Psychosomatic Medicine 30:172-192 (1968)
© 1968 American Psychosomatic Society

Study of an Infant with a Gastric Fistula and Her Normal Twin

¹ Department of Psychiatry, University of Florida School of Medicine, Gainesville, Fla.; Present address: Department of Psychiatry, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

A set of identical twins, one of whom had congenital esophageal stenosis, was studied in an attempt to gain further understanding of the relationship between the subjects' affect, object relations, the perception of food, and motor activity on the one hand, and the stomach's secretion of hydrochloric acid on the other. Increased secretory rates were associated with the outgoing affects, especially in the presence of the mother. Variable rates were associated with activity and certain object relationships, and decreased rates of secretion were associated with depression and with a separation from the mother. The findings contribute to our knowledge of the physiological correlates of the oral phase of psychosexual development.