Psychosomatics vol. 3 – Small and large intestines – what does the body tell us?
The small intestine is where food is digested by breaking it down into its individual components (analysis) and assimilation. The external similarity between the small intestine and the brain is noticeable. Both have a similar task and function: the brain digests impressions on a non-material level, the small intestine digests material impressions. Problems in the small intestine should raise the question of whether one is analyzing too much, because what is characteristic of the function of the small intestine is analysis, splitting, and going into detail. People with diseases of the small intestine usually tend to analyze and criticize too much and complain about everything. The small intestine is also a good indicator of existential fears. In the small intestine, food is used up. Behind the excessive emphasis on exploitation, however, there is always an existential fear that one will not be able to produce enough food and that one will starve to death. Much less often, problems with the small intestine can indicate the opposite: too little ability to criticize. This is the case with so-called fatty stools or pancreatic insufficiency.
One of the most common symptoms that fall into the area of the small intestine is diarrhea. The popular saying is: Someone has a turd, but also: That person is shitting their pants out of fear. Having a turd means being afraid. Diarrhea points us to the problem of fear. When a person is afraid, they no longer take the time to analyze their impressions. All impressions perish undigested. Nothing is left hanging. The person retreats to a quiet and lonely place, where they can let things take their course. In doing so, they lose a lot of fluid, fluid as a symbol of flexibility, which would be necessary to expand the frightening (narrow) boundary of the ego and thus overcome fear. We have already talked about how fear is always connected to anxiety and holding back. Fear therapy always says: let go and expand, become flexible and let it happen!
In this way, it symbolically gains the flexibility it needs to expand its boundaries, in which it experiences fear. Diarrhea, whether chronic or acute, always teaches us that we are afraid and want to hold something back too much, when in fact we need to let go and let it flow. Digestion is already complete in the large intestine. Here, only water is separated from the undigested food residue. The most common disorder in this area is constipation. Since Freud, psychoanalysis has interpreted stool as an act of giving and giving away. Constipation is an expression of the lack of desire to give, the desire to hold back, and thus always touches on the problematic circle of stinginess. Constipation is a very widespread symptom in our time, from which many people suffer.
It clearly shows the excessive retention of the material and the inability to let go in the material realm. The large intestine, however, has another important symbolic meaning. Just as the small intestine corresponds to conscious, analytical thinking, the large intestine corresponds to the unconscious, literally the “underworld”. The unconscious is mythologically the realm of death. The large intestine is also the realm of death, because it contains substances that cannot be transformed into life, it is the place where fermentation can occur. Fermentation is also the process of putrefaction and dying. If the large intestine symbolizes the unconscious side of the body, feces correspond to the contents of the unconscious. But this clearly recognizes this meaning of constipation: it is the fear of letting unconscious contents into the light of day. At the same time, it is also an attempt to keep unconscious, repressed contents.
Mental impressions accumulate and the person is unable to regain distance from them. A patient with constipation literally cannot leave anything behind. For this reason, it is of great value for psychotherapy to first physically resolve the existing constipation, so that the unconscious contents can also come to light in a similar way. Constipation shows us that we have difficulties with giving and letting go, and that we want to hold on to and not let go of both material things and unconscious contents. Ulcerative colitis is called an acute tonic inflammation of the large intestine, accompanied by physical pain and bloody-mucous diarrhea. Here too, the people demonstrate their profound psychosomatic knowledge: we all know someone who shits slimily (and there is even the concept of a slimy person).
Someone who shits slimily sneaks up on someone else in order to please them — but to do so, they must sacrifice their personality, they must give up their own, personal life, so that they can live someone else’s life (if we sneak up on someone else, we will live with them there in symbiotic unity). Blood and mucus are vital substances, ancient symbols of life. (Myths of some primitive peoples say that all life developed from slime.)
Blood and mucus are lost by those who are afraid to realize their own life and personality. Their own life, however, requires the construction of their own position in relation to others, which, admittedly, brings with it a certain loneliness (loss of symbiosis). A patient suffering from colitis is afraid of this. Out of fear, they will sweat blood and water through their intestines. Through their intestines, they will (unconsciously) sacrifice the symbols of their own life: blood and mucus. The only thing that helps them is the realization that each person must live their own life responsibly – otherwise they will lose it.
Based on Rudiger Dahlke’s book – Illness as a Path
*Key words: small and large intestine, Diseases of the digestive tract, Digestive tract, disease as a path, psychosomatics, gestalt psychotherapy, somatic experiencing therapy, psychotherapist Zagreb
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