The psychodynamic of panic attacks. A useful integration of psychoanalysis and neuroscience
Journal title PSICOBIETTIVO
Author/s Franco De Masi
Publishing Year 2011 Issue 2011/3
Language Italian Pages 30 P. 75-104 File size 487 KB
DOI 10.3280/PSOB2011-003005
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This paper tries to explain, in the light of some neuroscientific and psychoanalytical considerations, the repetitive pattern of panic attack. Recent neuroscientific findings indicate that psychosomatic reactions, set off by a danger situation, depend from the primitive circuit of fear (including the amygdala), characterized by its speed but lack accurate answers and may also be activated by harmless stimuli perceived erroneously as dangerous. A mutual psychosomatic short-circuit between body and psyche, in which terror reinforces the somatic reactions and the psychic construction, is established. While the psycopharmacological treatment is aimed to reduce the neurovegetative reaction and the cognitive method is attempting to correct the associative and perceptive processes of fear signals, the psychoanalytic therapy represents both a specific means to free the patient from the panic attack as well as an indispensable route for his/her emotional growth.
Keywords: Panic; Circuit of Fear; Somatic Terror; Protective Barrier; Emotive Trauma
Franco De Masi, Psicodinamica dell'attacco di panico. Un’utile integrazione tra psicoanalisi e neuroscienze in "PSICOBIETTIVO" 3/2011, pp 75-104, DOI: 10.3280/PSOB2011-003005