[Heart beat perception in patients with psychosomatic disorders: distracting attention from personal physical...

Based on considerations about the concept of alexithymia as well as from the Theory of Objective Self-Attentiveness the hypothesis was derived that in comparison with "healthy" persons in a control group persons showing psychosomatic disturbances should have a significantly worse perception of their own cardiac action. This poorer capability of perception has been assumed to be the result of the psychosomatic clients actively averting their attentiveness. These assumptions were checked experimentally with the aid of two measuring methods and could be confirmed. A comparison of the accuracy of interoceptive and exteroceptive perception has lead to the conclusion that the lesser degree of perception found with psychosomatic patients does not stem from disturbances of interoceptive processes but is rather the result of these persons actively turning away their attentiveness.