Abstract
The Rorschach was used to compare patients with psychosomatic symptoms affecting the body exterior (dermatitis and arthritis) with a group whose somatic symptoms were confined to the body interior (ulcerative colitis and peptic ulcer). Protocols were scored for the body image indices of barrier and penetration developed by Fisher and Cleveland. Supporting their earlier findings, the present results revealed that the exterior group scored significantly higher on the barrier and lower on the penetration scales than did the interior group. These results support the authors' contention that persons with exterior psychosomatic symptoms can be differentiated from those with interior symptoms on the basis of body-image fantasies.
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