Tom Morris
14th July 2007, 10:52 PM
I was reading Wikipedia today to find out more information about the possible causes of my Repetitive Strain Injury, where I came across a section on Stress and RSI (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repetitive_strain_injury#Stress_and_RSI). Basically, this doctor, John Sarno, thinks that RSIs, back pain and a number of other orthopedic conditions is almost totally as a result of 'stress' and other psychosocial factors, and that treatment of said conditions is primarily awareness of those psychosocial causes.
The psychological cause of this, he goes on to explain, is a form of repression. From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tension_Myositis_Syndrome):
Dr. Sarno claims that the underlying cause of the pain is the mind's defense mechanism against unconscious mental stress it does not want to directly confront, or even cope with, emotions such as anger, anxiety and narcissistic rage. Rather than confront the stress and its underlying causes, the unconscious mind (acting via the limbic system) causes mild oxygen deprivation in muscles, nerves or tendons, and thereby causes physical pain. The conscious mind will therefore be distracted by this physical pain, enhancing the automatic repression process to keep the anger/rage contained in the unconscious. This strategy is designed by the brain to keep such emotional stress from surfacing in the conscious mind, thus assisting in the repression of painful emotions and preventing awareness of them. TMS could therefore be called a psychosomatic condition, in that it is a physical condition whose ultimate cause is psychological. However, having TMS does not make you a hypochondriac or a malingerer. TMS is real pain, with an immediate cause that is both real and physical. It is certainly not an indication of "mental illness." In fact, TMS patients are often highly responsible and successful individuals. TMS, rather, is a "distraction pain syndrome" of sorts, a very painful strategy for staying sane in a crazy-making world.
I did some Googling and found this article (http://www.smi-mindbodyresearch.org/DistractionPain.htm) which manages to discuss back pain using both René Descartes and the word 'holistic'.
I'm really not sure what to think about all this. It's an interesting thesis, but I'm not sure how it can be falsified/verified. I have no idea whether it's a load of nonsense or not. My hand, wrist and arm are in pain, and I haven't got time to waste on foo-foo.
There is an interesting meta-issue here: when one is in a lot of pain, it becomes very difficult to think calmly and rationally about it. You just want it to stop. Whence cometh 'alternative medicine'? The desperation of people in pain, it seems.
Just on pure anecdote, among people I know who are developers, computer programmers and so on, the incidence of RSIs is extremely high, and they come from all different backgrounds - some dropped out of school at 17, some have got master's degrees in evolutionary biology from Harvard, some are successful executives, some are worker peons, some are open source hackers, some love their jobs, some hate their jobs, some don't even have jobs. The physical factor - they all work on computers all day long seems to be there though.
The evidence of how these types of pain have become prevalent in Western societies but not developing societies is interesting. There aren't many 'primitive' (for want of a better word) tribesmen in the rural Amazon who wake up, cruise to work down the highway, sit in front of a PC for eight hours, come home and sit in front of a TV for three hours and then sleep. Cultural difference doesn't automatically imply that there isn't a physical difference.
Similarly, if you are living in a poverty-stricken part of the third world and are trying to deal with things like, oh, an AIDS and STD epidemic, malnutrition and malaria, back pain and RSIs are probably not high on the agenda of people. When you live in a society where these things are mostly solved (at least comparatively), then the secondary stuff like aches and pains become something that you are more likely to report to your doctor.
I don't really buy the Sarno thing - certainly not for my own case, where use of cold compresses, 300mg doses of ibuprofen, physical therapy and exercise seem to be lessening the symptoms. And that ibuprofen works regardless of whether I'm relaxing on the beach or frantically trying to finish my dissertation.
Anyway, I'd be interested in your comments.
The psychological cause of this, he goes on to explain, is a form of repression. From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tension_Myositis_Syndrome):
Dr. Sarno claims that the underlying cause of the pain is the mind's defense mechanism against unconscious mental stress it does not want to directly confront, or even cope with, emotions such as anger, anxiety and narcissistic rage. Rather than confront the stress and its underlying causes, the unconscious mind (acting via the limbic system) causes mild oxygen deprivation in muscles, nerves or tendons, and thereby causes physical pain. The conscious mind will therefore be distracted by this physical pain, enhancing the automatic repression process to keep the anger/rage contained in the unconscious. This strategy is designed by the brain to keep such emotional stress from surfacing in the conscious mind, thus assisting in the repression of painful emotions and preventing awareness of them. TMS could therefore be called a psychosomatic condition, in that it is a physical condition whose ultimate cause is psychological. However, having TMS does not make you a hypochondriac or a malingerer. TMS is real pain, with an immediate cause that is both real and physical. It is certainly not an indication of "mental illness." In fact, TMS patients are often highly responsible and successful individuals. TMS, rather, is a "distraction pain syndrome" of sorts, a very painful strategy for staying sane in a crazy-making world.
I did some Googling and found this article (http://www.smi-mindbodyresearch.org/DistractionPain.htm) which manages to discuss back pain using both René Descartes and the word 'holistic'.
I'm really not sure what to think about all this. It's an interesting thesis, but I'm not sure how it can be falsified/verified. I have no idea whether it's a load of nonsense or not. My hand, wrist and arm are in pain, and I haven't got time to waste on foo-foo.
There is an interesting meta-issue here: when one is in a lot of pain, it becomes very difficult to think calmly and rationally about it. You just want it to stop. Whence cometh 'alternative medicine'? The desperation of people in pain, it seems.
Just on pure anecdote, among people I know who are developers, computer programmers and so on, the incidence of RSIs is extremely high, and they come from all different backgrounds - some dropped out of school at 17, some have got master's degrees in evolutionary biology from Harvard, some are successful executives, some are worker peons, some are open source hackers, some love their jobs, some hate their jobs, some don't even have jobs. The physical factor - they all work on computers all day long seems to be there though.
The evidence of how these types of pain have become prevalent in Western societies but not developing societies is interesting. There aren't many 'primitive' (for want of a better word) tribesmen in the rural Amazon who wake up, cruise to work down the highway, sit in front of a PC for eight hours, come home and sit in front of a TV for three hours and then sleep. Cultural difference doesn't automatically imply that there isn't a physical difference.
Similarly, if you are living in a poverty-stricken part of the third world and are trying to deal with things like, oh, an AIDS and STD epidemic, malnutrition and malaria, back pain and RSIs are probably not high on the agenda of people. When you live in a society where these things are mostly solved (at least comparatively), then the secondary stuff like aches and pains become something that you are more likely to report to your doctor.
I don't really buy the Sarno thing - certainly not for my own case, where use of cold compresses, 300mg doses of ibuprofen, physical therapy and exercise seem to be lessening the symptoms. And that ibuprofen works regardless of whether I'm relaxing on the beach or frantically trying to finish my dissertation.
Anyway, I'd be interested in your comments.