A Case Trial of Focusing to the Writer's Cramp aith Alexithymia

Abstract

Although Focusing is well known to counsellors and psychiatrists, there are few case reports especially on the psychosomatic diseases. This case report deals with a 32-year-old male patient who had writer's cramp with alexithymia. He was treated through Focusing for more than 5 years (over 200 interviews). Untill the 30th interview, almost all of contents he listed for "clearing a space" were about the symptoms, in which he told about their shapes and qualities compulsively. Although he gradually began to express various feelings and emotions, he seemed to lapse into a kind of stagnation. So we made a confrontation to what he had avoided in the therapy at the 113rd interview, and we introduced the method of Cornell AW from the 140th interview on. The alexithymic aspects of the patient became inconspicuous, and he began to express his neurotic conflicts. The symptoms of writer's cramp were gradually improved. And at about the 170th interview, when his castration anxiety was told often, the symptoms disappeared almost completely. We believe Focusing is a useful therapeutic technique for psychosomatic diseases.