Psychosomatics vol. 1 – Digestive tract – what does the body tell us?
Digestive tract or Digestion also shows similarities to brain functions, because the brain (or consciousness) processes and digests non-material impressions of this world (because man does not live by bread alone). In digestion, we must process the material impressions of this world.
Thus, digestion includes:
1. taking the external world into oneself in the form of real impressions
2. distinguishing between favorable and unfavorable
3. assimilation of favorable substances
4. excretion of unfavorable substances.
Digestive tract and psychosomatics
Before we take a closer look at the problems that can occur with digestion, it is useful to take a look at the symbolism of food. A lot can be recognized by the foods and dishes that someone prefers or refuses (tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are). It is a good exercise to sharpen the eye and consciousness so that even in everyday, ordinary contexts one can recognize the connections that lie behind — never accidental — manifestations. When a person has a taste for something, this is an expression of a very specific affinity and is thus a statement about oneself. If something is “not to one’s taste”, this antipathy can be interpreted in the same way as a decision in a psychological context. Hunger is a symbol of the desire to have, the desire to receive, it is the expression of a certain desire.
Eating is the satisfaction of desire through integration, reception and saturation. If someone is hungry for love, but this hunger is not adequately satisfied, it will reappear in the body as a hunger for sweets. A burning hunger for sweets and sweets is always an expression of an unsatisfied hunger for love. The double meaning of the words sweet and nibble becomes clear when we talk about a sweet girl, whom we would most like to nibble. Love and sweets are closely related. A craze for sweets in children is a clear indication that they do not feel loved enough.
Parents will protest against such a possibility, noting that they “do everything for their children”. But “doing everything” and “loving” do not necessarily mean the same thing. Those who snack crave love and affirmation. We can trust this rule of the soul more than assessments of our own love capacity. There are also parents who shower their children with sweets and thereby declare that they are not ready to give their children love and therefore offer satisfaction on another level. People who think a lot and work intellectually have a need for salty food and “hearty” dishes. Conservative people prefer canned food, especially smoked, and also like strong tea, and those who drink bitter (they usually like food containing tannic acid).
People who prefer well-seasoned and even spicy dishes show that they are in search of new stimuli and impressions. These are people who love challenges, even if they are difficult to digest. It is completely different with people who eat healthy food — without salt, without spices. These people protect themselves from all new impressions. They shy away from all new challenges in fear, they are afraid of any confrontation. This fear can intensify to the point of the porridges of stomach patients, whose personalities we will talk about soon. Porridges are baby food — which clearly shows that the stomach patient has regressed into the dissatisfaction of childhood, in which there is no need to distinguish or discern, and it is possible without (ah, so aggressive) biting and chopping food.
A special fear of fish bones symbolizes the fear of aggression. The fear of bones shows the fear of problems — a person is reluctant to penetrate to the core of things. But there is also an opposite group: macrobiotics. These people are looking for problems. They want to find out what the core of things is at all costs and therefore are open to ‘hard’ food. This goes so far that one can even feel a rejection of problem-free areas of life. In sweet desserts, they look for something else to bite into. In this way, macrobiotics reveal a certain fear of love and tenderness, or rather, a difficulty in receiving love.
Some people even manage to push their hostility towards conflict to such an extreme that they end up having to be fed intravenously in the emergency room — because this is by far the safest form of vegetating without conflict and without their own participation.
According to Rudiger Dahlke's book - Illness as a Path
*Key words: Diseases of the digestive tract, Digestive tract, disease as a path, psychosomatics, gestalt psychotherapy, somatic experiencing therapy, psychotherapist Zagreb
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