Psychosomatic and mourning: ulcerative colitis as a somatic indication of an absence

• Grant number: 18/24955-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2019
• End date: September 30, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Psychological Treatment and Prevention
• Principal Investigator: Sidnei José Casetto
• Grantee: Letícia Fanti Pedreira da Silva
• Host Institution: Instituto de Saúde e Sociedade (ISS). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Baixada Santista. Santos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The work of mourning is described by Freud as a focus and overinvestment in memories and expectations related to the estimated object, processing the disconnection of the libido on each of them, allowing, after the consummation of the mourning work, the Ego will be again free and available. However, in the face of important losses due to particularities of psychic functioning, some subjects would be more susceptible to physical illness because the impossibility of performing the psychic work of mourning, and ulcerative colitis is an example of this. From a psychoanalytic psychosomatic perspective, it is objective to identify, through the selection of publications of clinical case reports, ulcerative colitis as a somatic symptom related to an indication of absence of psychic elaboration of mourning. The methodological approach will be qualitative; It will be searched already published clinical cases of subjects presenting ulcerative colitis as a somatic symptom. The analysis and discussion will adopt the theoretical framework of psychoanalytic psychosomatic, considering the works of Franz Alexander, Pierre Marty, Joyce McDougall and Christophe Dejours, and will seek to verify the absence of psychic elaboration of mourning in cases studied.