Factor analy of orality and anality in selected patient groups

Responses of 150 outpatients, suffering from physical or emotional problems to a 186-item questionnaire concerning their possession of behavioral traits that have been associated with anal and oral personality structures, as well as their practices and concerns about mouth and bowel function, were factor analyzed. Results were comparable with those from an earlier study involvine Army recruits as subjects, in showing some factors that resembled aspects of oral and anal character as described in psychoanalytic theory. These factors were not strong, nor were they clearly related to mouth and bowel behavior. Comparisons among clinical sub-groups showed that on five factors that significantly differentiated the groups, mean factor scores of proctological and ulcer patients resembled each other more than they did those of obsessive-compulsive patients, who were quite similar to passive-dependents. A control group of other types of psychiatric patients mixed with dermatological patients was intermediate between the physical and neurotic groups of patients. As seen in these factors, the somatic patients were relatively easy-going, slipshod, and accepting of change. Proctological and obsessive-compulsive patients, both linked to anal fixations by psychoanalytic theory, were the most dissimilar of all groups.