2011 Volume 11 Issue 1 Pages 48-55
In this paper, we would like to show that applying Process Oriented Psychology （POP） to the treatment for a psychosomatic symptom stimulates a paradigm shift in medicine, helping to emerge a new kind of medicine which will cover both wholeness and completeness, namely cure and healing. In the treatment of POP, somatic symptoms and troubles in relationships are regarded as a conflict between “primary process” which is relatively close to one’s usual consciousness and“ secondary process” which tends to be ignored by ordinary ego but might contain important messages from something beyond such an ego. While Western ego tries to achieve the “completeness,” the goal of POP is the wholeness or an integration of primary process and secondary process. In this case of a female patient in her thirties with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder for 13 years before our treatment, her symptoms occured by troubles of relationships in job and continued in spite of drug treatment and verbal counseling. Because her symptoms did not improve sufficiently in spite of SSRI treatment, the treatment with POP approach was introduced 3 years after our treatment. As a result, the patient got improved, giving up perfectionism and obsession for cleanness, and becoming more aware of the importance of relationship in her life, striving for marriage, children, or meaningful job 6 years after our treatment.
