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Psychogenic Death

In psychogenic death, the persons finds himself in a seriously distressing situation of which he believes that he has been thrown into this helpless position and that there is no way out. Humans behave passively and die quietly. In suicide, on the other hand, a person ends his life actively. The problem of why, on the one hand, people bring about death actively while in psychogenic death they "let themselves die" is enquired into. In psychogenic death, the difficulties of the emergencies produced by external factors can no longer be coped with mentally: the person wants to live but he cannot go on. In suicide, it seems to the person that the projection of the future, produced by inner factors, is no longer worth living: the person does not want to live, although he could.

Numerous cases of psychogenic death have been cited throughout the world, as well by native peoples, inhabitants of concentration camps and prisoner of war camps. Psychogenic death is a generalized human extreme psychosomatic reaction. It is not specific to any culture or mentality. Psychogenic death refers to death triggered by psychic stimuli. The individual finds himself in a situation where external forces have lead to a restriction of his world and, in addition, is subjectively sensing of the inalterability of his situation. Decisive to the perception of the environment is the subjective emotional view of things which can greatly diverge reality. The physical state of these individuals is marked by total passivity. The psychic condition is characterized by regression, resignation, and apathy. The article described the psychic background and the physical process of a death by psychic phenomena. The case of a 37 year old patient with detailed anamnestic and clinical data is given. His hobby was taking photographs of natural scenery and animals. This had become vital for him, because he did not like his job. The patient suffered from a painful herniation of intervetebral disk. After the operation of the disk he still had backache. He thought that the operation had been unsuccessful. The following day the patient showed the symptoms of the psychogenic death and died within one day. The autopsy, histopathologic, and toxicologic examinations showed no indications to the cause of death.

—Psychosom Med Psychoanal. 1979 Jul-Sep.




Last edited by Hydra; 11/27/06 12:38 PM.