CLASSIFICATION OF SYMPTOMS IN CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY

clinical psychology; conversion symptom; psychosomatosis; symptom; functional symptom

Abstract

The article analyzes the main approaches to defining the concept of symptom in medicine and psychology, as well as their main types and nature of physical manifestation in the individual. As it turned out, each of the symptoms has its own characteristics of origin and manifestation, as well as has a purpose in the human psyche and in some cases can be defined as positive. The definition of symptoms, their main causes and physical manifestations are given. Additionally, the basic directions of work with symptoms are determined. The aim of the study is to highlight current views on understanding the psychological mechanisms of formation and manifestation of symptoms in clinical psychology.

Research methods: theoretical analysis, scientific works in the field of psychology, medicine; systematization and logical generalization of the obtained material. The research procedure involved the involvement of bibliographic, step-by-step problem and comparative methods in order to analyze the main classifications of symptoms and their definition. It was determined that functional symptoms usually do not have physiological manifestations, while conversion symptoms and psychosomatosis have been diagnosed with disorders in organs and systems. In addition, each of the types of symptoms has different causes. Often the cause of functional symptoms can be emotional exhaustion, as well as depression. Conversion symptoms and psychosomatosis are more characterized by the need to reflect the internal conflicts, tensions due to which finds a place in bodily reactions. Given the above, we understand that each of these symptoms requires different methods to deal with them. Therefore, in order to better understand each type of symptom, a comparative table was created on the criteria that are important in the work of a clinical psychologist and allow to build diagnostic and corrective work better. The result of the study was the development of the author's comparative table of selected symptoms in the classification, according to a number of important criteria for working with personality.

The conclusions concluded that the symptoms could be grouped into different groups of psychosomatic disorders, which could lead to confusion at work and reduced quality of work with the patient. For example, somatoform disorders can be manifested by both functional and conversion symptoms, and sometimes the two groups are combined at the same time. In order to clarify this point, the classification of these disorders was analyzed and it was determined which symptoms are manifested in each group.