Psychoanalytic concepts of eating disorders: an empirical approach with a semantic differential (Ertel)

To study empirically some psychoanalytic assumptions concerning aspects of the oral character and manifestations of fixation and regression, 61 neurotic inpatients at a psychotherapeutic clinic were investigated using a semantic differential technique (Ertel). Each patient was judged by the differential technique on the basis of 12 object representations which, in respect to the psychoanalytic theory of development, are postulated to have connections with the oral stage. A connotative proximity in the semantic space was postulated for several 'oral connotations'. For these relevant connotations the theoretical assumptions were proved empirically. However, there were no statistical differences between several groups of patients (those with an oral fixation and those with later fixations). Furthermore single dimensions of the semantic differential technique used, in contrast to the three-dimensional analysis, allowed the differentiation of patients with oral fixations from the others simply by using object representations that ought to be relevant for the oral stage of psychosexual development.