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PSYCHOSOMATIC DISEASES AS THE SEARCH FOR SELF // Pedagogical Review. 2020. Issue 1 (29). P. 174-181

The problem of psychosomatic diseases is discussed. Skin diseases are considered as a General psychological model of differentiation and integration of knowledge about the self. The paper investigates the conjugate relationship between psychosomatic skin diseases (psoriasis and atopic dermatitis) and the representation of the self. The literature data in favor of the statement that the early relationship of mother and baby are critical for subsequent mental development. The concept of “primary skin” (E. Bick), which performs the function of binding (“sticking together”) parts of the child’s personality, is considered. It is suggested that the experience passed through by the infant in the early symbiotic relationship with the mother is a prototype for subsequent models of human interaction with the world. If a child is confronted with an early traumatic experience of maternal “misunderstanding,” then he is unable to integrate “what is inside and what is happening outside.” The concepts of “second skin” and secondary symbiosis as protective mechanisms arising in the case of traumatic separation experience are considered. The forms of secondary symbiosis are correlated with two types of the mother’s gaze– the unseeing and the distorting. It is assumed that the two types of gazes and forms of secondary symbiosis correlate with atopic dermatitis and psoriasis. It is hypothesized that defects in the “atopic dermatitis” group are associated with prolonged symbiosis (that is, with the mother’s unseeing gaze), and in “psoriasis” group – with defective or prematurely torn symbiosis (i. e. distorting mother’s gaze). The study was carried out using the Lybko technique (self-representation by means of constructs Myself/I for the Other) and the “Cream” technique (representation of the skin surface by means of different constructs of the cream). The study involved 72 women aged 20–40 years, IU = 37 (30 – healthy (NORMAL), 17 suffering from psoriasis (PS) and 25 – atopic dermatitis (AD)). The method of nonparametric analysis (Kruskal – Wallis criterion) proves that the representation of the true Self manifests itself as a tendency to merge/encapsulate in different groups of subjects. Skin diseases (AD and PS) reflect different ways to overcome secondary symbiosis. When representing the Self, the AD group shows a tendency to fusion, and the PS group shows a tendency to encapsulation.

Keywords: self, psychic skin, second skin, primary/secondary symbiosis, atopic dermatitis/psoriasis, tendency to fusion/encapsulation