Sense (re)configurations in inpatient psychosomatic therapy

This doctoral project examines the interplay between therapists, clinic settings and patients in psychosomatic clinics. Psychosomatic medicine is faced with a special task: it must build a bridge between the body, which itself does not produce meaning, and the psyche, which is constantly searching for meaning. In order to get to the bottom of this phenomenon, the research is based on data from field stays in three different psychosomatic clinics. The documentary method and a systems theory perspective are used to reconstruct how the patients' relationships with themselves and the world change and stabilise as a result of new configurations of meaning. The project explores the complex processes of psychosomatic therapy in today's pluralistic society. In addition, insights are gained into the conditions of success and failure of different therapeutic narratives and settings.