Le concept heuristique d’affections psychosomatiques du cerveau

Abstract

Psychosomatic disorders are classically related to the body outside the brain. Yet, there is no reason why the circuits of the brain should not be affected by a psychosomatic process. For Lacan the psychosomatic phenomena are related to the creation of a conditioned reaction of the organism through signifiers, which having frozen and therefore lost their signifying function, are transformed into signals, which coming from the Other, obtain an imperative quality for the organism, thus disturbing its function. The author postulates that these signals could affect through conditioning certain cerebral circuits as well. Peirce's Phaneroscopy helps us conceptualise this procedure as a semiotic reduction which proceeds from the thirdness of the signifier to the secondness of the signal (which can bring about conditioned reflexes or reactions of a different kind) or even go further to the firstness of complete automation of stimuli. Thirdness is the specific semiotic modality for humans and when thirdness is reduced, the body gets ill. Yet, beyond the typical psychosomatic phenomena this process of semiotic reduction could also apply to mood disorders and other clinical conditions likewise. Through the process of semiotic reduction we can distinguish neurological diseases from psychosomatic brain procedures that are part of certain psychiatric disorders. In these psychiatric disorders the cerebral circuits, which are affected, are in relation to the semiotic thirdness. The neurophysiologic mechanisms of kindling and excitotoxicity might be involved in the psychosomatic processes of these neuronal circuits.