抄録
Four studies were undertaken in order to test the hypothesee concerning the relationship of the definiteness of the body image boundary to the patterns of sensations from exterior and interior body regions. The boundary definiteness was measured by the barrier scores which is derived from the responses to inkblots.In Study I, subjects were asked to report body sensations occurring in two outer (skin, muscle) and two inner (heart, stomach) body sites during a five minute period. The barrier score was, as predicted, positively and significantly related to the excess of exterior over interior sensations.In Study II, subjects were also asked to report body sensations that occurred in two outer and two inner body sites in retrospective recall of a variety of emotional states. It was demonstrated that persons with high barrier scores showed the excess of exterior over interior body sensations in this retrospective situation, although these two were not proven to be statistically significant.In Study III, the barrier score was significantly related to the excess of exterior over interior symptoms or sensations experienced by subjects who swallowed a placebo, which was given as harmless drug with an explation that it would affect one's body in various ways.Study IV was based on the assuption that if selective perception of exterior versus interior body sensations occurs, chronically, there would be an equivalent selectivity in one's recall of a series of verbal references to exterior and interior body sensations which had been learned. As the result, a trend, though not statistically significant, was found that high-barrier persons were inclined to recall verbal references to exterior than interior body sensations.The over-all results indicated a spectrum of inter-relations between barrier score and body experience variables. They support that body image boundary definiteness leads to the shift of predominantly proprioceptive-enteroceptive cathexis toward sensoriperceptive cathexis of the periphery. This means that, in growing body image boundary definiteness, a progressive displacement of libido has to take place from the inside (particularly from the abdominal organ) to the periphery of the body.
