The Maternal-Infant Relationship and its Implications in Psychosomatic Complaint

Abstract

Somatization is a bodily manifestation lacking symbolization. It relates to psychological aspects tending to appear in the baby, who sees himself as an extension of the mother. The objective was to analyze the psychological aspects of the mother-child relationship and its implications for psychosomatic manifestations. This is documentary research, considering the clinical reports of children between February/2015 and December/2019, from a clinical school in Grande ABC-SP. The search performed using clinical reports record file software, used terms as filters: infant, somatoform complaints, eating disorders and sleep disorders. Data were categorized into a) identification; b) clinical evolution; and c) aspects of personality and maternal relationship. The qualitative analysis, based on psychoanalysis, showed that mothers’ difficulty dealing with their own conflicts influenced the appearance of symptoms in their children. There was a relationship between maternal conflicts and the type of complaint presented. The results
support the importance of the relationship between mothers and children in psychosomatic complaints. Organic factors in child development need to be considered beyond the biological nature, but the psychic dynamics, expanding the diagnostic understanding.