Abstract
In Flanders, the northern part of Belgium, family physicians estimate that half of the epigastric complaints they face cannot be given a clear biomedical diagnosis. Heyrman (1986) reports that in 75% of the cases complaints are very vague and do not permit an unambiguous definition of their origins. The current psychosomatic approaches do not seem to be able to cope with these problems. Both diagnostically and therapeutically, they offer little to go by (Verdee 1986). I believe that a broader anthropological research may help here. The experience of studying a foreign culture yields new concepts, perspectives and techniques that may prove fruitful to the problem at hand.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
ALEXANDER F. 1950: Psychosomatic Medicine; its Principles and Applications. New York: Norton. Anzieu D. 1974: Le moi-peau.Nouvelle Revue de Psychanalyse 9: 195–208.
BIBEAU G. 1978: L’organisation Ngbandi des noms de maladies.Anthropologie et Sociétés 2, 3: 83–116.
BOURDIEU P. 1980: Le sens pratique. Paris: Minuit.
BONFILS S., HACHE 1L J.-C. and DAMNE O. 1982: L’abord psychosomatique en gastroentérologie. Paris: Masson.
CHÂTELET N. 1977: Le corps culinaire. Paris: Seuil.
DEGRYSE J. (ed.) 1986: Maagklachten opnieuw bekeken. Leuven: Acco.
DEVISCH R. 1981: La mort et la dialectique des limites dans une société d’Afrique Centrale. Archivio di Filosofia (Roma) 2–3: 503–527.
DEVISCH R. 1984: Se recréer femme. Manipulation sémantique d’une situation d’infécondité chez les Yaka du Zaire. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag.
DEVISCH R. 1985: Symbol and Psychosomatic Symptom in Bodily Space-Time: The case of the Yaka of Zaire. International Journal of Psychology 20: 589–616.
DEVISCH R. 1986: “Ik blijf me raar voelen in de buik”: Een semantisch-antropologische verkenning van bovenbuikklachten in Vlaamse huisartspraktijken. In: Degryse 1986: 61–91.
DEVISCH R. 1988: From equal to better: investing the chief among the Northern Yaka of Zaire. Africa 58, 3: 261–290.
DEVISCH R. 1990a: The Therapist and the Source of Healing among the Yaka of Zaire. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry 14,2: 213–236.
DEVISCH R. 1990b: Mediumistic Divination among the Northern Yaka of Zaire: Etiology and Ways of Knowing. In: Peek Ph.M. (ed.), African Divination Systems: Ways of Knowing (pp. 104–123 ). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
DEVISCH R. and GAILLY A. 1985: Dertlesmek: the Sharing of sorrow–A therapeutic self-help group among Turkish women. Psichiatrica e psicoterapia analitica 4, 2: 133–152.
DEVISCH R., STUER H. and VERREPT H. 1989: La signification psychoculturelle des plaintes gastriques. Santé, Culture, Health 6, 1: 39–52.
DEVISCH R. and VERVAECK B. 1986: Doors and thresholds: Jeddi’s approach to psychiatric disorders. Social Science and Medicine 22: 541–551.
DE VRIES M. 1985: Het behoud van Leven. Ziekte en heling in nieuw perspectief. Utrecht/ Antwerpen: Bohn, Scheltma & Holkema.
DOUGLAS M. 1978: Cultural bias. London: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.
GIARD L. 1980: Faire-la-cuisine. In: Giard L. and Mayol P. (eds.),L’invention du quotidien. Vol. 2: Habiter, cuisiner (pp. 149–234). Paris: Union Générale d’Editions 10/18.
GOOD B. 1977: “The heart of what’s the matter”: The semantics of illness in Iran. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 1: 25–58.
HEYRMAN J. 1986: Huisartsen en patienten met epigastrische klachten. In: Degryse J. 1986: 9–18.
HUYGHE B. 1985: Structuration métaphorique du corps et identité dans l’anorexie mentale. The International Journal of Psychology 20: 501–520.
JEDDI E. 1977: Ontogenèse du confort thermique et hypothèse théoretique sur sa place dans le développment affectif. In: Durand J. and Raynaud J. (eds.) Thermal comfort–confort thermique. Inserm 75 (Dec.): 101–144.
KLEINMAN A. 1980: Patients and Healers in the Context of Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press.
KIRMAYER L.J. 1984: Culture, affect and somatization. Transcultural Psychiatry Research Review 21: 159–188, 237–262.
LéVI-STRAUSS C. 1966: La pensée sauvage. Paris: Plon.
SHELDRAKE R. 1981: A New Science of Life. London: Blond and Briggs.
TURNER V. 1968: The Drums of Affliction. Oxford: Clarendon.
VERDEE G. 1986: Specificiteit bij psychofysiologische klachten. In: Degryse J. 1986: 55–60.
VERDIER Y. 1979: Façons de dire, façons de faire: la laveuse, la couturière, la cuisinière. Paris: Gallimard.
WEISS P.A. 1977: The system of nature and the nature of systems: Empirical holism and practical reductionism harmonized. In: Schaefer K.E., Hensek H. and Brady L.(eds.) Toward a man-centered medical science. New York: Futura.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1991 Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Braunschweig
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Devisch, R. (1991). The Symbolic and the Physiological. In: Pfleiderer, B., Bibeau, G. (eds) Anthropologies of Medicine. Vieweg+Teubner Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-322-87859-5_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-322-87859-5_7
Publisher Name: Vieweg+Teubner Verlag
Print ISBN: 978-3-528-07820-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-322-87859-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive