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]
Alfred Adler used the term "organ dialect" as early as 1912, when he wrote a paper of that name. He later borrowed the term "organ jargon" that had been coined by Georg Groddeck, and also synonymously employed the term organ language.[3]
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.[4]
In other words, the target organ, tissue or somatic function would be semantically related to the repressed mental content.
Further examples
Divergence 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] For the psychiatrist Jurgen Ruesch, these disorders represent an infantile use of body language by individuals who are unable to express themselves effectively by verbal means.[6]
See also
References
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ José Luis Valls (2019). Freudian Dictionary. A Comprehensive Guide to Freudian Concepts. Milton Park: Routledge. p. 217. ISBN 978-0-42962187-1.
- ↑ "Organ Dialect/Organ Jargon/Organ Language - AdlerPedia". AdlerPedia. Chicago, Illinois: Adler University. 2023. Retrieved June 23, 2023.
- ↑ "organ language". APA Dictionary of Psychology. American Psychiatric Association. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Jurgen Ruesch (1946). Chronic Disease and Psychological Invalidism: A Psychosomatic Study. American society for research in psychosomatic problems.
Further reading
- Vassilis Kapsambelis (2014). "Organ-speech [Le langage d'organe]". Revue française de psychanalyse. 78 (3): 658–670. doi:10.3917/rfp.783.0658.
{{cite journal}}: Check|author=value (help) - Giovanni Hautmann (1990). "An Introduction to the Problem of Organ Language". Rivista di psicoanalisi. 36 (2): 426–438.
{{cite journal}}: Check|author=value (help) - Christian Müller (1984). "New Observations on Body Organ Language". Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. 42 (1–4): 124–126. doi:10.1159/000287835. JSTOR 45115381. PMID 6514957.
- Linford Rees (1983). "The development of psychosomatic medicine during the past 25 years". Journal of Psychosomatic Research. 27 (2): 157–164. doi:10.1016/0022-3999(83)90093-4. PMID 6864600.