Children with dermatological disease and their mothers

Our study hypotheses are based on extensive, clinical experience of patients with psoriasis and atopic eczema and on observations of emotions these patients tend to provoke in nursing personnel. We wanted to see whether there were statistically significant differences between these patient categories. We also wanted to compare dermato not equal to logical patients with patients seeking help for psychological problems (alexithymia-hypothesis). Since psoriasis starts and atopic eczema often gets worse in puberty or young adulthood, we chose to study teenagers. On this occasion, we will discuss the Rorschach test results of our female subjects (n: 99) and their mothers (n: 68) scored by Holt's "Method for Assessing Primary Process Manifestations and Their Control in Rorschach Responses" and the girls' scores on Edwards Personal Preference Schedule--questionnaire. The results seem to confirm the alexithymia-hypothesis and our control group of young psychiatric outpatients (mainly neurotics) produce more varied Rorschach protocols consisting of more primary process material and more creative solutions. In contrast, protocols of psoriatics are strict and formally good with occasional outbursts of slightly shocking primary process material. Girls suffering from atopic eczema produce long and varied, but rather defensive, Polly Anna-like protocols. The statistical differences between mothers and daughters within each diagnostic group suggest that the psychiatric patients differ most from their mothers in the following areas: they give more libidinal answers which often are of more primitive kind than the answers of their mothers, and, they seem to have better means of coping with their impulses than the mothers.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)