Factitious Disease - Special Topic Issue: Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics 1994, Vol. 62, No. 1-2 (Paperback)

This publication contains the most comprehensive psychodynamic and therapeutic findings on factitious diseases. Factitious diseases and overt self-damage are syndromes which involve the destructive abuse of one's own body in order to act out unconscious fantasies, release tension, or to discharge affect. The clinical features of factitious disease also include a seriously disturbed relationship to the physician, marked by deception and pathological fixation. Consequently, exceptionally difficult diagnostic and therapeutic problems are encountered in the work with these patients. Authored by psychotherapists and/or psychoanalysts in clinical practice, this publication contains recent terminological, epidemiological, clinical, diagnostic, psychodynamic and therapeutic findings. Particular attention has been paid to syndromes in the fields of internal medicine, surgery, psychiatry, neurology and dermatology. Psychotherapists, internists, dermatologists and psychologists should find this book a valuable source of information.