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H L Levitan

Publications and source records attributed to H L Levitan.

15 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1981

Patterns of hostility revealed in the fantasies and dreams of women with rheumatoid arthritis.

Data relevant to the feelings of hostility harbored by 25 women with rheumatoid arthritis is reported. Noteworthy points include: (1) a high incidence of early loss by death, often by suicide, of one of the parents; (2) a high incidence of involvement in incestuous relationships; (3) the occurrence in the period of onset of illness of severe provocation by an ambivalently loved person whom the patient cannot relinquish; (4) the presence of conscious fantasies of revenge toward this person which tend not to be carried over into action; (5) the presence of vicious dreams, often containing frankly oral-sadistic motifs in many of which the patient herself is portrayed in the role of victim.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

Traumatic events in dreams of psychosomatic patients.

Several examples of repetitive traumatic dreams reported by psychosomatic patients are discussed. The dreams involve injury to the body of the dreamer himself. The occurrence of dreams of this type indicates a failure in the functions of the ego concerned with the protection of the self. It may also indicate the presence in the memory systems of a latent traumatic event. Finally, it is suggested that the repetitive experience of consummated trauma contributes to the malfunctioning of the physiological systems, and therefore, to the production of illness.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

The significance of certain dreams reported by psychosomatic patients.

Several types of dreams reported by psychosomatic patients with alexithymic characteristics are presented. Two special features of the dreams are noted: (1) the dreams contain events which are very traumatic and (2) the protagonists of the dreams failed to fully perceive their own feelings. It is postulated that the failure of the protagonists to fully perceive their own feelings played an important role in fostering the development of the traumatic events. Feelings such as anxiety and sadness are key signals which incite the ego of the dreamer to set protective operations into motion. The diminution of awareness of these feelings may, therefore, delay the implementation of protective operations to a point which allows the traumatic events to progress dangerously far. It is interesting to note that the few psychosomatic patients without alexithymic characteristics who were included in my series reported a type of dream which was identical to one of the types of dreams reported by patients with alexithymic characteristics. This concurrence suggests the possibility that the dreams form a link between the psychologies of these two sub-groups of psychosomatic patients.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

Implications from an unusual case of multiple psychosomatic illness.

A 40-year-old patient who developed over her lifetime an unusually large number of psychosomatic illnesses is presented. She manifested in succession, bronchial asthma, peptic ulcer, regional ileitis and anorexia nervosa. In addition to the factor of multiplicity of illnesses, this series of illnesses is of special interest because the association of a classical psychosomatic illness with anorexia nervosa has not been reported previously. In order to take advantage of the unusual series of illnesses in one patient, I utilized a novel investigative approach. Basing myself upon the supposition that the fundamental make-up of the personality remains fairly constant over time, I criss-crossed bits of established knowledge from one illness to another. In this way, I was able to derive various implications with respect to the psychodynamic, the cognitive-perceptual and the hypothalamic levels of functioning in all the illnesses.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The significance of certain catastrophic dreams.

Four examples of catastrophic dreams in which the dream action progressed to include the total destruction of the dreamer's body image are presented. This feature of total destruction of the body image possesses a special heuristic significance because it is a variance with Freund's clinical experience which helped to shape his view of the factors responsible for the creation of traumatic neurosis. He felt that nothing resembling death can ever have been experienced and therefore he dismissed the idea that the traumatic neurosis could arise a direct result of the fear of death. Each of the dreams revived a real life traumatic event which had caused a registration in the mind of a shattering experience without causing the destruction of the actual body at the same time. When the same traumatic event was revived in the dream the ego functions available at that time were evidently insufficient either to modify the traumatic event or to awaken the dreamer prior to its denouement. The powerless ego of the dreamer seemed to have been derived from the powerless ego of the patient at the traumatic moment in waking life which was carried over into the dream as a part of the representation of the traumatic event. The destruction of the body image in these dreams apparently played a role in the production of symptoms characteristic of the dissociative syndromes. On the morning following the dream three of the patients awakened in a depersonalized state and the fourth in a catatonic state.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Dynamic and structural features of a case of compulsive neurosis as revealed in dreams.

Several examples of the manifest dreams reported by a patient with a compulsive neurosis are presented. An outstanding feature of the dreams was the sudden shift of the dreamer's self-representation from the role of criminal to the role of policeman. This shift is thought to parallel the oscillation between unconscious instinctual gratification and conscious attempts at reparation which is the main dynamic feature of the compulsive neurosis in waking life. The shift of orientation of the self reflects the operation of early defense mechanisms against the sadistic impulse. It also portrays graphically an early stage in the internalization process which leads ultimately to the creation of the superego. The repetitive nature of the dreams indicated that the patient had become fixated at this particular point in the course of his psychic development. It is interesting to note that like the Rat Man this patient suffered from a chronically undescended testicle. The real defect in the sexual apparatus in both patients may have been a factor which favored regression of the libido from the genital stage to the anal-sadistic stage.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Infantile factors in two cases of ulcer colitis.

In a third investigation of psychological factors in the etiology of ulcerative colitis the author again utilizes selected cases in which the variables preceding illness are limited. A first and second investigation had utilized patients who were afflicted with partial deafness and organic brain damage respectively in addition to ulcerative colitis. All patients displayed a marked trend to ojbectlessness in the prodromal period. The patients with organic brain damage displayed an intense rage reaction as well. The present investigation focuses upon two patients with ulcerative colitis who had been traumatically separated from their mother at age six months. The prodromal period of illness in both cases was initiated by an event which possessed a strong associative link with the primal loss. During the prodromal period both patients displayed an intense rage reaction and a trend to objectlessness which were similar to the reactions of the patients with organic brain damage. This particular emotional configuration appears to represent the revival of the emotional configuration which had prevailed following the loss in infancy. Some tentative ideas regarding the role played by the revival of the archaic emotional configuration in the production of physical changes are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Psychological factors in the etiology of ulcerative colitis: objectlessness and rage.

In this second investigation of psychological factors in the etiology of ulcerative colitis, the author again utilizes unusual cases characterized by limited variables preceding illness. The first investigation involved several patients whose partial deafness antedated their illness. A significant point was that prior to developing their illness, all these patients had arrived at a state of objectlessness which was abetted by the deafness. This report presents four ulcerative colitis patients with pre-existing organic problems affecting their mental status. Two of the patients are severely mentally retarded. A third patient has rapidly advancing multiple sclerosis, and a fourth--actually an addition to the earlier study--has long-standing partial deafness. Aside from the objectlessness which was also prominent in the earlier group, all four patients demonstrate a consistent pattern of vicious self-directed rage. This paper takes into account the interaction between the rage and the state of objectlessness in the production of illness.

Adult↗