Psychosomatic Medicine 16:295-314 (1954)
© 1954 American Psychosomatic Society

Psychodynamic Themes and Localized Muscular Tension during Psychotherapy

¹ Allan Memorial Institute of Psychiatry, McGill University Montreal, Canada

The main purpose was to provide further validating data for the method of continuous electromyographic (E.M.G.) recording during psychiatric interview as an approach to objective interview study. Eleven recorded interviews with 3 patients were analyzed; nine of these were with 1 patient who was studied longitudinally.

Analysis was guided primarily by the question: Are particular psychodynamic themes associated with specifically localized increases of muscular tension? The results supported an affirmative answer to this question. Increased forearm tension was specifically associated with "hostility" themes in all three cases, while increased leg tension was associated with "sex" themes in the two female patients. These correlations were interpreted from a viewpoint which regards the E.M.G. as an indicator of the effectiveness of central neural mechanisms for resolution of conflict.

In the patient studied longitudinally, generally high muscle tension was associated with depressed mood and low tension with cheerful mood, as assessed by the ward nurses. Clinical improvement in this case was reflected in decreased muscle tension.

Electromyographic changes indicative of symptom mechanisms involving muscle tension (headache and twitching of limbs) were elicited during interview in 2 patients.

To date the E.M.G. method has been demonstrated as valid for two important aspects of objective study of the psychiatric interview. These include local muscle tension associated with particular conflictual themes brought out during interview, and symptom-related muscle tension. There is also the suggestion from present findings that level of muscular tension may, in some cases, be related to mood, and to clinical improvement.