Psychosomatic and Functional Disorders

Abstract

Everyone knows that somatic symptoms are often due to psychological causes. The very words of the English language indicate that the heart is the seat of the emotions. People speak of affairs of the heart when they mean affairs of love. A man’s heart is said to rule his head when his feelings are stronger than his reason. People are said to be sad at heart when depressed and it is said that their hearts are bitter when angry and that someone who has suffered a tragedy is broken-hearted. We also speak of being sick with grief, speechless with rage and trembling with emotion, and people are said to lose their appetites when crossed in love, to vomit with disgust, to develop diarrhoea from anxiety, to go into a cold sweat from fear, or to blush with shame.