An Overview of Conceptualisations of ‘Somatisation’ with Reference to Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of ‘Embodiment’

This article explores key conceptualisations of ‘somatisation’, a term that refers to physiological symptoms without organic causes. A history dating back to Freud identifies philosophical underpinnings of a dualistic theorising of bodily symptoms and subsequent medicalisations of bodily illness, with recent elaborations on influencing psychological sources in somatic symptom presentations. Conceptualisations include: Freud’s trauma model, concepts of ‘faulty perception’, ‘emotional avoidance’, developmental perspectives including ‘affect dysregulation’, and ‘ mentalization’, ‘stress and physical illness’ and Schore’s neurobiological and psychobiological perspectives and the ‘genetic’ model of health and illness. Then Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological theory of ‘embodiment’ is offered as an alternative way of conceptualising the body and bodily manifestations.