Dr. Schvinger, Amaryllis
PsycoCardiology is a field of Clinical Psychology . Clinical Psychology had been from its beginning a part of Mental Health research and practice, but nowadays it became enrolled in the wider sphere of the Health Sciences.
From this point of reference, our view of PsychoCardiology intends to go further and affirm a radical rupture with the Cartesian epistemological model which has dualism as its core – ground of modern science – and is present in the distinction between the material (body) and the imaterial (mind or spirit) of the human being constitution. PsychoCardiology has its philosophical ground mainly in Edmund Husserl’s notion of the lived body (Leib), later developed by the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty and, the North American psychiatrist Drew Leder.
Scientific researches developed around the Body/Mind unity and interelationships, and specifically around the relations of psychological processes with cardiovascular diseases give the scientific support to the PsychoCardiology proposal.
The present work is supplemented by data from a phenomenological research conducted by the author at the Instituto Nacional de Cardiologia Laranjeiras, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Clinical interviews were made with 53 inpatients that either were submitted to revascularization surgery ,1 to 8 days before the interview, or were going to be submitted to the surgery on the following 1 to 20 days after the interview.
Results point to two kinds of conexions between physical and mental or psychological processes:
1. By simultaneity: refers to conexions presented by experimental studies that search for causal relations among psychosocial factors and cardiac pathology, e.g. the Type A Behavior Pattern as an independent risk factor to MI;
2. By repercussion: refers to the acknowledgement, via phenomenological-hermeneutical reasoning, that what is experienced in the body affects the mind and vice-versa. “Psychological reactions to heart disease can be more astonishing and dramatic than those of the cardiovascular system itself” (Cassem & Hackett, 1977).
Existence, a heideggerian expression, best conveys the body/mind unity and says even more: this unity exists in intrinsic relation with the people and the world around.
Dr. Schvinger, Amaryllis
International Affiliation: American Psychological Association
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