psychosomatic Study Group. In 2011 she was invited to present the annual C. Philip Wilson Memorial Lecture at the Psychoanalytic Association of New York (PANY) in appreciation for her contributions to the field of psychosomatics. She has also edited and contributed to a recent volume on psychosomatics for the journal series Psychoanalytic Inquiry, and she is an invited contributor to Graeme Taylor’s special issue on psychosomatics for the Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry.