Psychosomatic Medicine 25:162-173 (1963)
© 1963 American Psychosomatic Society

Thematic Content Associated with Two Gastrointestinal Disorders

¹ Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
² Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.; Professor of Psychology, The University of Leicester, Leicester, England.

Five cards of the TAT were administered to 30 patients with duodenal ulcer and to an equal number of ulcerative-colitis patients and healthy controls.

The TAT protocols were evaluated first by "blind" analysis, then by "need" analysis, and finally by "thematic" analysis. All of these showed clear group differences in the direction suggested by the clinical literature. The thematic analysis, based only on manifest content and formal aspects of the verbal productions, enabled independent judges to identify the group membership of a statistically significant number of cases.

Personality variables as they appear from the patients' fantasy productions show the ulcer patients to have high achievement needs, lack of creative imagination, and reluctance in relating to their social group. Ulcerative-colitis patients exhibit passive-compliant attitudes and an exaggerated tendency to avoid stressful situations.