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Psychosomatic Medicine 27:524-532 (1965)
© 1965 American Psychosomatic Society

Ego Equilibrium and Cancer of the Breast

PETER L. GIOVACCHINI M.D.1 and HYMAN MUSLIN M.D.1

1 Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois College of Medicine, and the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, Chicago, Ill.

In an examination of the effects of somatic pathology, carcinoma of the breast, on the ego state, the reactions, associations, and dream material of a patient who developed carcinoma of the breast during psychoanalytic treatment were studied. Before the diagnosis the patient went through a period of ego regression that was similar to her reaction to trauma. Once the diagnosis was established the patient recovered from this ego disruption and showed evidence of mastering a reality problem.

Although no etiological connections between, psychic and somatic reactions are made, it is felt that carcinoma of the breast had its effects on, and was reflected in, the general ego integration, before the disease was medically detectable.

Submitted on January 26, 1965






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Copyright © 1965 by the American Psychosomatic Society