Abstract
The idea that certain mental phenomena (e.g. emotions, depression, anxiety) can represent risk factors for certain somatic diseases runs through common thinking on the subject and through a large part of biomedical science. This idea still lies at the focus of the research tradition in psychosomatic medicine and in certain interdisciplinary approaches that followed it, such as psychoneuroimmunology. Nevertheless, the inclusion in the scientific literature of specifically mental phenomena in the list of risk factors pertaining to a specific pathological condition would seem, to say the least, problematic when not completely absent, unlike what happens for certain behavioural factors, such as smoking, sedentary life, and alcohol abuse. It is also significant that insurance companies and health and welfare services do not pay for interventions and treatment for states of anxiety, disorders of mood and of the personality, alexithymia and stress reduction, as means of prevention or treatment of somatic diseases, as instead they do for the treatment of tobacco addiction. However, as I shall endeavour to argue here, there are numerous and well grounded reasons why this different consideration of psychic conditions compared with behaviours is valid and must be maintained in the evaluation of pathogenetic risk factors.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen, B., and Potkay, C. R.: 1981, 'On the arbitrary distinction between states and traits', Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 4, 916–928.
Anda, R., Williamson, D., Jones, D., Macera, C., Eaker, E., Glassman, A., and Marks, J.: 1993, 'Depressed affect, hopelessness, and the risk of ischemic heart disease in a cohort of U.S. adults', Epidemiology 4, 285–294.
Andreasen, N. C.: 1997, 'Linking brain and mind in the study of mental illnesses: a project for a scientific psychopathology', Science 275, 1586–1593.
Bahnson, C. B.: 1969, 'Psychophysiological complementarity in malignancies: past work and future vistas', Annals of the New York Academy of Science 164, 319–331.
Bahnson, C. B.: 1980, 'Stress and cancer, state of the art, Part I'. Psychosomatics 21, 975–981.
Bahnson, C. B.: 1981, 'Stress and cancer, state of the art, Part II'. Psychosomatics 22, 207–220.
Barefoot, J. C., and Schroll, M.: 1993, 'Symptoms of depression, acute myocardial infarction, and total mortality in a community sample', Circulation 93, 1976–1980.
Barlow, D. H.: 1988, Anxiety and its Disorders, New York: Guilford Press.
Cannon, W. B.: 1927, 'The James-Lange theory of emotion: a critical examination and an alternative theory', American Journal of Psychology 39, 106–124.
Carney, R. M., Freedland, K. E., Miller, G. E., and Jaffe, A.S.: 2002. 'Depression as a risk factor for cardiac mortality and morbidity: a review of potential mechanisms', Journal of Psychosomatic Research 53(4), 897–902.
Davison, K., and Petrie, K.: 1997, 'Emotional expression and health', in A. Baum, S. Newman, J. Weinman, R. West and C. McManus (eds.), Cambridge Handbook of Psychology; Health, and Medicine, pp. 103–106. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dunbar, H. F.: 1935, Emotions and Bodily Changes: A Survey of Literature on Psychosomatic Interrelationships, New York: Columbia University Press.
Dunbar, H. F.: 1943, Psychosomatic Diagnosis, New York: Paul B. Hoeber.
Ford, D. E., Mead, L. A., Chang, P. P., Cooper-Patrick, L., Wang, N., and Klag, M. J.: 1998, 'Depression Is a Risk Factor for Coronary Artery Disease in Men. The Precursors Study'. Archives of Internal Meddicine 158, 1422–1426.
Frasure-Smith, N., and Lespérance, F.: 1988, 'Role of psychosocial factors in CVD', Evidence Based Cardiovascular Medicine 2, 64–65.
Friedman, M., Rosenman, R.H.: 1959, 'Association of specific overt behavior pattern with blood and cardiovascular findings', Journal of the American Medical Association 169, 1286–1295.
Gabbard, G. O.: 2000, 'A neurobiologically informed perspective on psychotherapy', British Journal of Psychiatry 177, 117–122.
Glassman, A. H., and Shapiro, P. A.: 1998, 'Depression and the course of coronary artery disease', American Journal of Psychiatry 155, 4–11.
Grillon, C.: 2002, 'Startle reactivity and anxiety disorders: aversive conditioning, context, and neurobiology', Biological Psychiatry 15, 52(10), 958–975.
Gross, J. J., and Levenson, R.W.: 1993, 'Emotional suppression: physiology, self-report, and expressive behavior', Journal of Personality Social Psychology 64, 970–986.
Hippisley-Cox, J., Fielding, K., and Pringle, M.: 1998, 'Depression as a risk factor for ischaemic heart disease in men: population based case-control study', BMJ 316, 1714–1719.
James, W.: 1884, 'What is emotion?', Mind 9, 188–205.
Kandel, E. R.: 1983, 'From metapsychology to molecular biology: Exploration into the nature of anxiety', American Journal of Psychiatry 140, 1277–1293.
Kandel, E. R.: 1998, 'A new intellectual framework for psychiatry', American Journal of Psychiatry 155, 457–469.
Krieger, N.: 1994, 'Epidemiology and the web of causation: has anyone seen the spider?', Social Science and Medicine 39(7), 887–903.
Lazarus, R. S.: 1977, 'Psychological stress and coping in adaptation and illness', in J. Lipowski, D.R. Lipsitt and P.C. Whybrow (eds.), Psychosomatic Medicine: Curreny Trends and Clinical Application, New York: Oxford University Press.
Lazarus, R. S., Averill, J.R., and Opton, E.M. Jr.: 1970, 'Toward a cognitive theory of emotion', in M. Arnold (ed.), Feelings and Emotion, New York: Academic Press.
LeDoux, J. E.: 1998, 'Fear and the brain: where have we been, and where are we going?', Biological Psychiatry 44, 1229–1238.
Lespérance F. and Frasure-Smith N.: 2000, 'Depression in patients with cardiac disease: a practical review', Journal of Psychosomatic Research 48(4–5), 379–391.
Marshall, J. R.: 1972, 'The expression of feelings', Archive of Genitic Psychiatry 27, 786–790.
McMahon, B., Pugh, T. F., and Ipsen, J.: 1960, Epidemiological methods, New York: Little Brown and Co.
Mischel, W.: 1968, Personality and Assessment, New York: Wiley.
Mischel, W.: 1969, 'Continuity and change in personality', American Psychologist 24, 1012–1018.
Mizrachi, N.: 2001, 'From causation to correlation: the story of Psychosomatic Medicine 1939–1979', Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 25, 317–343.
Musselman, D. L., De Battista, C., Nathan, K. I.: 1998, 'Biology of mood disorders', in F.A. Schatzberg and C.B. Nemeroff (eds.), The American Psychiatric Press Textbook of Psychopharmacology, Washington DC: American Psychiatric Press.
Nesse, R. M.: 1999, 'Proximate and evolutionary studies of anxiety, stress and depression: synergy at the interface', Neuroscience and Biobehavioural Reviews 23(7), 895–903.
Pennebaker, J., and Beall, S. K.: 1986, 'Confronting a traumatic event: toward understanding of inhibition and disease', Journal of Abnormal Psychology 95, 274–281.
Schachter, S., and Singer, J. E.: 1962, 'Cognitive, social and physiological determinants of emotional states', Psychological Reviews 69, 379–399.
Schatzberg, A. F., Garlow, S. J., and Nemeroff, C. B.: 2002, 'Molecular and cellular mechanisms in depression', in L. D. Kenneth, D. Charney, J. T. Coyle and C. Nemeroff (eds.), Neuropsychopharmacology: The Fifth Generation of Progress, Lippincott: Williams & Wilkins.
Shedler. J., Mayman, M., and Manis, M.: 1993, 'The illusion of mental health', American Psychologist 48, 1117–1131.
Weinberger, D., Schwartz, G., and Davidson, R.: 1979, 'Low anxious, high-anxious, and repressive coping styles: psychometric patterns and behavioral and physiological responses to stress', Journal of Abnormal Psychology 88, 369–380.
Wulsin, L. R., Vaillant, G.E., and Wells, V. E.: 1999, 'A systematic review of the mortality of depression', Psychosomatic Medicine 61, 6–17.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Canali, S. On the Concept of Psychological. Topoi 23, 177–186 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-004-5378-5
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-004-5378-5