A fundamental feature of the symptom coherence model of symptom production is the recognition that the suffering due to a functional symptom is actually the lesser of two evils—the other, greater evil being the suffering that is unconsciously expected from not having the symptom. Those are the two sufferings, as they are called in Coherence Therapy; the client’s emotional brain has full knowledge of them both and compels the production of the symptom in order to avoid the even worse suffering expected from being without the symptom.
