抄録
It is very difficult to discriminate between the normal and the maladapted body images. The author wish to offer a basic consideration of the clinical body iamge phenomenon by considering normal male adolescents.The author reviewed body image researches and decided to use the body image boundary dimension which was scored by the Rorschach barrier responses. A comparison was made between persons with extremely high barrier scores and those with extremely low ones by conducting detailed case studies of their Rorschach protocols.As a result, it was found that barrier responses appeared along with Rorschach contents which seemed to reflect the patients conflict with authoritative figures. This is called "the phalic narcissistic assertion" in the psychoanalytic context.On the whole, high barrier persons seemed to suffer from a lack of trust in themselves, even though their basic trust in their parents seemed to be well established.In this respect, the author assumed that, in normal male adolescents, the body image boundary would function as a psychological barrier by using a body image, which asserted one's own bodily unity in the conflictual situation where minor self need to fight against the powerful authority in one's fantasy.
