Interpersonal view on physical ­illnesses and mental disorders

Abstract

hysical illnesses and psychological disorders are typically viewed as ­individual phenomena, with causes for the diseases lying in the organism, either in medical conditions (severe infections, cancer, coronary heart problems, diabetes, arteriosclerosis, etc.) or in pathological mental ­processes within the person (dysfunctional information processing, deficient social skills, deficient emotion-regulation skills, etc.). In consequence, the treatment of physical and psychological disorders is commonly individual-centered, aiming to improve health conditions within the person ­affected by the disease. In this article a systemic-transactional understanding of disorders is presented, where both partners are viewed as suffering from the disease but also able to engage in joint coping efforts (“we-­disease”). The notion of we-disease is explained and its implications for clinical work is outlined.