Organ language

According to the psychoanalytic explanation of psychosomatic illness, organ language is the bodily expression of an unconscious conflict as a form of symbolic communication. It is also called organ-speech, a term that Sigmund Freud uses in his 1915 essay "The Unconscious" attributing its coinage to Victor Tausk.

History

In 1915 Freud wrote:

In agreement with Tausk, I would here lay stress on the point that the relation to the bodily organ ... has usurped the place of the whole content of the thought. The schizophrenic speech displays a hypochondriac trait: it has become "organ-speech"[1] (German: Organsprache).[2]

Definition

According to the American Psychiatric Association,

Some believe that understanding the significance to the patient of the organ affected by the illness is essential for accurate diagnosis and treatment. For example, chronic lumbago (lower backache) with no identifiable organic cause may mean that the patient is feeling put upon, is being a martyr, or is aiming too low in life.[3]

In other words, the target organ, tissue or somatic function would be semantically related to the repressed mental content.

Further examples: "difficulty in swallowing may represent an unpalatable situation; an asthmatic episode may symbolize a load on the chest; itching may simbolize irritation or that 'something has gotten under the person's skin'."[4]

Divergences with the psychiatric paradigm

Psychiatry not influenced by such psychoanalytic ideas rejects both the semantic correlation with the target organ and that the cause is an unconscious conflict. If anything, psychosomatizations are due to stress affecting a "constitutional" target organ, correlated by hereditary factors.[5]

See also

References
  1. Sigmund Freud (1997) [1963]. "The Unconscious (1915) (pp. 116—150)" (PDF). General Psychological Theory. Papers on Metapsychology. With an introduction of the editor Philip Rieff. New York City: Simon & Schuster. p. 144. ISBN 0-68484292-0. {{cite book}}: External link in |orig-year= (help)
  2. José Luis Valls (2019). Freudian Dictionary. A Comprehensive Guide to Freudian Concepts. Milton Park: Routledge. p. 217. ISBN 978-0-42962187-1.
  3. "organ language". APA Dictionary of Psychology. American Psychiatric Association. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
  4. Raymond J. Corsini (2002) [1999]. The Dictionary of Psychology (reprint ed.). Psychology Press. p. 676. ISBN 978-1-58391328-4. {{cite book}}: External link in |orig-year= (help)
  5. John Sheahan (2012) [1973]. "4 | Bodily reactions to mental stress (pp. 74ff.)". Essential Psychiatry. A guide to important principles for nurses and laboratory technicians. Springer Science+Business Media. ISBN 978-9-40117138-0. {{cite book}}: External link in |orig-year= (help)

Further reading
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