by Franz Ruppert. Excerpt from the book My Body, My Trauma, My Self.
An alternative to school medicine, which has been on the market for quite some time, is psychosomatics, which tries to understand the connection between body and psyche (Adler et al. 2017; von Uexküll 1976, Wirsing 1996). Psychosomatic diseases refer to a causal connection between physical and psychological conditions and the social life circumstances of a person. This leads to the conclusion that treating only the body for many symptoms such as cardiovascular diseases, back pain or obesity cannot lead to better health, and that one therefore also has to treat the psychological and social causes.
In the 70s, we got the concept of stress in physiology, which psychology has since started to use. The concept states that it is functional for a human body to react with stress to briefly mobilize energies to get out of an acutely dangerous situation. If the danger is over, the body can return to a relaxed state and then regenerate. If, on the other hand, the stress reaction does not decrease because the dangerous situation continues, real or psychological, the body loses its necessary relaxation phases. Consequently, the body can suffer long-term damage, especially the organs, vascular system, muscles and joints. In addition, the immune response remains at such a low level that the risk of becoming infected with a disease increases.
To this day, the stress concept is one of the most important explanatory models in psychosomatics. Even people without a medical background use it. Too much stress has become a popular argument when it comes to disease symptoms such as heart attacks, high blood pressure or stomach tumors. As a panacea, calmness, relaxation, meditation and recreation are recommended in such cases. In contrast to this, experience shows that physical and psychological symptoms occur more often, especially in a state of rest, and that some people feel they are going mad when they e.g. will meditate in a psychosomatic clinic. My personal experience with breathing exercises e.g. is that I either got tired quickly, or that I get into a state of overstimulation and impotence. Behind this lies my experience as an infant where I was almost killed during a violent attack by my father. Only after I processed my trauma did my breathing permanently change for the better.
To this day, psychosomatics is largely based on depth psychological or behavioral therapeutic theories (Ermann 2007). A standard explanation is that repressed emotions somatize themselves in physical illnesses. Suppressed anger then leads e.g. to pressure in the stomach and, in the long term, to stomach tumours. The problem should be able to be solved by letting it out and supported by therapeutic methods (such as hitting a pillow with a bat).
In my experience, acting out emotions does not lead to the desired cathartic effect. On the contrary: often the feeling of helplessness after such an outburst of anger is stronger than before. Or feelings of guilt towards the people the anger was directed at increase. Why that? Because these feelings were usually repressed within the relationship with mother or father whom the person concerned could not leave. And the person in question is still trapped in the longing for their parents' love or in having to save and comfort them. When one simply acts out one's mind, this can even deepen the split in a person, something I have already been able to observe in many constellations. Suppressing emotions can only end
- if you have deliberately left the relationship with an abuser
- if you build a loving and appreciative relationship with yourself
- if the pain of being a victim is felt
