Psychosomatic Medicine 22:260-266 (1960)
© 1960 American Psychosomatic Society

False Pregnancy in a Male

¹ Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Baylor University College of Medicine, and the Houston State Psychiatric Institute for Training and Research Houston, Texas.

A 33-year-old merchant marine seaman was treated because he felt he was pregnant. He described symptoms not unlike those of a pregnant female.

As for the diagnosis of the patient, only an impression is ventured at this time: a developing schizophrenic process, paranoid in type.

A psychodynamic formulation was attempted, with homosexuality as the nuclear conflict. Of the 3 motivational components of homosexuality--sex, power, and dependency--the sexual component appeared the weakest in this patient. He identified with strong male figures in an unconscious effort to appropriate their strength. His struggle for power coupled with his conflict over socially unacceptable sexual interests pushed him into a delusion of grandeur as a specific self-reparative effort. The despised one would become the chosen one.

His symptoms began to subside after 2 months of treatment, and in 4 months he was almost free of symptoms.