Noopsychosomatic Disorders in the Light of Empirical Studies

Abstract

A sense of purpose in life is inextricably linked with a firm conviction of exercising control over it, and having one’s priorities set straight. Health in turn, is affected by stress, by salutogenetic factors, as presented by A. Antonovsky. Disturbances of sense of purpose in life result in psychosomatic disorders. Hypothesis: there is a relevant statistical correlation between the level of sense of purpose in life and noopsychosomatic disorders. Methods: 1) Crumbaugh-Maholick Purpose- in-Life Test, 2) K. Mausch Questionnaire of Psychosomatic Ailments. Test group: 683 pedagogy students from the University of Szczecin. There is a relevant statistical correlation between the level of sense of purpose in life and psychosomatic disorders. The research results require comparison with other post-soviet countries, as well as democratic ones. The concept of health Heath psychology is a new area that has emerged within psychology only recently. It has involved drawing on findings in clinical psychology, psychosomatic medicine, behavioral medicine and medical psychology. In contrast to the earlier focus on pathological phenomena, i.e. illnesses or disorders, health psychology concentrates on health. The father of health psychology, Joseph Matarazzo, writes that “health psychology is the aggregate of the specific educational, scientific, and professional contributions of the discipline of psychology to the promotion and maintenance of health, the prevention and treatment of illness, the identification of etiological and diagnostic correlates of health, illness, and related dysfunction, and the improvement of the health care system and health policy formation” (Matarazzo, 1980, p.815). Indeed, health psychology draws on and embraces theories, findings and practices of both medical, natural and social sciences. In the holistic-functional health model, health is defined as “the process of continuous dynamic balancing of the individual’s needs and environmental requirements. What determines the level of health are the resources of man (both inner and accessible from the environment) and the needs, often called stressors. In the holistic-functional model, health is viewed as a process and a great role is assigned to the subject’s aware 35 Karol Mausch activity” (Heszen 2002). The model views a human being as a wholeness, a view which dates back to antiquity. From this holistic concept of man, psychosomatic medicine was born, emphasizing the interdependence of psyche (mind) and body. Similarly, psychoneuroimmunlogy which examines relationships between psychic and immunological processes emerged (Ader, Felten, Cohen 1991). Both psychosomatic medicine and psychoneuroimmunology have produced a huge body of theoretical publications and have been positively verified in clinical practice. The only way for a human being to realize his biopsychosociospiritual potential is to enter the world of culture understood as the symbolic world of values (Ryś, Mausch, 2007). It is worth noting that behavioral medicine, implementing the holistic-functional model, includes behaviors conductive to health or illness in its research area (Sęk 2005). Noetic dimension of psychosomatic disorders: noopsychosomatics Traditional clinical and health psychologies treat psychosomatic disorders and illnesses as ailments resulting from personality disturbances and abnormalities in biological, psychological and social spheres. Psychosomatic disorders are interpreted in the context of great schools of psychology e.g.: Psychoanalysis, Behaviorism, Cognitive and Humanistic/ Existential Psychology. According to Kazimierz Popielski (1999) however, theoretical analyses and psychotherapeutic practice have not sufficiently emphasized the subjective-personal views on existence, i.e. the existential- intellectual, moral, or noetic dimension of personality. Ignoring the value dimension while studying personality and choosing psychological therapy, researchers and therapists fail to recognize basic values in an individual’s subjective-personal life and experience. A person who creates oneself mainly in reference to the world of material values, deprives himself of realizing his own humanity (Ryś, Mausch 2006; Mausch, Ryś 2007). Values shape and guide existence and the world of values and sense guides man in his/her existential being and becoming. A failure to develop a system of values and the ability to appreciate value, or its underdevelopment, result in distorted existence, that is in existential frustration, the feeling of unfulfillment and not using one's potential. Consequences of such a condition are existential vacuum and noogenic neurosis, described by