[Psychopathology of cancer. A review of the subject].

This article is a critical review of the relationships between cancer and psychology. Three main issues have been addressed in the medical literature: the frequent occurrence of cancer in psychiatric patients, the existence of a specific personality in susceptible patients and the influence of psychological trials in the development of cancer. From a critical methodological study and his personal experience the author believes that: 1) cancer does not arise more often in psychotic patients than in others; 2) that the existence of a pre-morbid personality is far from certain; 3) but that the possibility that a psychological shock or a stressful situation may promote the development of a preexistent carcinoma cannot be outruled.