Psychological Meaning Of Illness And Coping With Disease

Personality configuration determining the patient's psychosocial reaction to illness was studied in 65 patients with intermittent claudication. The patients were interviewed and psychologically tested using the Rorschach test, Beck's depression inventory and Sauri's creativity inventory. The results showed four different psychosocial reactions to illness each combined with a specific personality constellation and resulting in different levels of cooperation in the treatment. The highest level of cooperation was achieved by patients who experienced disease as a loss and who felt rational sorrow over lost health. This was combined with a high level of psychic integrity. Those who experienced disease as a threat offered passive cooperation and displayed alexithymic features. Most inconsistent were patients who regarded disease as a challenge, making maladaptive attempts to master a disease-related threat. Disease experienced as a gain was an indication of psychic pathology and those patients refused totally to cooperate in the treatment.