CREATIVITY THROUGH PSYCHOSOMATICS

This study postulated two links between creativity and psychosomatics: one concerned with alexithymia (the inability to find adequate words for emotional problems), another with the need for autonomy. These pos tulates were tested in one group of patients with Ulcerative Colitis ( n = 24) and another with Morbus Crohn (n = 61). A reference group (n = 43) was also included. The test instruments were an interview about p arental relations, the percept-genetic Creative Functioning Test (CFT) probing the inclination to let subjective alternatives replace the co rrect one, and a projective Identification Test (IT) where description s of tachistoscopic presentations of a vague face were manipulated by the tags ''I WELL'' and ''I ILL. '' Creativity correlated with the use of emotional words (the opposite of alexithymia) in the IT but also w ith signs of light anxiety in the beginning of the test signaling an a nticipatory unease, particularly in creative people with their relativ ely open inward communication. A balanced, distanced description of th eir mothers was most typical of creative people, known to cherish auto nomy. An additional finding was that creative people counteracted the subliminal manipulation in the IT by reporting positive faces in the ' 'I ILL'' condition. The main conclusion was that lack of creativity mu st be regarded as a crucial factor in psychosomatics.