[Affect processing in psychosomatic patients. I].

Abstract

The present article reports the results of an empirical investigation concerned with specific characteristics of psychosomatic patients. Subjects suffering from ulcus duodeni or from colitis ulcerosa designated as psychosomatic patients. Controls were chosen from among neurotic patients and from among patients with only somatic illness. Against the background of the criticism with regard to the scientific approaches so far, our own approach was conceived as an experiment. Film episodes of two contrating (friendly versus unfriendly) interactions between physician and patient were offered to the test subjects as triggering situations. The contents of these film segments were organized in a manner calculated to produce an affective embarrassment in the psychosomatic patients. The reactions of the test subjects were inventoried on two levels. One of the levels of investigation was geared to cognitive processes by the application of Hofstätter's list of polarities (1955, 1973). In this case the psychosomatic patients distinguished themselves from the two control groups in that they misinterpreted the differences in the affective contents of both film sequences. On the other level of investigation subconscious processes were recorded by the application of Gottschalk's analysis of verbal contents. In this context all three groups in the investigation reacted in a similar manner to friendly connotations in the behaviour of the physician, namely with hidden aggressions. The results infer an affective resonance of the investigated psychosomatic patients on a subconscious level which, however, does not become evident on the conscious cognitive level.