Language and its Psychosomatic Clinical Meaning

Review Article

Abstract

The text proposes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding speech, language and psychosomatic phenomena, with an emphasis on psychoanalysis. Initially, it presents the main schools of thought in psychology - structuralism, functionalism, gestalt, psychoanalysis, behaviorism, humanism, and cognitivism - each offering different perspectives on human behavior and mental processes. Next, the focus falls on somatization, understood as a physical expression of psychic conflicts. The text highlights that psychosomatic symptoms often resist the classical physiological explanation, which requires a deeper look from psychoanalysis. McDougall classifies somatization into three forms: logical (neurotic), alexithymic (psychosomatic), and paralogical (psychotic). The concept of "organ thinking", especially in patients with psychotic or borderline conditions, is explored as a primitive and unconscious form of communication, in which the body "speaks" through symptoms. Bion contributes his theory of the alpha function, distinguishing alpha elements (digested thoughts) from beta (undigested) elements, which, when not transformed into language, can manifest as somatizations. Somatization can act as a defense against psychic collapse, functioning as a symbolic substitute for speech. The articulation between emotion, thought and body is fundamental to understand psychosomatic suffering. Finally, the text proposes the concept of "psychosomatic ness", essential to interpret why certain organs are chosen as the seat of symptoms, reflecting a logic of the unconscious - not rational, but symbolic, affective and mythopoetic.