Psychosomatic Medicine 27:171-176 (1965)
© 1965 American Psychosomatic Society

Body Perception and Symptom Localization

¹ Department of Psychiatry, State University of New York, Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse, N. Y.

The hypothesis was tested that individuals whose body-awareness pattern concentrates more on the exterior than the interior experience relatively more exterior than interior symptoms when ill. One hundred healthy young college students were used as subjects. The hypothesis was tested by correlating a Rorschach measure of differential body awareness obtained by utilizing the barrier (Fisher and Cleveland) minus the body-interior (Cassell) score with a subject's symptom pattern. The latter was obtained by use of a self-administered medical history questionnaire concerning the subjects' symptoms during illnesses for 2 years preceding the study. From the questionnaire an index of symptom localization was derived by totaling external symptoms (e.g., itching, generalized muscle pain) and subtracting the total number of internal symptoms (e.g., heartburn, pain inside the chest). A. direct relation was found between the body-awareness measure and the symptom index.