Psychosomatic Family in Child Psychiatry

Abstract This paper contrasts the individual and contextual approaches to the psychiatric treatment of psychosomatic diseases of children. In contrasting the conceptualizations of the "self," the authors discuss an expanded self inherent in the family-oriented approach. An investigation involving psychosomatic and normal diabetic children and their families demonstrates this concept. The authors present a case of an asthmatic child and discuss and contrast approaches to the areas of diagnosis, etiology, maintenance of symptoms, ideas of change, and treatment.