3 ms·

It is well known that extreme physical problems like blindness and paralysis can have purely psychological origins. It is "all in the mind" yet the symptoms are

by SeanDav 11y ago

It is well known that extreme physical problems like blindness and paralysis can have purely psychological origins. It is "all in the mind" yet the symptoms are completely real to the patient. Its causes are way more complicated than a cry for attention or other similar utterances of street smart "wisdom". See Somatization disorder and Conversion disorder.

laotzu 11y ago
A bit unrelated but after reading the wiki pages for Somatization and Conversion disorder and then reading the suggested links I stumbled upon this gem, the Cat Nun hysteria of 1844: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_hysteria#Cat_Nuns_.28France.2C_1844.29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_hysteria#Cat_Nuns_.28Fran... >A convent of nuns began to meow like cats and others followed until all would meow together at a certain time for several hours together. This continued until the surrounding village called soldiers to threaten the nuns to stop their singing.
thelettere 11y ago
I'm surprised more wasn't said on the history of the disease. Hippocrates actually first recoreded it, and Freud's very first patient in 1880, Anna O., had it (she was partially blind/deaf and paralyzed) and she eventually recovered. Then it was known as hysteria, and today it's categorized as a form of somatoform disorder. It used to be quite common, and may still be, although there is some controversy in this regard (1a). There's little that can be said about this particular case, because so few details are included - other than that it's no surprise that it co-occurred with DID, for discrete mental illnesses rarely exist in the wild. They almost always come in bunches. Predisposing factors for somataform include alexithymia and childhood trauma (1b) and it often co-occurs with anxiety and/or depression. Alexithymia (a little known condition involving a severe deficit in awareness of emotion and the body, and a focus on the external world) is usually a key factor in the etiology of the disease. "Individuals with alexithymia tend to demonstrate an impoverished fantasy life and limited imagination, a diminished capacity for empathy, a penchant for impulsive behavior, and a propensity to experience emotions somatically" (2). The deficit in emotional processing is usually (at least originally) the result of a conscious effort to suppress/distract from unpleasant emotions (like this lady's trauma), which then express themselves in the body. Indeed, alexithymia-like symptoms are a common feature in a number of common mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety and panic disorder (3), and the more alexithyia-like characteristics these patients have, the worse their somatic symptoms (4). Treatment of the disease is difficult because despite its psychological etiology, patients usually present well and emphatically deny that their psychology has anything to do with their symptoms (5). Interestingly, emerging findings on it tend to revolve around some of Freud's original ideas (6). (1a) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2235919/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2235919/ (1b) http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/early/2014/03/07/jnnp-2013-307203.short http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/early/2014/03/07/jnnp-2013-30720... and http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022399913004352 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022399913... (2) http://journals.lww.com/hrpjournal/Fulltext/2014/05000/Changes_in_Alexithymia_Following_Psychological.3.aspx http://journals.lww.com/hrpjournal/Fulltext/2014/05000/Chang... (3) http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11126-012-9246-y http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11126-012-9246-y and http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053810009000919 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053810009... (4) https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Robert_Schoevers/publication/268690042_Differential_Associations_of_Specific_Depressive_and_Anxiety_Disorders_with_Somatic_Symptoms/links/551bda3c0cf20d5fbde218ef.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Robert_Schoevers/public... and http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010440X14002570 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010440X14... (5) http://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/do-patients-with-somatoform-disorders-present-with-illusory-mentalhealth-2161-0487-1000213.pdf http://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/do-patients-with-soma... (6) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3744921/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3744921/ and http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4396134/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4396134/ and http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014976341500161X http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763415...
api 11y ago
Aging? We have tales of yogis and other "adepts" who could supposedly live much longer than the average life span for their times or who could self-cure disease, etc. While I don't take these stories at their miraculous face value, I do wonder if there might not be some kernel of truth in there somewhere -- perhaps certain patterns of thought can and do have an effect on aging, the immune system, etc. We do know that people who are happy or feel socially accepted by friends and loved ones have statistically significant increased odds of surviving deadly cancers and other serious diseases. For years I've felt like I've casually observed a converse effect-- people who adopt a curmudgeonly "old" point of view in life often seem to have failing health. I have wondered which comes first. Could an "old" (in the negative sense) mentality actually age you?
- thelettere 11y ago
  I can't find it now but yes there was a study done a few years ago that had one group of elderly people play and act like children, and another do some "serious" adult activity for some period of time, and afterwards they took some markers of aging, and found it significantly diminished in the play group. But I wonder what the aging effect of our obsession with control is. In other words, would playful thoughts motivated by a desire for control still net those results? (if indeed you can even be playful and controlling at the same time) Based on what I know about psychology, I doubt it. Motivations matter, and letting go and accepting things as they are is one of the most psychologically healthy things we are capable of doing. I doubt if any of those yogis who achieved long life (if indeed they did) did so intentionally for the purpose of achieving a long life. Instead, it was likely a by-product - as so many of the best things are.
- rurounijones 11y ago
  This dude seems to be able to prove "Superhuman" abilities in scientific environments based solely on mental fortitude and control http://www.icemanwimhof.com/innerfire http://www.icemanwimhof.com/innerfire
thelastguy 11y ago
Well, if Multiple Personality Disorder is real, then that means there's another person/personality/talking voice living inside your brain. And if that other person/personality/talking, who isn't you, takes over the area of your brain involve in sight, OR, if that person/personality/talking voice resides in the area in the brain involves in sight, and you/your personality/your talking voice do not reside in sight area of the brain, it would make sense that you will not be able to see, and only the personality residing in the sight area of the brain can see. OR... The personality/those other beings living inside you decide not to share the vision are of the brain with you, then your area of the brain would not be able to receive the visual information, and thus, you would be blind, but that other personality would not be.

by SeanDav 11y ago

laotzu 11y ago

A bit unrelated but after reading the wiki pages for Somatization and Conversion disorder and then reading the suggested links I stumbled upon this gem, the Cat Nun hysteria of 1844: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_hysteria#Cat_Nuns_.28France.2C_1844.29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_hysteria#Cat_Nuns_.28Fran... >A convent of nuns began to meow like cats and others followed until all would meow together at a certain time for several hours together. This continued until the surrounding village called soldiers to threaten the nuns to stop their singing.

thelettere 11y ago

I'm surprised more wasn't said on the history of the disease. Hippocrates actually first recoreded it, and Freud's very first patient in 1880, Anna O., had it (she was partially blind/deaf and paralyzed) and she eventually recovered. Then it was known as hysteria, and today it's categorized as a form of somatoform disorder. It used to be quite common, and may still be, although there is some controversy in this regard (1a). There's little that can be said about this particular case, because so few details are included - other than that it's no surprise that it co-occurred with DID, for discrete mental illnesses rarely exist in the wild. They almost always come in bunches. Predisposing factors for somataform include alexithymia and childhood trauma (1b) and it often co-occurs with anxiety and/or depression. Alexithymia (a little known condition involving a severe deficit in awareness of emotion and the body, and a focus on the external world) is usually a key factor in the etiology of the disease. "Individuals with alexithymia tend to demonstrate an impoverished fantasy life and limited imagination, a diminished capacity for empathy, a penchant for impulsive behavior, and a propensity to experience emotions somatically" (2). The deficit in emotional processing is usually (at least originally) the result of a conscious effort to suppress/distract from unpleasant emotions (like this lady's trauma), which then express themselves in the body. Indeed, alexithymia-like symptoms are a common feature in a number of common mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety and panic disorder (3), and the more alexithyia-like characteristics these patients have, the worse their somatic symptoms (4). Treatment of the disease is difficult because despite its psychological etiology, patients usually present well and emphatically deny that their psychology has anything to do with their symptoms (5). Interestingly, emerging findings on it tend to revolve around some of Freud's original ideas (6). (1a) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2235919/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2235919/ (1b) http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/early/2014/03/07/jnnp-2013-307203.short http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/early/2014/03/07/jnnp-2013-30720... and http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022399913004352 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022399913... (2) http://journals.lww.com/hrpjournal/Fulltext/2014/05000/Changes_in_Alexithymia_Following_Psychological.3.aspx http://journals.lww.com/hrpjournal/Fulltext/2014/05000/Chang... (3) http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11126-012-9246-y http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11126-012-9246-y and http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053810009000919 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053810009... (4) https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Robert_Schoevers/publication/268690042_Differential_Associations_of_Specific_Depressive_and_Anxiety_Disorders_with_Somatic_Symptoms/links/551bda3c0cf20d5fbde218ef.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Robert_Schoevers/public... and http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010440X14002570 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010440X14... (5) http://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/do-patients-with-somatoform-disorders-present-with-illusory-mentalhealth-2161-0487-1000213.pdf http://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/do-patients-with-soma... (6) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3744921/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3744921/ and http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4396134/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4396134/ and http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014976341500161X http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763415...

api 11y ago

Aging? We have tales of yogis and other "adepts" who could supposedly live much longer than the average life span for their times or who could self-cure disease, etc. While I don't take these stories at their miraculous face value, I do wonder if there might not be some kernel of truth in there somewhere -- perhaps certain patterns of thought can and do have an effect on aging, the immune system, etc. We do know that people who are happy or feel socially accepted by friends and loved ones have statistically significant increased odds of surviving deadly cancers and other serious diseases. For years I've felt like I've casually observed a converse effect-- people who adopt a curmudgeonly "old" point of view in life often seem to have failing health. I have wondered which comes first. Could an "old" (in the negative sense) mentality actually age you?

thelettere 11y ago
I can't find it now but yes there was a study done a few years ago that had one group of elderly people play and act like children, and another do some "serious" adult activity for some period of time, and afterwards they took some markers of aging, and found it significantly diminished in the play group. But I wonder what the aging effect of our obsession with control is. In other words, would playful thoughts motivated by a desire for control still net those results? (if indeed you can even be playful and controlling at the same time) Based on what I know about psychology, I doubt it. Motivations matter, and letting go and accepting things as they are is one of the most psychologically healthy things we are capable of doing. I doubt if any of those yogis who achieved long life (if indeed they did) did so intentionally for the purpose of achieving a long life. Instead, it was likely a by-product - as so many of the best things are.
rurounijones 11y ago
This dude seems to be able to prove "Superhuman" abilities in scientific environments based solely on mental fortitude and control http://www.icemanwimhof.com/innerfire http://www.icemanwimhof.com/innerfire

thelastguy 11y ago

Well, if Multiple Personality Disorder is real, then that means there's another person/personality/talking voice living inside your brain. And if that other person/personality/talking, who isn't you, takes over the area of your brain involve in sight, OR, if that person/personality/talking voice resides in the area in the brain involves in sight, and you/your personality/your talking voice do not reside in sight area of the brain, it would make sense that you will not be able to see, and only the personality residing in the sight area of the brain can see. OR... The personality/those other beings living inside you decide not to share the vision are of the brain with you, then your area of the brain would not be able to receive the visual information, and thus, you would be blind, but that other personality would not be.