Book, Psychoanalytic studies on psychosomatics[LS]

As great as the identity between the psychoanalytic thought of Groddeck and Freud may be, there is a fundamental difference in the handling of psychoanalytic technique. Groddeck did not use classical analysis nor did he undergo psychoanalysis with external help. He defines psychoanalysis as a method of diagnosis and treatment. In this sense, psychoanalysis would make a mistake, according to Groddeck, in dispensing with the physical examination of the patient, because precisely in the case of neurosis the importance of observing and analyzing bodily symptoms should not be underestimated. Distinguishing manifest and latent contents in them, Groddeck finds in his examination a valuable key to access the psychic source of such phenomena, especially because, in his view, organic symptoms develop in a manner analogous to the elaboration of dreams and the dynamics of neurosis. In fact, Groddeck considers, as a decisive principle, the idea that psychotherapeutic action applies to any type of illness. It is necessary to keep this in mind when reading this collection of texts formulated throughout its author's life and brought together in Psychoanalytic Studies on Psychosomatics, which Editora Perspectiva is now publishing, translated for the first time into Portuguese.