Abstract
Somatic symptoms often seem particularly resistant to therapeutic change. Simultaneously they are often very uncomfortable, both to sufferers and to their families. These two aspects in combination pose a particular challenge to treatment agents. This paper is aimed toward examining the apparent and frustrating intransigence of these symptoms from the perspective of second-order cybernetics in order to generate a different understanding of the "stuckness" experienced by sufferers and therapists. On the basis of this conceptualization, which revolves around the concept of conservation of ambivalence, the paper then offers some new ideas regarding the psychotherapeutic treatment of disorders in which somatic symptoms occur.
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