Psychosomatic

Nancy Fleming Courts and Genevieve M. Bartol
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Nancy Fleming Courts: University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Genevieve M. Bartol: University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Clinical Nursing Research, 1996, vol. 5, issue 3, 283-293

Abstract: Words with ambiguous meanings allow or promote uncaring relationships that are destructive to nurses and patients. The term "psychosomatic" is frequently associated with the connotation that the mind affects the body, but disregards the continuous and joint interaction of mind and body. he purpose of this study was to examine the connotative meanings of the term psychosomatic among people who were neither nurses nor physicians. An open-ended questionnaire designed to solicit information about the connotative meanings attached to the word psychosomatic was used to solicit persons. Findings revealed that the majority of subjects held a unidirectional definition of the term; that is, they believed that the mind influences the body but not vice versa. Negative thoughts and feelings were attached to the term. Nurses need to be aware of the meanings that words evoke when communicating with patients.

Date: 1996
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:clnure:v:5:y:1996:i:3:p:283-293

DOI: 10.1177/105477389600500304

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