Psychosomatic Medicine 21:28-33 (1959)
© 1959 American Psychosomatic Society

The Beard as an Expression of Bodily Feelings in a Schizophrenic

¹ Winter Veterans Administration Hospital, Topeka, Kan.

A schizophrenic patient, growing a beard, illustrates a theory proposed by Szasz on the mechanism of the genesis of bodily feelings. During a 4-month period the patient feared the loss of a personal object at the traumatic time of change of therapists. He lost the object, and his ego transferred its feelings to a part of his body, his beard, as a last object attachment for ego survival. The importance of the beard loomed when the patient shaved his scalp instead of his beard, and he became confused when the loss of the beard was threatened. The process went further when the patient lost his interest in his beard and considered it "dead" for 2 or 3 weeks before he shaved it in order to bring his body image up to date. The self-mutilation then became the cause of celebration, relative tranquillity, and a higher level of social functioning.

There is evidence that this patient repeats the process of bodily feelings over and over again with other parts of his body (e.g., the inguinal region), and also with his therapist, who becomes part of his ego. This repetitious process (loss of object, transference to the body, further loss, and self-mutilation) may be a way of life for this patient. It may be explained by the variable strengths of a weak ego and/or by the built-in therapeutic setting, in which the patient gains and loses a therapist every 6 months.