[Influences and psychological structures in breast cancer]

A sample of 16 patients with malignant breast tumors were examined by means of an interview, a questionnaire, and the Szondi Test together with a comparison group of 56 patients with benign breast tumors. The patients were divided into two age groups, those below and above 40 years of age. In this way studies done in other countries to investigate the personality structure of cancer patients were replicated. Emphasis was given to the following issues: self-destructive and/or masochistic tendencies, attitudes of depressive resignation, and conflicts with respect to femininity and motherhood. The results showed several significant differences by which benign tumor patients can be better characterized. These patients presented symptoms, experiences and structures of the neurotic type. The cancer patients presented structures closer to the psychosomatic type, with rigid negation of conflicts (in relation to sex, identification, violence and aggression), and with an unreal insertion in the world. Their somatizations are not conversive; they are interpreted as effects of the destructive and violent tendencies which, without release for the lack of adequate contacts with objects, are directed toward themselves. However, this cannot properly be called a masochistic structure because the destructive tendencies do not have a sexual origin, rather they are part of a vehement negation of others and of life itself, in the sense of a primary death drive. It is impossible to tell, however, to what point these characteristics are already the effects of the breast problems, or whether they have more causal relevance as certain previous personal experiences indicate.