Relationship of Body Image to Site of Cancer

Bibliographic Data

ID19301238
AuthorsSeymour Fisher, Sidney E Cleveland
Year1956
Volume18
Issue4
Pages304-309
Publication date1956-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePsychosomatic Medicine (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0033-3174 • E-ISSN: 1534-7796
PublisherOvid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1097/00006842-195607000-00004
PMID13350456
OpenAlexW2332426364
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited6

Two body-image scores derived from the Rorschach test were used to evaluate the body-image fantasies of 59 patients with body-exterior cancer and of 30 patients with body-interior cancer. Formal scores and impressionistic sorting procedures both indicate that to a statistically significant degree the patient with body-exterior cancer has a greater tendency to conceive of his body as enclosed by an impenetrable boundary than does the patient with interior cancer. It was shown by means of a control group that the Rorschach body-image indices are not merely resultants of the pain and other sensations associated with the cancer symptoms. On the contrary, the differences in body-image scores between the body-exterior cancer group and the body-interior cancer group seem to reflect basic differences in personality orientation. Apparently, then, personality variables may play a significant role in the total complex of factors that determine the site of development of cancer in an individual

Cancer · Personality · Rorschach test · Clinical Psychology · Internal Medicine · Medical and Biological Sciences · Medicine · Psychological Testing and Assessment · Psychology · Social Psychology

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