[Torticollis spasmodicus. A contribution to psychogenesis and psychotherapy]

Abstract

The application of an own psychotherapeutic concept to spasmodic torticollis confirms the assumption that it represents a pantomimic expression interacting with an assumed previous organic damage. An unavowed ambivalence between wishes for support and acknowledgement and feelings of limitation and aggression-by-frustration is reflected in simultaneous spasmodic turnings towards and away with a frequent preponderance of the impulse of anxious-aggressive averting. It directed treatment renders possible stable improvements.