Integrating systems theory and attachment theory: the use of radio communication to modify attachments in a patient with psychogenic vomiting.

A case is presented that shows the usefulness of integrating systems theory and attachment theory in the formulation and treatment of a clinical problem. The 5 year old son of East Indian immigrants presented with persistent psychogenic vomiting associated with pathological family attachments. It was evident that the precarious family equilibrium was stabilized by the child's psychogenic vomiting. The therapeutic team suggested to the family that their problems might be more satisfactorily resolved if the mother and child maintained their link by two-way radio. Three weeks later the vomiting had ceased, the child no longer felt that he needed the radio and both parents had established new patterns of relating to their child, whose attendance and peer socialization at school showed marked improvement. To some extent the rapid resolution of the problems was facilitated by the cultural strengths of the family.