PERCEPT-GENESIS OF THE MOTHER-CHILD SEPARATION THEME AMONG PANIC AND ASTHMA PATIENTS

A stimulus portraying a mother figure who is leaving a baby alone on t he floor (Separation Theme) was presented tachistoscopically at increa sing exposure times, according to the method of the Defense Mechanism Test, to three sex-matched groups of 31 normal subjects, 31 patients w ith bronchial asthma, and 31 patients with Panic Disorder and Agorapho bia. The frequency of several codings was significantly higher in both clinical groups compared with normal controls. Asthma patients were c haracterized by reports of the child seen as a statue and of contact o r fusion between mother and child. Agoraphobic patients employed diffe rent strategies, centered on the mother rather than on the child and m ainly represented by the denial of mother's action, e.g., she is not l eaving, she is entering. The findings support the hypothesis of a diff erence in defensive organization between neurotic and psychosomatic pa tients.