The Journal of Asthma Research.
Vol. 13. No. 4. July. 1976
Editorial The Real and Symbolic Dangers of the Insect Sting
J Asthma Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by Ohio State University Libraries on 10/29/14 For personal use only.
HAROLD A. ABRAMSON, M.D. This volume is unusual because it describes in detail both the real life dangers of insect stings and the symbolic dangers of insect stings in the dreams and associations of a patient during psychoanalysis. The most drastic of the real dangers, which may end in the death of an individual stung by a wasp, bee, or other insect, is described by Dr. Frazier in our Guest Editorial. Dr. Frazier wisely proposes that the use of kits designed to treat the person stung be more generally available. Of course, these kits would be useful in the treatment of other symptoms which occur which can be essentially serious. These include, for example, vascular collapse, asthma, shortness of breath, abdominal cramps, nausea, weakness, dizziness, urticaria, petechial hemorrhages, generalized itching, swollen and tender joints, as well as headaches, localized pain, and swelling. In order to understand the symbolic dangers, it is perhaps worthwhile to recall that a symbol is a representation of an idea or quality in the form of an object which stands for something besides itself. For example, the key dreams discussed in the paper in this volume entitled “An LSD Study of Sexual Conflicts in Eczema and Asthma,” deals with a special variety of insect, which the patient called Beetle Bug. It became quite clear as the psychoanalytic sessions progressed that these bugs which got under the skin in a threatening fashion were specifically related both to the patient’s incapacitating eczema and to her psychosexual adjustment. For example, analysis of the Beetle Bug Dream led to the hidden meaning or the symbolic meaning ofthe tentacles of Beetle Bugs. The tentacles of the Beetle Bugs represented the hands of a man mauling a girl’s skin, with this sexual approach considered an attack. The dangers of the sting ofthe Beetle Bug were directly related to penetration by the penis. The sting of the Beetle Bug set up hostile desires on an unconscious level to destroy the penis, and therefore, the penis was endangered during the sex act. When the sting of the Beetle Bug remained in the body, it symbolically represented an unwanted child. The real dangers of insect stings are fairly well understood and to a certain extent are measurable and preventable. But are the symbolic dangers taken into consideration by physicians when severe cases of eczema and asthma are treated? I have pointed out previously that among 135 papers presented at a recent meeting of allergists, not one contribution dealt with the psychotherapy of the seriously ill asthma and eczema patient. Moreover, a well-known physician in the field of allergy recently proposed during an official presentation dealing with the modalities available in the therapy of the allergy patient, that biofeedback (self-administered) might be a solution for the emotional prob161
162
HAROLD A. ABRAMSON
J Asthma Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by Ohio State University Libraries on 10/29/14 For personal use only.
lems of the allergic patient. Psychotherapy by conventional and well-accepted procedures was not mentioned.* As Dr. W. C. Davison in McGovern and Knight’s “Allergy and Human Emotions,” stated, “A relationship between allergy and human emotions has been suspected ever since the time of Hippocrates.” Must the practice of treating the allergies remain in the stone age, by neglecting the importance of the emotional conflicts present when attempting to treat the seriously ill allergic patient? * Dr. Frazier remark.; in the preface to his new hook, Psychosomatic Aspects of Allergy, to be published in January, 1977, by Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, “There is a close relationship between allergy diseases and our emotions. Emotional stress may act as a trigger for physical allergic symptoms, or emotional stress may result because of these physical s y m p t o m s , . . in treating my allergic patients, be they young or old, I must, deal with their emotional health as well as with their asthma and rhinitis, their hives and their eczema, the gastrointestinal distress or headaches that have brought them through my office door.”
Vol. 13. No. 4. July. 1976
Editorial The Real and Symbolic Dangers of the Insect Sting
J Asthma Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by Ohio State University Libraries on 10/29/14 For personal use only.
HAROLD A. ABRAMSON, M.D. This volume is unusual because it describes in detail both the real life dangers of insect stings and the symbolic dangers of insect stings in the dreams and associations of a patient during psychoanalysis. The most drastic of the real dangers, which may end in the death of an individual stung by a wasp, bee, or other insect, is described by Dr. Frazier in our Guest Editorial. Dr. Frazier wisely proposes that the use of kits designed to treat the person stung be more generally available. Of course, these kits would be useful in the treatment of other symptoms which occur which can be essentially serious. These include, for example, vascular collapse, asthma, shortness of breath, abdominal cramps, nausea, weakness, dizziness, urticaria, petechial hemorrhages, generalized itching, swollen and tender joints, as well as headaches, localized pain, and swelling. In order to understand the symbolic dangers, it is perhaps worthwhile to recall that a symbol is a representation of an idea or quality in the form of an object which stands for something besides itself. For example, the key dreams discussed in the paper in this volume entitled “An LSD Study of Sexual Conflicts in Eczema and Asthma,” deals with a special variety of insect, which the patient called Beetle Bug. It became quite clear as the psychoanalytic sessions progressed that these bugs which got under the skin in a threatening fashion were specifically related both to the patient’s incapacitating eczema and to her psychosexual adjustment. For example, analysis of the Beetle Bug Dream led to the hidden meaning or the symbolic meaning ofthe tentacles of Beetle Bugs. The tentacles of the Beetle Bugs represented the hands of a man mauling a girl’s skin, with this sexual approach considered an attack. The dangers of the sting ofthe Beetle Bug were directly related to penetration by the penis. The sting of the Beetle Bug set up hostile desires on an unconscious level to destroy the penis, and therefore, the penis was endangered during the sex act. When the sting of the Beetle Bug remained in the body, it symbolically represented an unwanted child. The real dangers of insect stings are fairly well understood and to a certain extent are measurable and preventable. But are the symbolic dangers taken into consideration by physicians when severe cases of eczema and asthma are treated? I have pointed out previously that among 135 papers presented at a recent meeting of allergists, not one contribution dealt with the psychotherapy of the seriously ill asthma and eczema patient. Moreover, a well-known physician in the field of allergy recently proposed during an official presentation dealing with the modalities available in the therapy of the allergy patient, that biofeedback (self-administered) might be a solution for the emotional prob161
162
HAROLD A. ABRAMSON
J Asthma Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by Ohio State University Libraries on 10/29/14 For personal use only.
lems of the allergic patient. Psychotherapy by conventional and well-accepted procedures was not mentioned.* As Dr. W. C. Davison in McGovern and Knight’s “Allergy and Human Emotions,” stated, “A relationship between allergy and human emotions has been suspected ever since the time of Hippocrates.” Must the practice of treating the allergies remain in the stone age, by neglecting the importance of the emotional conflicts present when attempting to treat the seriously ill allergic patient? * Dr. Frazier remark.; in the preface to his new hook, Psychosomatic Aspects of Allergy, to be published in January, 1977, by Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, “There is a close relationship between allergy diseases and our emotions. Emotional stress may act as a trigger for physical allergic symptoms, or emotional stress may result because of these physical s y m p t o m s , . . in treating my allergic patients, be they young or old, I must, deal with their emotional health as well as with their asthma and rhinitis, their hives and their eczema, the gastrointestinal distress or headaches that have brought them through my office door.”
