[Self-attention of psychosomatic patients]

In the present study, based on the theory of objective self-attentiveness, a sample of psychosomatic patients was compared with persons in good health in a control group. It was established that psychosomatic patients had a significantly lower habitual tendency then healthy persons to reflect upon relevant, in particular emotional, self aspects; that they had a considerably higher habitual inclination to reflect upon social appraisals and the fulfilling of social standards; furthermore, they showed a distinctly higher social anxiety and lower self-acceptance. The findings have been discussed on the background of previous findings relating to alexithymia, and to enable the findings to be interpreted a model of a self stabilizing system was proposed.