Abstract
Conversion symptoms and dissociative symptoms have been thought to be more common in female patients. Recently, however, it is becoming more apparent that these symptoms are not rare in male patients. Using Rorschach testing, gender differences on these symptom areas were studied. Subjects were 9 male and 8 female patients. Avoiding and escaping tendencies were observed in the male patients, while in the female patients, obsessive and imaginary thinkings were observed. Reality may be distorted in these cases due to excessive use of defence mechanisms. These results suggest that basic defence mechanisms differ between sexes althought the superficial symptoms are identical.
