HEART BEAT PERCEPTION BY PSYCHOSOMATIC PA TIENTS - TURNING ATTENTIVENESS AWAY FROM PROCESSES OF ONES OWN BODY

Based on considerations about the concept of alexithymia as well as fr om the Theory of Objective Self-Attentiveness the hypothesis was deriv ed that in comparison ''healthy'' persons in a control group persons s howing psychosomatic disturbances should have a significantly worse pe rception of their own cardiac action. This poorer capability of percep tion has been assumed to be the result of the psychosomatic clients ac tively averting their attentiveness. These assumptions were checked ex perimentally with the aid of two measuring methods and could be confir med. A comparison of the accuracy of interoceptive and extroceptive pe rception has lead to the conclusion that the lesser degree of percepti on found with psychosomatic patients does not stem from disturbances o f interoceptive processes but is rather the result of these persons ac tively turning away their attentiveness. Conclusions relating to the t heory of alexithymia and the therapy of psychosomatic illnesses were d rawn.