COENESTHESIOPATHY

   Also known as coenestopathy. The term coenesthesiopathy comes from the medical Latin noun coenesthesis - which in turn comes from the Greek words koinos (communal) and aisthanesthai (to notice, to perceive) - and the Greek noun pathos (suffering). The term coenesthesis was used during the era of classic psychiatry to denote the 'common sensation' or 'common general sensibility' arising from the sum of all bodily sense impressions. (For a further explanation of the term coenesthesis, see the entry Coenesthetic hallucination.) The French term cénesthésiopathie (i.e. coenesthesiopathy) was introduced in or shortly before 1905 by the French neurologists Paul Camus and Gaston Deny as a generic term for a group of conditions characterized by an alteration of internal bodily feelings (i.e.somatic or coenesthetic feelings). As Camus and Deny write, "We recently proposed to group together, under the very general term cénesthésiopathie, suggested by M.E. Dupré, all psychosyndromes that seem to be connected with an alteration a, hypo, hyper, or para of the internal or organic sensations." Thus Camus and Deny conceive hypocoenesthesiopa-thy as a diminished awareness of one's coen-esthetic feelings, *acoenesthesiopathy as a total lack of awareness of one's coenesthetic feelings, * hypercoenesthesiopathy as a hypertrophic awareness of one's coenesthetic feelings, and * paracoenesthesiopathy as a gross alteration in the quality of one's coenesthetic feelings. Today the various forms of coenesthesiopathy would probably be classified as * somatic hallucinations or illusions, as disorders of embodiment, or as disorders ofcorporeal awareness.

   References

   Deny, G., Camus, P. (1905). Sur une forme d'hypochondrie aberrante due à la perte de la conscience du corps. Revue Neurologique,9, 461-167.

   Deny, G., Camus, P. (1905). Sur un cas de délire métabolique de la personnalité lié à des troubles de la cœnesthésie. Archives de Neurologie, 20, 257-268.