Is cancer a disease of the soul?;

When something serious, like the cancer, life-affecting, the patient is usually very busy with his/her daily medical routine. Rightly so. There is no time or inclination to look into his soul. If anything leads him to the door of a mental health specialist, it is the pain he experiences as a consequence of the disease.

Today, however, more and more scientists are looking for the deeper interaction between the soul and the body. They stress that when the body is sick, it is the soul that has suffered in the first place.

The relationship between cancer and the soul

Ο Savvas Savvopoulos, author of the book “Seven tales of life. Is the disease an untranslatable message?”, is one of the people best qualified to talk about the relationship between cancer and the soul. For more than 30 years he has worked with cancer patients as psychoanalyst-psychotherapist and as a supervisor in oncology and psycho-oncology services. He is a founding member of the Hellenic Psychosomatic Society and his research work in this field is extensive.

In the following interview, we asked him whether cancer holds a message for the patient, as the subtitle of his book suggests. A message that, if the patient manages to unravel, he or she may be able to be cured. And if, after all, does cancer have anything to do with trauma.

- What does cancer have in common with the «seven tales of life» in your book?;

In the book I tried to show how the history of our lives and the Relationships with the world are crucial to our psychosomatic state. Usually, when we have gone through the important developmental phases, we are convinced that we know ourselves and the world.

That is until the moment when a major existential crisis occurs, e.g. we get cancer. Then, our view of the world is shaken. Insecurity, doubt dominate. Then, the psyche, starting from the emptiness and death anxiety caused by the disease, will try to find some new way to exist, to really live. The patient often in the treatment he discovers that in the past he was living in a fake self.

In my book I describe how seven of my patients, through our therapeutic work, discover their «real» selves. A self similar to a fairy tale hero, who encounters monsters, elves, enigmas on his way. He proceeds in search of the truth about who he really is and what the world is like.

Patient and doctor understand that cancer is a demanding teacher, pointing out your shortcomings and asking you to fight to be true to yourself. It also teaches you that only by loving and sharing with each other does life have meaning.

- What does the subtitle «is the disease an untranslated message» mean?;

The subtitle of the book refers to the potential meaning that the manifestation of a malignancy may hold. Cancer is a multifactorial disease. In each patient, cancer invites us to understand the potential message conveyed by each of the risk factors involved in its occurrence.

Thus, we investigate whether the disease is caused by genetic fragility, the degraded economic and ecological environment, carcinogenic factors (smoking, alcohol, etc.), viruses, and disturbed or deficient mental function of the patient.

It may be difficult to understand how the mysterious «leap» from mental states to physical pathologies takes place. I believe that some recent traumatic situations may rekindle old psychological traumas. Old traumatic states were buried by the psyche because the pain they had caused was unlivable.

The person, in order to eliminate the painful experience, «eliminates» with it the part of the self that suffered it. The «psychosomatic body» collapses. As a consequence, cancer appears. On this occasion, perhaps the patient can visit his «wounded» history.

The temperament of the cancer patient

- Is it our fault that we get sick?;

The individual, to a large extent, is not responsible for what happens to him. Many parameters that contributed to the formation of his psyche and lifestyle were formed very early in his life, when his ability to intervene in the functioning of the family was limited. Because the foundations of the psyche in the first 3- 5 years of life, the greatest responsibility lies with the parents, family history and circumstances. This part of the experience does not depend on the will of the individual, it is a product of chance.

But once we become self-aware, we have a responsibility to protect it. So, for example, a smoker who sees the warning «Smoking kills» on the cigarette packet every day and ignores it - to satisfy his addictive needs - is responsible if he develops lung or bladder cancer.

On the other hand, the psychopathological processes that lead to somatization take place silently. No noisy psychic phenomena are observed. The person suffers from something that the consciousness does not perceive. In such «silent» psychosomatic processes, a specialist can distinguish some symptoms, which we call «negative symptoms». These are what the soul used to manifest or desire, and are progressively or suddenly lost.

The psychotherapist will then try to stop the mental disorganization and enhance the patient's vitality.

- You write that some types of human character are more at risk of getting cancer. Has the causal relationship between cancer and psychopathological factors been scientifically proven?;

In fact, several studies have found that the existence of certain personality traits favours the development of cancer. These are people who they think a lot, are easily reconciled, avoid the conflicts, suppress aggression and conform to others, because they are dependent on their opinion and assessment.

These environmental compliance behaviours seem to have been adopted early on by the individual as a child. It was an attitude that helped him to survive. Later, as cancer patients they would attribute the onset of the disease to their conformity to rigid family principles and dictates where their thoughts and feelings were not taken into account.

But there are difficulties in scientifically proving the causal relationship between cancer and psychopathological factors. The body-psychosomatic unity, which is confirmed by modern psychosomatics, involves difficulties in «translating» into physico-chemical processes. For example, in a study conducted jointly by psychosomaticists and oncologists in Paris, psycho-pathological conditions were associated with the development of breast cancer.

However, some oncologists objected to the results of the study because the researchers (including a distinguished professor of oncology) did not adopt methodologies used in medical oncology research.

The trauma that the psychiatrist treats

– A cancer patient usually comes to a psychotherapist to receive adjuvant treatment for the «trauma» caused by the disease. But do you eventually find that the trauma is past?;

When someone learns that they have cancer, they feel like they have been struck by lightning. Like being thrown into an angry ocean. In some cases the person breaks down. To be able to talk to someone about the painful experience of diagnosis and the anxieties within their treatments, they need to feel safe and confident. This sharing allows the cancer patient to dig with the analyst into their past.

There he will rediscover previous traumatic circumstances that forced him to adopt a lifestyle far from his desires. He will understand that he has «buried» his true self. That he conformed to a daily mental compulsion, where he operated mechanically, with his emotions dulled, almost like a robot.

The patient also understands that attacked himself, in his body, the last thing that remains his, to «wake up» from mechanistic alienation. He became ill in order to feel «alive» through the agony of physical illness. That I am in pain, that I am sick means that I am alive.

These things happen completely unconsciously. The meaning he gives to his illness and the concern shown by those who care for him will make him feel that he can begin to live more authentically again.

- If cancer is treated both medically and psychotherapeutically, is it more likely to be cured? Would you dare to talk about a «success rate»?;

To carry out any important project, good cooperation between the parties involved is required. The same is true for the approach to oncology patients. In countries where formal medicine has accepted the holistic approach, those involved in cancer care are constantly working on new models of treatment for the patient, who should be at the centre of the system.

The holistic approach means good communication between the patient, specialists and the caregiver. Good collaboration can lead to the best decisions being made and therefore a better outlook for the patient.

The absence of this communication is very likely to lead to unfavourable results for the patient. Even in the purely medical field, uncoordinated, fragmented communication between surgeons, oncologists, radiotherapists, radiologists, etc. has often caused problems in the management of the disease.

Suffering is always psychosomatic, which is why help at the psychological level is imperative. However, it is not only the patient who needs to be cared for, but also the carers.

Many studies conducted in the US and Europe have shown that the holistic approach offers a better quality of life for cancer patients and an increase in life expectancy. In the early stages of the disease it even contributes to cure.