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Psychosomosis

By Vexen Crabtree 2006 Oct 31

People can exert mental control over their body and mental states, sometimes with long-term results. I hope that by describing what it is possible to do, people will learn to take more control of their mental and physical health. 'Psychosomosis' is sometimes used to mean medical symptoms that derive from purely (subconscious) psychological factors (such as ulcers caused by stress)₁ but I intend to use it in the wider sense; of the effect of the mind on the body, for good (i.e., meditation preventing cancer) and ill (depression causing increased illness). I advocate the strengthening of willpower in order to prevent psychosomatic illness and also for physical health self-empowerment. I sometimes call the curing of disease through mental willpower (or hypnosis) reverse psychosomosis.

1. Psychosomosis (and not somatoform disorders)
2. Psychoimmunology
3. Meditation
4. Hypnosis
5. Stigmata
6. Philosophical Issues
7. Conclusions

Psychosomosis (and not somatoform disorders)

A psychosomatic disease is one in which there are physical symptoms, such as ulcers, caused by a mental process, such as a maladaptive stress response. The following is the definition from the Oxford Companion to the Mind (Gregory 1987), followed by a paragraph on his description of typical psychosomatic diseases:

“Diseases are designated as psychosomatic if two conditions are fulfilled: if (i) the symptoms are accompanied by demonstratable physiological disturbances of function and (ii) the illness as a whole can be interpreted as a manifestation or function of the patient's personality, conflicts, life history, etc. The first condition distinguishes psychosomatic illness from psychoneurosis, particularly conversion hysteria, in which, by definition, the physical symptoms are not accompanied by demonstratable physiological disturbances. [...]

In Human patients [...] there tends to be a remarkable consistency in the psychosomatic disease, which tends to recur in a stereotyped form. The pattern is peculiar to each patient and more or less fixed. It could be argued that a genetic predisposition as, for example, in the asthma-eczema syndrome, to some extent determines the type of psychosomatic disorder that is likely to recur. [...] From time to time there maybe a 'syndrome-shift'. Thus a patient who has had several attacks of atopic dermatitis develops bronchial asthma, or perhaps, later in life, rheumatoid arthritis. A sufferer over many years from migraine develops ulcerative colitis, or a patient who has had a recurrent peptic ulcer develops essential hypertension.”

"The Oxford Companion to The Mind" by Richard L. Gregory, Psychosomatic Disease (2 entries on psychosomosis)

The reference to "conversion hysteria" is what some psychologists call "somatoform disorders". These are specifically not being discussed on this page. In psychosomosis, the symptoms are physical, and the cause (or cure) is psychological.

Some typical triggers for typical symptoms are described by Stan Gooch:

“Some hysterical sufferers break out in a skin rash or boils whenever (say) they have to visit their mothers, or have asthma attacks when they approach the district where they grew up. Here we can recall the woman whose hip bled every time she saw her handicapped son put on his hip support. A mental problem can in fact be converted into virtually any form of physical symptom or illness - and so can be a very serious position indeed.”

"Creatures from Inner Space" by Stan Gooch, p165

Psychosomosis, as we have seen, is specifically divided from hysteria; which is the paranoid belief that one suffers symptoms when in reality there are none. It should be easy to see that many hysterical symptoms also result from mental processes, like somatic symptoms. Mass hysteria is especially common amongst schoolchildren. For example, in a school in Shelkovsk, Chechnya "symptoms included convulsions, nausea and breathing difficulties. The illness spread to neighbouring schools. Local doctors suspected mass poisoning, but when a delegation of medics arrived from Moscow, they attributed it to mass hysteria"₅. Even when there is no actual virus, poison, or physical cause, children can "pass on" symptoms. Symptoms are real and fall in line with what the patients expect to suffer from. "Mass hysteria, or medically unexplained epidemic illness, has been documented since medieval times. Simon Wessely, a director of the King's Centre for Military Health Research at King's College London, says such outbreaks tend to reflect a society's beliefs". Importantly, Dr Wessely states that the most effective way to stop the epidemic and stop the symptoms is to explain that rumour and suggestion are causing them. [...] Once this has happened, "symptoms vanish within days"₅.

What we see here is that, like this page recommends, explaining to people that mental outlook has an effect on physical health can allow people to exercise more control against illness. Schoolchildren's symptoms disappear when it is explained that no poison was found; and, hysterical symptoms disappear when the true causes are empathetically explained by a trusted professional. (Beware that just telling people that the symptoms are their own 'fault' is wrong and does not make things better).

Another example that blurs the boundary between psychosomosis and hysteria is that many aspects of alcoholic drunken behaviour is cultural and caused by social upbringing rather than biology, meaning that the apparent symptoms are brainal rather than purely somatic.

Psychoimmunology

A mental 'fighting spirit' has been shown to be an effective aid to combating (physical) cancer₇. How can this be? A leading psychologist, Richard Gross, explains that psychoimmunology involves studying how emotion, mood and optimism/pessimism effect our immune systems and susceptibility to disease, and elaborates on how:

“An important way in which stress may result in disease is through its influence on the body's immune system [...]. The study of the effect of psychological factors on the immune system is called psychoimmunology. People often catch a cold soon after a period of stress (e.g. final exams) because stress seems to reduce the immune system's ability to fight off cold viruses. Goetsch and Fuller (1995) refer to studies that show decreases in the activity of lymphocytes, 'natural killer cells' (a particular type of white blood cell which normally fights off viruses and cancer cells), among medical students during their final exams.

A study of Greer et al. (1979) in England of women who had been diagnosed as having breast cancer (and actually had a mastectomy) found that those who reacted either by denying what had happened or by showing a 'fighting spirit' were significantly more likely to be free of cancer five years later than women who stoically accepted it or felt helpless. [...]

The study by Stone et al. (1987) [...] found that changes in mood (that are influenced by daily events) are linked to changes in the level of antibodies contained with immunoglobulin A (IgA), a substance found in tears, saliva, bronchial and other bodily secretions. [The] higher the level of positive mood, the higher the level of antibodies.”

"Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behaviour" by Richard Gross, p145

Psychology and biology have become blurred: Our minds effect the biological functioning of our body. This does not surprise materialistic biologists, who know that the mind itself is a part of the body, and that it is controlled by our nervous system which is commanded by the brain. Emotions that arise from the brain can be used as part of the feedback system to change the way the body works, because the brain is not only effect by, but is also in charge of, the body.

“If uncontrollable stress affects health [...] then will people who exhibit [...] pessimism be more vulnerable to illness? Several studies have confirmed that a pessimistic style of explaining bad events (saying, "It's my responsibility, it's going to last, and it's going to undermine everything") makes illness more likely. [...] Even cancer patients appear more likely to survive if their attitude is hopeful and determined (Levy & others, 1988; Pettingale & other, 1985). One study of [cancer patients, showed that] those who participated in morale-boosting weekly support group sessions survived an average of 37 months, double the 19-month average survival time among the nonparticipants (Spiegel & others, 1989). [...] Beliefs, it seems, can boost biology.”

"Social Psychology" by David Myers, p583

The Limits of Reverse Psychosomosis

“Other investigators argue that wile mental states might exert some influence on the initiation of disease, they are likely to be powerless to affect advanced organic pathology.”

"How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life"
Thomas Gilovich (1991)₈

Despite the studies above, we must heed certain common-sense warnings. Studies that have shown psychosomatic illness to be hindered by the mind have only been consistent in a few types of disease, and the wise philosopher Thomas Gilovich warns us that the most extreme predictions of any theory, idea, science or philosophy have tended to be untrue₈. The reality is often more subdued than the extremes of theoretical possibility. Willpower cannot perform magic, and can only affect disease where such disease is affected by our nervous system's control of our body.

The rest of this text is a series of thematic examinations of the areas in which mental activity can control our physical bodies; highlighting the fact that mental activity itself is based in the physical neurology that interfaces with all of our bodies in the first place.

Meditation

Some people learn to control certain bodily functions through meditation. Heart rate and oxygen consumption can be reduced dramatically, and, those who practice transcendental meditation over the long term can expect health benefits such as less heart disease and even, according to one study, less likelihood of developing cancer.

“Meditation has been defined as a clearing or emptying of the mind through a narrowly focused thought process; the special word or phrase (the mantra used in Transcendental Meditation is an example of this. [...] Meditation, originally practised in India and other Eastern countries, became popular in the West in the late 1960s, as part of the 'flower power' phenomenon [...]. Since then, meditation has been studied by psychologists [...] There are many reported cases of yogis who manage to control their autonomic functions quite voluntarily through meditation [...]. A famous example is Ramanand Yogi, a 46-year-old Hindu who, in 1970, through the practice of yoga ('union') [...] used just over one-half of the calculated minimum amount of oxygen needed to keep him alive (and during one hour, he was averaging just one-quarter).”

"Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behaviour" by R. Gross 1996, p89-90

As our psychological states impact our immune system, scientists have studied the effects of forms of meditation on long-term health. Dr Schneider, who heads the centre of natural medicine and prevention at the Maharishi University of Management, Iowa, USA, published results of one such long-term study:

“A new study shows that transcendental meditation, a relaxation technique developed by the Indian guru [Maharishi] and made famous when [The Beatles] dabbled with it in the late 60s, can reduce death rates by nearly a quarter. Robert Schneider, who led the research, said: "The study found that in older people with mild high blood pressure, those practising transcendental meditation had a 23% lower risk of death from all causes". The results appear in the American Journal of Cardiology. "Some practised transcendental meditation, while others tried different techniques, such as progressive muscle relaxation. The transcendental meditation group had 30% fewer deaths from heart disease and 49% fewer from cancer. [...] Previous research has found that transcendental meditation can lower stress hormone levels and blood pressure."”

David Adam, The Guardian (2005) ₄

The text on psychoimmunology below explores other studies designed to examine how our mental states can affect our immune system.

Hypnosis

Under hypnosis, people can hallucinate incredibly real (-seeming) events in their minds, making themselves think they are flying, that they are talking to people who are not really there, etc. Also, latent talents and confidence can be brought out: when there are no social consequences the self is more capable of a broader range of actions.

Suggestible subjects can develop serious and real physical symptoms and injuries on command, some of them quite spectacular and unbelievable, such as blisters, seizures, open wounds and stigmata. Cures for existing diseases can be brought about through the same method, even for diseases, as we shall see below, that do not otherwise respond to medical treatment.

In a seemingly impossible and complex case of reverse psychosomosis, a boy who was born with a progressive skin disease was healed through suggestion whilst hypnotized. Mental processes of the brain, in their complex interactions with the body, are responsible for the biochemical changes that would have been required to cure the disease. Some primitive part of the brain must have been responsible, since birth, for causing the disease and the suggestion for it to stop allowed a normal epidermis to grow.

“Probably the most daunting and famous case of hypnosis on record concerns a boy aged sixteen who suffered from a congenital, progressive, structured disease of the skin, present from birth. The condition, ichthyosiform erythrodermia complex, is resistant to all forms of treatment. In it, a thick, black, horny layer covers most or all of the body, and this layer itself is covered with further warty excrescences. The skin, if such we can call it, is as hard as a fingernail. Any bending or flexing of any part of the body causes painful cracks, which ooze bloodstained serum. The condition also gives rise to an objectionable smell that others find intolerable.

On 10 February 1951, in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the boy concerned was hypnotized and told that his left arm would clear of the disease. Five days later the horny layer softened, broke and fell off, to reveal normal new skin beneath. In later hypnotic sessions the remainder of the body was successfully treated. The whole case was observed throughout by specialists and reported in full in the British Medical Journal₂.”

"Creatures from Inner Space" by Stan Gooch, p98-99

“A physician who appeared in a British television documentary series on hypnosis narrated the following story. He was treating a boy who was suffering from the so-called 'total allergy syndrome'. These individuals have been described as being 'allergic to the twentieth century'. They have to be cared for in a sterilized, sealed environment, and supplied with filtered air and special foods. The doctor was attempting to increase the boy's resistance by the use of hypnosis. At one point he began telling the boy that he (the boy) was having a picnic on a mountainside, but as the doctor described the imaginary scene, the youngster began to go into spasm. [...] The horrified physician realized that his patient was undergoing terminal spasm [and] summoned a helicopter, which swooped down and carried the boy up into the pure stratosphere above the earth. As the doctor quickly described these imaginary events, the boy's spasm subsided and he began breathing again.”

"Creatures from Inner Space" by Stan Gooch, p99

Stigmata

Hypnotized and entranced subjects can develop spontaneous (but not random) wounds, such as patients who are touched with a (room temperature) pen that they are told is red hot, and develop real blisters as a result of the imagined heat. Wounds like these are frequently associated with powerful memories; one subject would develop weals and blisters around his wrists similar to wounds he received 10 years earlier when tied up. A 37 year old female patient described her father's childhood beatings, and while doing so "bleeding whip marks appeared on her legs, buttocks, shoulders and hands. These were witnessed, photographed and reported by physicians, and had moreover to be dressed and treated [...]. Two further cases of this same phenomenon are also reported by Dr Moody" [3, via Gooch p109].

Stigmata is where the wounds of Jesus Christ spontaneously appear on the hands and feet. Similar processes must be at work in stigmata as during the injuries that can manifest under hypnotism and trance. It may be that some still believe that an actual, real, supernatural Christ causes these (they normally afflict saints and devout Christians) but there is clearly room for these wounds to be entirely psychosomatic and self-generated. Despite this, some Christians and paranormalists still claim that stigmata are the result of spiritual contact with Christ.

“However, the argument for the wounds of the stigmatic (the spear wound in the side, the marks of the thorns on the head, the nail marks in feet and hands, and so on) having been produced by contact with the actual spirit of Christ collapses completely on examination. For example, the stigmatics regularly produced (and produce to this day) nail wounds in the palms of their hands - as shown in many paintings and carvings of the crucified Christ - whereas in fact the real historical Christ, like all crucified victims of those days, was nailed to the cross through the wrists. More telling still is the finding that the particular marks (size, shape, position) on some stigmatics are identical with those on the particular crucifix or painting before which the stigmatic habitually worships. Here we seem to identify the exact source of inspiration which the unconscious mind has employed.”

"Creatures from Inner Space" by Stan Gooch, p110

Philosophical Issues

The separation of diseases into 'mental' and 'physical' is essentially arbitrary as psychological factors have a basis in neurology. Therefore psychological and psychosomatic disorders are physical, biological, and in this reductionist sense it makes no sense to call any phenomenon 'mental' or psyche-logical. To call something 'psychosomatic' when 'somatic' means bodily, and 'psyche' means psychological, may seem to be contradictory. However, the words used to describe the mind have a use because they determine the physical location of the causes of illness (the brain and the nervous system). This aids understanding, for to call all disease somatic would be to lose this major practical classification.

Free will and Causation: Is it true to say that, with psychosomatic disorders, the mind exercises 'free will' in 'choosing' illness? I think not. Although the cause of psychosomatic illness is psychological, the cause of the psychosomatic illness is itself the behaviour of the neurones of the brain and therefore psychosomosis is ultimately regulated by the laws of chemistry and physics, just like other biological and conscious systems. As a result, we find that the existence of psychosomosis (whether in curing or in causing illness) merely proves that the mind, the brain and the body all have a single, physical nature, and not two separate natures (body and soul).

Conclusions

There seems to be no limits to the seriousness of possible physical problems resulting from subconscious mental dysphoria; but there are many benefits also from certain mental exercises and from a positive attitude. Willpower and determination sit alongside hopeful thinking as elements of a reverse psychosomosis mechanism; helping protect the body against disease. Meditation, self-reflection, looking past illness, and having a 'fighting spirit' against health problems all contribute to actual physical health.

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By Vexen Crabtree 2006 Oct 31
Edited: 2007 Dec 04

Links:

• "Prayer & Psychosomosis: Telling people a 'prayer team' is praying for them makes them suffer more complications" by Vexen Crabtree 2006

References: (What's this?)

Davison & Neale. "Abnormal Psychology" (1997 Hardback 7^th ed). Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Amazon link points to a newer edition that the one I've used here.

Gilovich, Thomas. "How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life" (1991). 1993 paperback edition published by The Free Press, NY, USA.

Gooch, Stan. "Creatures from Inner Space" (1984 hardback). Published by Rider & Company, London, UK. [Search Amazon.co.uk]. [Book Review]

Gregory, Richard L. "The Oxford Companion to the Mind" (1987). Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Quotes from 1987 reprint.

Gross, Richard. "Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behaviour" (1996 3^rd ed). Published by Hodder & Stoughton, London UK.

LaVey, Anton (1930-1997). "The Satanic Bible" (1969). Published by Avon Books Inc, New York, USA. Anton LaVey founded the Church of Satan in 1966.

Myers, David. "Social Psychology" (1999 6^th 'international' ed). First edition 1983. Published by McGraw Hill.

Notes:

1. Gregory, R. 1987. Entry on Psychosomatic Disease: A Medical View.
2. A. A. Mason, 'A Case of Congenital Ichthyosiform Erythrodermia Treated by Hypnosis', British Medical Journal, vol. 2, 1952. Via Gooch. [Return to Text]
3. R. L. Moody, 'Bodily Changes During Abreaction', Lancet, vol. 251, no. 2, 1946; and vol. 254, no. 2 1948. Via Gooch. [Return to Text]
4. The Guardian, 2005 May 02 article "Meditation 'leads to longer life'". [Return to Text]
5. The Economist, 2006 May 20. [Return to Text]
6. Davison & Neal (1997) p155. Quote added to page on 2007 Jan 27. [Return to Text]
7. Ibid., p202. [Return to Text]
8. Gilovich (1991) p140. Added to this page on 2007 Dec 04. [Return to Text]