Word: schmale
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...results, reported by Dr. Arthur H. Schmale Jr. in Psychosomatic Medicine, were startling. Every patient except one had suffered some such blow, and careful interviews with relatives confirmed it. In 35 cases the blow rubbed a childhood wound, such as death or divorce, which still remained unhealed. For all 41 patients affected, the upsetting experience brought feelings of "depression" that ranged from anxiety to real hopelessness. When illness struck, every conflict was still unresolved. The illness followed the blow within a week for 31 patients, a month for eight, and six to twelve months for two. Examples...
Such revelations about an "average" hospital population still do not prove that disease is a direct consequence of depression, notes Dr. Schmale. Disease and depression may be quite separate attempts by the bodymind to adapt to loss and despair. To really nail down a link between object loss and biological vulnerability, it is also necessary to see how some people survive personality blows without getting sick. But theoretically, health depends largely on keeping the ego intact. If it does, then a blueprint analysis of a patient's personality may become as useful in preventive medicine...