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CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE
BODY EMPATHY IN PSYCHOTICS
AND NON-PSYCHOTICS
A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the
requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in
Special Hajor
by
Darlene M. Graeser
___/
June, 1977
The Thesis of Darlene M. Graeser is approved:
California State University, Northridge
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my sincere appreciation to
those whose influence and assistance have helped make this
thesis possible.
To Dr. Nora Weckler, who first opened my eyes to the
1
fact that dance and psychology are complementary partners
and whose guidance, love, suggestions, and unfaltering
patience have been crucial to my life, I am deeply
indebted.
To Dr. Paulette Shafranski, who allowed me to create,
so that I could allow others the same opportunity.
To Dr. Paul Baum, for his assistance in setting up
the statistical design of this thesis.
I
am especially grateful to Donald Sudlow who showed
me that the artist is indeed a healer.
A special thanks to Gary Litwin, whose patient
persistance, combined with an incredible creative camera
sense, made the photographic postural sets a reality.
And finally, to Dr. Richard Abcarian, thank you.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Pagel
I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
LIST OF TABLES .
I ABSTRACT
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Chapter 1 - INTRODUCTION
i Chapter 2 - METHOD .
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Subjects
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Materials . · .
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II
20
Apparatus • .
22
Environmental Conditions
22
Procedure . .
22
l! Chapter
24
RESULTS
3 -
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Chapter 4 - DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
I REFERENCES
.
.
42
. • .
I
46
I APPENDICES
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37
Ii
Appendix A - BODY POSTURE SLIDES 1-10 IN
PRINT FORM . . . . . .
471
Appendix B - SLIDE INTENSITY INVENTORY
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ABSTRACT
BODY EMPATHY IN PSYCHOTICS
AND NON-PSYCHOTICS
by
Darlene M. Graeser
Master of Arts in Special Major
This study attempts to compare the ability of
psychotics and non-psychotics to use body empathy.
"Body
Empathy," for this study, is defined as the ability to
empathize with the feelings of another person through
non-verbal observation of their body posture.
This
ability is investigated by means of ratings based on
intensity of subject response.
The hypothesis is that the non-psychotic subject,
because of a greater understanding of his/her own body,
is expected to react to photographic postural sets with
higher intensity more often than the psychotic subject.
Twenty-five psychotic and twenty-five non-psychotic
subjects were asked to respond to ten body posture slides
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iand to rate the slide subjects' intensity of feeling on a
I
!scale from A to C, a rating of "A" representing the most
'
:intense response and a rating of "C" representing the least
[
intense response.
The results were analyzed by means of a chi-square
test of independence for each slide and for all slides
combined.
The results support the hypothesis that non-psychotics
show more body empathy than do psychotics.
An understanding of the importance of body empathy
could prove to be a valuable adjunct to the diagnosis and
treatment of both psychotic and neurotic disorders.
This
research adds to the growing consciousness in the health
professions that the body and the mind cannot be treated
separately.
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vii
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BODY EMPATHY IN PSYCHOTICS
AND NON-PSYCHOTICS
Darlene M. Graeser
California State University, Northridge
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
The role of an individual's body form in social interaction and on personality is extremely significant in the
study of the total person.
It is the body that receives
stimuli, feels, acts, reacts, and most importantly, interacts.
It is the body that provides the first insights to
the state of the individual.
It is the body that long
' before the first word is uttered sends off a multitude of
information.
It is the body that communicates various
degrees of tension and relaxation.
It is through the body
that a person experiences reality:
the external environ-
ment impinges upon the body and affects the senses so as to
then affect a response.
The more responsive the body, the
mor.e vividly does it perceive reality and the more actively
does it respond.
Lowen (1967) believes that all percep-
tion, and hence identity, depend on a state of "aliveness."
Without self perception, Lowen explains, identity becomes
confused or lost and psychological symptoms appear.
If
the body is unalive, a .person's impressions and responses
1
2
Szasz (1957) discussed the occurrence of certain
;
!patterns of bodily feeling in schizophrenia (e.g., hypo!chondriasis, somatic delusions, being "dead").
He
theorizes that these feelings reflect the schizophrenic's
need to take his/her own body as an object of relationship
to replace the objects he/she has lost in the external
iworld.
He outlines a progression of attitudes that an
: individual may adopt toward his/her body as .he/she
1
regresses from a pre-psychotic stage to an advanced stage
'of schizophrenia.
1.
The progression is as follows:
In the pre-psychotic state personal investments
are in outside objects.
2.
Disappointment. with, or loss of, outside objects
!results in withdrawal from such objects; and one's own
!body becomes the substitute object to which to relate.
:This is accompanied by a transfer of feelings to one's
,body which werepreviously invested in outside persons and
things.
3.
The body becomes "the only remaining foothold for
the ego's survival" (1961, p. 136) and the individual
becomes fearful that he/she may lose this object too, just
as he/she has lost most outside objects.
Hypochondriacal
and delusional behavior now serves to reassure him/her that
he/she still possesses his/her body.
4.
Further regression may lead to the individual
giving up his/her own body as an object of investment.
3
Thus, sensations of "deadness" become prominent which
symbolically dramatize the sense of body loss.
There is no end to the observations and discussion
concerning the role of the body image in schizophrenia.
Arguments have been offered which make the body image
disturbance basic to schizophrenic regression (e.g.,
Herner, 1965; Des Lauriers, 1962; Woodbury, 1966).
Br.uch
(1962) insists that a defect in learning to interpret
)
sensations from one's body is a "Prerequisite for later
schizophrenic development"
(p. 24).
Both Mahl (1968) and Deutsch (1952) demonstrate that
an analysis of the psychological significance of various
gestures performed by psychotic patients suggests that
movements are immediate reflections of feelings that are
out of conscious awareness.
Assuming there is a breakdown between body image and
the awareness of that image in psychotics, it is worthwhile
to investigate whether these same psychotics will have a
similar breakdown in the awareness of another person's
body.
This study will attempt to demonstrate that this
breakdown in body image, this inability to understand or
feel the feelings of one's own body does generalize to the
inability to feel or understand the feelings of another
person's body.
4
Directly related to this theme is the way in which a
body communicates.
For the purpose of this paper two
areas of body communication will be-considered:
empathy
and intensity.
Darwin's research in body expression and emotionality
is a valuable base for understanding empathy and intensity.
Darwin (1872) delineated three general principles which
"account for most of the expressions and gestures involuntarily used by man under the influence of various emotions
and sensations" (p. 27).
The three principles are described as follows:
1.
The principle of serviceable associated habits.
Certain complex actions are of direct or
indirect service under certain states of mind
in order to relieve or gratify certain sensations, desires, etc., and whenever the same
state of mind is induced, there is a tendency
through the force of habit and association for
the same movements to be performed, though
they may not then be of the least use (Darwin,
1872, p. 28).
These reflexes are transmitted as inherited
.expressions characteristic of certain situations and
represent the "last vestige of the total primitive reaction
our· forebears made to objects arousing the emotions"
(Allport, 1924, p. 210).
2.
The principle of antithesis. Certain states of
mind lead to certain habitual actions ... now
when a directly opposite state of mind is
induced, there is a strong and involuntary
tendency to the performance of movements of a
directly opposite nature, though they are of
no use (Darwin, 1872, p. 28).
5
3.
The principle of actions due to the constitution of the nervous system independently from
the first of the will, and independently to a
certain extent of habit. When the sensorium
is strongly excited, nerve force is generated
in excess and is transmitted in certain definite directions, depending on the connection of
the nerve cells, and partly on habit ... Effects
are thus produced which we recognize as expressive (Darwin, 1872, p. 28).
Part of Darwin's evidence to develop these three
• principles was gathered in his work with the expressions
·of the insane, "since they are liable to the strongest
passions, and give uncontrolled vent to them 11
(Darwin,
1872, p. 29).
It is in this vast accumulation of anecdotal evidence
that the present hypothesis gains impetus.
insane tha·t the
11
It is in the
Unalive" body is seen in its most severe
state, and it is here that empathy is lacking and inappropriate intensities with respect to responses to emotional
states are thus observed.
Although there have been vast studies to support
Darwin's idea of a universality of facial expression
(Trandis and Lampert, 1958; Cuceloglu, 1970; Ekman and
Friesen, 1971), the idea of universality of body expression
has been subje.ct to dissension (1) because of the numerous
intervening variables,
(2) because it is thought to be
culture specific, and (3) because the concept of a varying
intensity of emotional body feedback has been observed but
not noted quantitatively.
positio_n:
Birdwhistell (1963) states his
6
When I first became interested in studying
body motion, I was confident that it would be
possible to isolate a series of expressions, postures, and movements that were denotative of
kinesics.
It became clear that this search for
universals was culture bound ... There are probably
no universal symbols of emotional state ... We can
expect them (emotional expressions) to be learned
according to the particular structures of particular societies (p. 126).
Thus in the search for universality of expression,
there is a serious need to deal with the context in which
the-emotion takes place, a need to deal with differences
in these contexts and a need to deal with the way in which
they manifest themselves.
While Darwin dealt primarily with facial expression,
there are other researchers who have dealt primarily with
postural sets or bodily gestures.
cerned with bodily gestures.
La Barre (1947) was con-
He concluded that many
enduring feelings, or what might better be called attitudes,
are seen not only in the face but in the body as well.
The
body shows the ways a person is coping with emotions.
There may be patterns of body movement or specific body
acts that are unique to a global emotional description,
such as "unhappy" or "upset," but it is not believed that
there are unique body movements for individual emotional
feelings, such as anger, fear, and disgust.
It is believed
that the intensity of the body expression becomes more profound with an increase in emotional impact.
The one excep-
tion to this rule in observed body expression universally
7
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Another theory of postural set proposed by Nina Bull
1
(1950) states that:
I
Emotion is conceived of as a sequence of neuromuscular events in which a postural set or preparatory motor attitude is the initial step. This
preparatory attitude is both involuntary and
instinctive and is the end result of a slight,
tentative movement which gives a new orientation
to the individual, but does not immediately go
into the consummatory stage of action (p. 110).
I
In two further studies of postural set (Bull and
Gidro~Frank,
1950; Pasquarelli and Bull, 1951), Bull and
her co-workers, using hypnotized subjects, found
!
consistent~~
bodily sensations reported when certain emotion words such
as fear, anger, disgust, triumph, or depression were suggested.
Later when other subjects were asked to "lock"
their postures into certain positions, again under hypnosis, they could not change feelings unless their positions
were also changed.
From t.hese findings, they drew two
important conclusions:
first, that skeletal muscle
activity as well as visceral activity is involved in
·emotional feelings; and second, that different emotions
not only feel different but have different postural sets
associated with them.
The above studies do not deal with the actual intensity of the various emotions, nor do they deal with the
context of the observer.
Yet they do provide a good base
I
for the present study of body empathy using ambiguous
I postural
L~ontext.
I
I
I
sets, and further for dealing with intensity and
__________
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8
For purposes of this study, it must be noted that in
the case of the psychotic, postural sets can become more
pronounced and yet at the same time the individual is less
, aware of displaying them (Plutchick, 1962) .
i
It is also
necessary in this study to discuss observed differences
between psychotic and non-psychotic subjects.
-In observations of the relative differences in emotional responses between psychotic and non-psychotic
persons, Robert Plutchick (1962) states:
In the laboratory study using normal persons,
the emotions produced are usually quickly over
and relatively pure. Anger, for instance, can be
expressed without much fear of punishment. On
the other hand, in the clinical situation many
patients have conflicts about expressing their
emotions, and, in addition, usually experience
several at the same time. Sadness may be accompanied by anxiety, resentment, and hopelessness.
Psychotherapy of depressed patients almost invariably uncovers much aggression which has been
directed against the self, through fear of punishment or fear of loss of love. Hostile and aggressive behavior is often found associated with high
anxiety (p. 82).
Thus, if an emotional state can be induced in a psychotic individual, this emotional state would be expected
to contain a great deal of high intensity momentary release
inappropriate for the particular situation.
Whereas, in
the non-psychotic individual, an appropriate response
would be expected.
In the study of empathy, the researcher
is more concerned not with the momentary emotional state of
the subject per se as much as the various subjects' ability
to impart emotionality and intensity on the body of
9
another.
Further, it would appear that more intense
arousals of emotion introduce different patterns of reactivity (Ax, 1973) .
Differences in intensity among psychotic and nonpsychotic subjects emerge as an unexplored variable in the
study of emotion.
"It is necessary to study the physical,
physiological, and subjective concomitants of
emotion~l
states as a function of the intensity of the emotion"
(Plutchick, 1962, p. 90}.
In general, the data concerning the emotions have
been gathered from two main sources:
experimental labora-
tory work on animals and humans, and clinical work with
emotionally disturbed patients.
The laboratory studies of emotions usually induce an
emotion in a non-psychotic subject by using disturbing
stimuli.
Introspective reports are related to overt
behavior or physiological changes.
Conclusions are drawn.
In the present research, the stimuli are not designed to
be disturbing, rather it is assumed here that the stimuli
(photographic postural sets) have some intrinsic ability
to transmit emotion.
The clinical studies usually examine a patient who
has been anxious or depressed for a long time and then try
to determine the physiological changes which have already
taken place or which take place when stressful aspects of
the patient's life are discussed (Wolff, 1950).
10
The kinds of emotions called by the same name in the
:two kinds of subjects and situations are, of course, not
•identical.
Anger induced in a normal subject which is com-
;pletely expressed in a few minutes or less (Ax, 1953) is
not the same thing as the chronic resentment which a peptic
ulcer patient might show (Wolff, 1950).
Dealing with the
;intensity of responses in the two groups would be a valuable
adjunct to present research.
Various other relevant research has dealt with subjects
judging overt manifestations of emotions in photographs
(Frois-Wittman, 1930; Goodenough, 1931; Kanner, 1931;
Landis, 1929).
(The studies led to conflicting results.)
The studies dealt presumably with the nature of emotion.
So if facial expressions could be reliably identified, then
a theory of universality of primary emotion display could
be understood.
Frijda (1953) has presented evidence that
judgments differ both according to features of facial
expression and situational cues.
Facial expressions are
found to reflect a "general aspect of the person's emotional state," while the situational cues give the interpretation specificity.
Although there are scattered studies of the
recognition of affect from body posture or hand gestures,
such studies are rare.
This would seem to be in line with
Tomkin's assumption that the face "is the primary site of
affects"
(1962).
Dealing with the emotion only in terms of
11
the face would seem extremely limiting.
The following
pages will discuss some ways in which research has dealt
with body posture and emotionality.
In the theoretical literature, the role of movement
and body tension patterns in relation to the affective_process is discussed.
Muscle tension in relation to emotions
and anxiety has been subject to considerable research.
Alexander Luria (1932) conducted muscle tension studies of
people under severe stress, and traced disorganization
during stress in kymographic recordings.
Whether measured
mechanically, electrically, or through observation, the
magnitude and patterning of muscle activity has long been
correlated with excitation and anxiety.
To what extent
higher intensities of excitation and anxiety allows for
higher intensity of muscle activity and thus higher intensity of empathetic observation of the muscle activity has
not yet been explored.
While a simple correlation is
often made between anxiety and increased muscle tension,
sophisticated analyses report more subtle possibilities,
such as between muscle activity and empathy, attention, and
personality characteristics.
Malmo and associates (1951)
have found relationships between increased tension and
irregular patterns of muscle activity and psychopathology.
Some of this research shows correlations between increased
tension in the arm muscles and hostility topics, and leg
tension and sex themes (Malmo, et al., 1956).
12
A few recent studies focus on interpersonal aspects
1
of muscle activity patterns (Malmo, et al., 1957).
The
emotional impact and intensity of feeling that one body
can communicate to another body holds many answers to
questions which deal with the degree of emotional commitment that an individual is willing to invest in another
individual.
Allport and Vernon (1960) also researched body and
emotionality.
They attempted experimentally to assess the
consistency of individual movement patterns, with the
assumption that the measurement of overt expression was the
most direct way to study the personality.
They undertook
the first step in an empirical study of movement and personality, providing data on the question of whether an
individual's movement patterns are consistent across time
and task.
They also presented clinical data that indicated
that the expressive movement styles of their subjects were
compatible with independent personality descriptions of
them.
They suggested that the relationship between body
patterns and personality traits are clearly not simple ones.
Scheflen (1965) contends that body posture and motion
should be considered part of the social communication
system.
He defines communication as:
A cultural system consisting of successive
levels of patterning that support, amend, modify,
define and make possible human relationships or
social structures. What we see are the communicative activities that maintain and signify them
.....,., ·-···-~·-' (p ... 17 )_. -------·~·--·-·····------~--.-----~-----------.-~-.-----~~---· --·-- ___ .. _.. _______ -------- ... --·- . -·
13
Scheflen criticizes the imputation of intrapsychic or
individual meanings to movement or posture (at least until
the interactional patterns are defined) .
Further, it may be argued that if specific movements
or postures do not have individual meaning then the intensity of emotion that may be attached to a particular body
!
posture is dependent on the context of the observer.
Relating this concept to the psychotics ability to empathize, it is expected that the intensity of emotion that
the psychotic will impart of the body of another person
will not be as intense as that of a non-psychotic.
Birdwhistell (1970) argues that body movement is
simply one culturally determined "channel" of communication,
that movement patterns are learned through social experience, and that one moves in ways commensurate with one's
culture, social rules, region, age, sex, and class.
He
coined the term "kinesics" to refer to the culturalcommunicational study of body motion.
Birdwhistell holds
that the "meaning" of a given movement can be deduced only
from an analysis of the context; i.e., who does it, where,
when, and within what sequence of interactions.
The literature states and re-states the fact that
certain mental disorders are characterized by specific
fixed body expressions, and early works on psychiatric
nosology included movement disturbances as important diagnostic criteria (Blueler, 1950).
Ferenczi (1921) wrote of
14
' the psychoanalysis of tics, and Bruer and Freud (1895)
analyzed the psychological significance of various muscle
contractions and movements in hysterical neurosis.
Lowen
(1967) has analyzed disturbances in body image, movement,
and posture in the schizoid personality.
He makes it clear
that mental health is a function of the body.
"A healthy
i
person has an image of himself that agrees with the way
i
his body looks and feels"
(Lowen, 1967, p. 2).
He goes on
to say that the image is an abstraction, an ideal and an
"idol" which demands the sacrifice of personal feelings.
The image, he contends, is a mental conception which, superimposed on the physical being, reduces bodily existence to
a subsidiary role.
The body becomes an instrument of the
will in the service of the image.
The individual becomes
split and is alienated from the reality of his/her body and
the body of others.
As Rollo May (1958) pointed out in his discussion of
the schizoid disturbance:
Many psychotherapists have pointed out that
more and more patients exhibit schizoid features
and the typical kind of psychic problem in our
day is not hysteria, as it was in Freud's time,
but the schizoid type, that is to say, the problem of persons who are detached, unrelated,
lacking in affect, tending towards depersonalization, and covering up their problems by means
of intellectualizations ..• (p. 56).
The alienated individual's love is romanticized, his
sex is compulsive, his work is mechanical, and his achievements are egotistic.
"In an alienated society, these
L_____ - -- --- ----- - ·- --· ---- ------------------· -------------~-----~------~-----------'"'------------------------~-------- ----------------- ____ ;
1.5
:activities lose their personal meaning.
I
This loss is
replaced by an image" (Lowen, 1967, p. 4).
Lilly (1956) used experimentation with schizoid sub-
: jects to show that the aliveness of the body denotes the
·capacity for feeling.
In the absence of feeling, the body
goes "dead" insofar as its ability to be impressed by or
:respond to situations.
'turned inward.
The emotionally dead person is
The ability to feel oneself contributes to
·the ability to feel others.
They are inversely and neces-
• sarily proportional.
Researchers have questioned what exactly is the rela· tionship between the body (posture, movement) and what it
means.
Ekman and Friesen (1969) define three possible
relationships:
"arbitrary" (an extrinsic), "iconic" (an
extrinsic), and "intrinsic" (p. 60).
They distinguish
between acts that bear "no visual resemblance to what they
signify" but the resemblance remains extrinsic (iconic or
arbitrary) and those that not only resemble their significance but are at least in part significant (intrinsic)
(Ekman and Friesen, 1969, p. 60).
Whatever the significance may ultimately be based on,
it is accepted that the body communicates.
The signifi-
cance of this communication is based more on the interpretation of the intensity of the observed body and the
observer's ability to impart emotionality onto a body than
on such generalizations as "sad hands" or "angry legs."
·-·-·------------·--·
··-·--·-·· ··-------·-··--·--·-·-·--- -··-----·-·····-··
---····· --··-
-··· -
............... .
16
For example, Birdwhistell (1970) argues that a body
"can be bowed in grief, in humility, in laughter, or in
' readiness for aggression" (p. 34) , and presumably considers·
this an evidence for the arbitrariness of movement forms.
However, each case does share an underlying common theme of
"containing oneself."
This author argues that whatever the
gesture "really means" does not come across as profoundly
as the intensity of the given gesture.
Again, this inten-
sity is determined by the observer's ability to discern
emotional impact.
In other words, if an observer views a body posture
that does not purport to signify any specific emotion, and,
then, is asked to rate the posture on the basis of the
intensity of emotion that the body is transmitting, then
the intensity of emotionality imparted on the observed body
is a function of the observer's mental state more than of
the body posture per se.
This ability of one person to impart emotional intensity from observing the body posture of another person will
now be defined as "Body Empathy."
According to Barshay (1964) , empathy is defined as the
"ability to place oneself in the place of another individual so as to be in a position to predict and become
aware of the other's attitudes, behavioral characteristics,
and emotionality" (p. 20) .
Barshay explains that attaining
such a sensitivity to cues is not possible when one is
17
preoccupied with emotional conflicts.
"Empathy enlarges
our own self-image by enriching our interpersonal relations"
(Barshay, 1964, p. 26).
Body empathy extends this
definition to include such non-verbal aspects as muscle
tension and body posture to account for the wide range of
cues that may trigger empathy.
Body empathy comes across
, on a non-verbal level.
This ability to "feel how it feels to look a certain
way" deals primarily with interpreted intensity.
Body
empathy then is expected to correspond with the degree of
body image, body awareness, and general mental health that
a person possesses.
A substantial amount of research in personality is
concerned with the self-concept as it applies to body image
and body awareness.
Secord and Jourard (1953) investigated
the individual's attitudes towards his/her body as an integral part of self concept.
Body cathexis is the degree of
feelings of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the
various parts or processes of the body.
A scale for the
determination of the degree of cathexis towards various
aspects of the body was designed and administered to groups
of college males and females, along with a similar scale of
different aspects of the self, a homonymn test of anxiety
related body cathexis and the Maslow Test of Psychological
Security-Insecurity.
drawn:
The following conclusions were
The hypothesis that feelings about the body are
---~- ~---~----- - - ----- - - - - -------~--- - - - - ---- ------- - - - - - - ~---------______i
18
associated with feelings about the self was supported by
significant correlations between the two parts of the
scale.
The hypothesis that low body cathexis is associated
with anxiety in the form of undue autistic concern with
pain, disease, or bodily injury was upheld.
The hypothesis
that low body cathexis is associated with insecurity was
also sustained.
This research lends credence to the
healthy mind/healthy body concept that this thesis is
based upon.
Although there may be a general agreement among
experts in the field of body expression that the psychotic
person is less in touch with his body than the nonpsychotic person, and that the psychotic person deals with
intensities of emotion in seemingly inappropriate ways, the
way this problem manifests itself with regard to human
interaction has not been researched to date.
The body has
an intrinsic ability to transmit emotion and feeling
{Lowen, 1967) •
The actual definition of the emotion or
feeling is not as important in this research as the ability
to discern intensities of emotion in the interpretation of
a body and its affect.
The ability to read appropriate
intensity into the body of another person would correspond
with a higher capacity to experience and express all emotional dimensions and thus a higher degree of mental health
and body empathy.
The hypothesis of this study may therefore be stated
19
as follows:
When asked to rate body posture on the basis
of projected intensity of the slide-subject's feelings,
psychotic subjects will rate them less intense than will
the non-psychotic subjects.
This hypothesis stems from findings that non-psychotic
populations have more definitive body images and more acute
body awareness than psychotic populations.
This researcher
infers from these findings that the non-psychotics ability
tO feel the feelings of his/her own body leads to the
ability to feel the feelings of another person's body
body empathy.
~-----··--~-~-~-------
----
--~
---~--------- -~
--
----~-------- --------------~-------
-------
--- - - -
Chapter 2
· METHOD
• Subjects
Two groups of 25 subjects each were used.
Group 1 was
. comprised of psychotics, 13 males and 12 females, between
the ages of 25 and 35 years who had been institutionalized
between one and three years.
They were chosen from
.
patients at Woodview Calabasas Psychiatric Hospital, Calabasas, California, and Camarillo Mental Hospital, Camarillo,
·California.
Because the questionnaire used in the present
research required an ability to follow simple instructions,
. subjects in the psychotic group were limited to those able
to relate adequately on a verbal level.
A doctor's per-
mission to participate was obtained for each psychotic subject.
It was the individual doctors who labeled the 25
subjects that were used as psychotic.
Group 2 was comprised of 25 non-psychotic subjects,
13 males and 12 females, between the ages of 25 and 35
years chosen from adult education classes in Creative
. Movement and Social Psychology at Moorpark College,
Thousand Oaks, California.
The first 25 to sign up for the
experiment were selected -- no further criteria was used.
Materials
Ten slides were used in this research (see Appendix A).
The slides were_ part of ?t_~t:1lc1Y of v.:~::r-~~11~- body postures
20
21
associated with feeling levels.
Subjects from elementary schools, high schools, junior
·colleges, universities, and mental hospitals (105 subjects
in all) were asked what their bodies would look like if
they felt feelings such as sadness, happiness, frustration
and anger.
The subjects were asked to actually show this
feeling on their own bodies.
Notes and sketches of their
• body posture/feeling were made in an effort to decide which
. body posture was the most readily recognizable as portraying
a particular feeling.
When the most "popular" body posture
was agreed upon, the present researcher was then photographed in these various postures.
A relatively accurate
imitation was possible because of the researcher's background in movement and dance.
The agreed upon body pos-
tures now took the form of photographic slides.
The results of this attempt to photograph feelings of
a body proved to produce a large amount of ambiguous and
\.
specialized photographic feedback that could claim only to
be a reflection of a popular posture that is special to a
particular group and could not claim to be a universally
accepted body posture/feeling.
The ten slides used in this present thesis were chosen
randomly from over 200 slides.
Nothing is claimed about
the emotion or feeling reflected in the slides.
The
research deals with subjects' projected intensity of
about the subject in the slides, and not with a
22
·particular feeling that a certain slide might purport to
:portray.
I
l
jApparatus
A Kodak Ektographic slide projector (model number AF2)
was used to project the slides onto a screen two meters in
front of each subject.
:about 72 em. by 107 em.
The size of the projected image was
The order of presentation of the
,slides was in a 1 to 10 order consistently allowing approximately 15 seconds for each slide.
'Environmental Conditions
A small semi-dark projection room was used in each of
the two locations.
Only one subject was run at a time.
Total running time including instructions varied from three
to five minutes per subject.
Procedure
A private projection room was used in each of the
locations for the purpose of viewing and rating the slides.
The subjects were tested individually by one of two
investigators -- both students at CSUN -- so there would be
no chance of influence from others in rating the slides.
Along with the instructions on the questionnaire (see
Appendix B) a verbal clarification statement was given by
the examiner:
"I am interested in the intensity that you
think that the subject in each of the slides is feeling.
23
·least intense.
It is important to remember that there is no
!right or wrong answer."
The present experimenter did not do the interviewing
•.
:so as not to contaminate the feedback with possible recog;nition of the subject in the slides.
This should not then
be a concern for future researchers.
The slides were numbered 1 to 10 and were consistently
administered in this order.
The hypothesis maintains that the psychotic will display a lower amount of body empathy -- that is a lower
intensity of projected feeling -- to the body in the slides,
more often than the non-psychotic.
By requesting that the
subjects rate the slides on the basis of what they thought
the slide subject's intensity of feeling was, they would be
expected to project from their own ability to feel -- which
is exactly the parameter that is necessary to the hypothesis.
If one cannot feel for oneself, it is unlikely that
one could feel for others.
:
;
-. " - - - - - - - - · - - - - --------~~----·------~-------- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --------------·- -------- _______ j
Chapter 3
RESULTS
A chi-square test of independence was conducted for
each slide and for all slides combined.
The observed
:responses and the chi-squares for each slide are shown in
;Tables 1 through 10.
A summary of the chi-square values
:on slides 1 through 10 is shown in Table 11.
The chi-square
test performed on all slides combined is shown in Table 12.
A significant value of chi-square was obtained at the
5% level for 8 of the 10 individual slides, as indicated in
Table 11.
For all slides combined, a chi-square value of
71.1331 was obtained, which is significant beyond the 1%
I .../
level.
Thus the results support the-hypothesis that the
psychotic subjects will rate with less intensity the slidesubject's projected feeling than will the non-psychotic
subjects.
We conclude that "intensity of response" is not
independent of the group into which a subject was classified, whether psychotic or non-psychotic.
24
25
"1
Table 1
OBSERVED RESPONSES FOR SLIDE 1
Groups
-
Intensity
of Response
Psychotic
x
·--~-
2
=
A
5
10
B
10
12
c
10
3
N
25
25
5.614
--------- --·· --~--- --
.
Non-psychotic
<
2
x • 05 (3)
-------------------~---~-
------
=
7.82
----------------~-- ~--- -----------~---------------------
-------------------- -----------
26
Table 2
OBSERVED RESPONSES FOR SLIDE 2
Groups
Intensity
of Response
Psychotic
X
2
=
Non-psychotic
A
6
13
B
6
9
c
13
3
N
25
25
9.428 ")
X
2
.0 5 (3) = 7.82
'-~----------~-·------------·------~--~-----------
----- ~--
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ---
27
Table 3
OBSERVED RESPONSES FOR SLIDE 3
Groups
Intensity
of Response
Psychotic
Non-psychotic
A
21
22
B
3
3
c
1
0
N
25
25
--
i
~--~-·-------------------------~---- ~-~--------------·-----------------
------ -----------
__________________ i
]
28
Table 4
OBSERVED RESPONSES FOR SLIDE 4
Groups
-
Intensity
of Response
Psychotic
-
-
·-
Non-psychotic
-··
5
16
B
5
4
c
15
5
N
25
25
A
-
·-
-
·-- -··
-
X
2
--
,=11.76
~
X
2
._
05 (3)
=
7.82
-
----------
---
-
----·----·
---------
~-···--
---
------
~-
---
29
Table 5
OBSERVED RESPONSES FOR SLIDE 5
Groups
Intensity
of Response
Psychotic
Non-psychotic
A
11
19
B
4
4
c
10
2
N
25
25
---
L_~ -·---~---·---·------------------·-------~---·-------~·---~--·-···----- ~-· ------··-----
30
Table 6
OBSERVED RESPONSES FOR SLIDE 6
Groups
Intensity
of Response
Psychotic
2
X
Non-psychotic
A
7
16
B
10
9
c
8
0
N
25
25
= 11.57
~
2
X
.
.0 5 (3)
= 7.82
L_______________ -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---·
31
Table 7
OBSERVED RESPONSES FOR SLIDE 7
Groups
In·tensity
of Response
Psychotic
X
2
=
Non-psychotic.
A
7
19
B
7
3
c
11
3
N
25
25
11.69
>X
2
.0 5 (3)
=
7.82
-·-----'""
___ ___
,
---·---·~
32
Table 8
OBSERVED RESPONSES FOR SLIDE 8
Groups
Intensity
of Response
Psychotic
Non-psychotic
-
A
1
6
B
6
12
c
18
7
N
25
25
...
X
2
= 10.42
~
X
2
.0 5 (3)
=
7.82
:--------------------~---~--------------------·-------------~-----~-------· ----~------J
33
Table 9
OBSERVED RESPONSES FOR SLIDE 9
Groups
~
Intensity
of Response
Psychotic
2~
X.=
Non-psychotic
A
2
14
B
2
7
c
21
4
N
25
25
23.32 ~
X
2
.Q
5
(3)
=
7.82
L_____ --------~----~------------- - - - -
34
Table 10
OBSERVED RESPONSES FOR SLIDE 10
Groups
Intensity
of Response
Psychotic
X
2
Non-psychotic
A
8
18
B
8
0
c
9
7
N
25
25
= 12.09
">
X
2
.0 5 (3)
=
7.82
L-~~----------~----·-·-----------·------
35
Table 11
CHI-SQUARE TAKEN ON INDIVIDUAL SLIDES
--
---
-
X
1
5.614
No
-2
9.428
Yes
Significant*.
..
-
1.0232
3
------
- -
2
Slide
--
-
No
11.76
Yes
5
13.52
Yes
6
11.57
Yes
7
11.69
Yes
8
10.42
Yes
9
23.32
Yes
10
12.09
Yes
4
-
, * x 2 for 3 degrees of freedom has to be larger than 7.82
at .05 level for significance.
Table 12
SUBJECT RESPONSES AND CHI-SQUARE TEST
PERFORMED ON ALL SLIDES COMBINED
Groups
Personality Type
;
'
i
Intensity
of Response
Row
(P}
Psychotic
Observed F
Expected F
Observed F
I
~ (0)
(N)
Non-psychotic
Expected F
:
High
A
73
113
153
113
226
61
62
63
62
124
116
75
34
75
150
Medium
B
Low
c
'
;
;
~(Col 0}
250
~= 500
250
i
:
X
-
2
= 71.1331
>
X
2
.05( 3 ) = 7.82
-
...
·--······
f
--
··--··-···
.
·--·-
- ·-·.
--
Chapter 4
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Two separate interpretations are needed to adequately
• deal with the factors which influenced the results of this
study.
The first is a look at the overall significance of
the statistically valid relationship that was found to
!
exist between body empathy and psychosis as determined by
'the
~intensity
of responses to the observed body slides.
With the significant results we conclude that "intensity of
response" is not independent of the group into which a subject was classified.
The second is to deal with the sta-
tistical feedback of the individual slides to try to
speculate on those slides in which there was found to be
no significant difference between the responses of the
psychotic and the non-psychotic subjects.
If a psychotic's own low body image impairs his/her
perceptions of others, then it could be said that he/she
would be less able to impart emotionality on to the body
of another.
It would thus be expected that a test for low
body image could be formulated.
A group of psychotic
people, as well as non-psychotic, could be asked to respond
to a set of body-posture slides.
The degree of intensity
with which they respond would then be an indicator of their
own feelings of relatedness to their own bodies.
Low
intensity responses would signify low body empathy or a
37
38
possible psychotic or pre-psychotic state.
A high inten-
sity response would then signify high body empathy or more
specifically, a non-psychotic state.
This a'tvareness of the importance of body empathy
allows for the possibility of taking subjects whose intensity ratings are low and working with them in body or movement therapy for a specified period of time, and then
retesting to observe any increase in intensity scores.
If the psychotic state, as defined in this paper, is
an inappropriate denial of feeling, and the non-psychotic
state is a more appropriate acceptance of this feeling,
then body empathy may be considered a valid measure of
mental health and movement therapy or a type of Body
Awareness Therapy may be considered a valid mode to accomplish this end.
If certain kinds of movements and gestures can be
linked up with certain emotional states and an understanding of this connection can be achieved, body empathy
can be seen as a viable therapeutic tool.
It is inferred from the results that there is a correlation between the intensity with which a subject
responds to body posture slides and the subject's mental
state -- psychotic or non-psychotic.
This duscussion could
end if it were not for the glaring disparity of intensity
responses on Slide 3 and to some degree on Slide 1 (see
Tables 1 and 3) .
39
Slide 3 shows that 21 psychotic subjects responded "A"
and 22 non-psychotics responded "A".
, cant difference in this case.
There was no signifi-
A look at the slide (see
Slide 3) shows the subject's body posture visually very
open, with outstretched arms and legs.
The facial expres-
sion is also very open, both the eyes and the mouth are
opened wide.
Ekman (1973) in his discussion of univer-
sality of body expression describes this type of posture
as a startle response, and cites it as the one possible
posture that maintains a degree of universality across age,
sex, and culture lines.
That is, it is recognizable with
a low degree of ambiguity.
The current research may pro-
vide some support for this universality of significance of
this posture, for it transmits high intensity feelings
regardless of the mental state of the subject.
Further
research could investigate the hypothesis in greater
detail.
The more "open" the body appears physically, the
more intense will be the feeling of empathy for that body.
This "open" body posture is one extreme in which the
data
var~ed
radically.
The other slide with no signifi-
cance, Slide 1 (see Table 1), seems to portray a "closed"
body posture • . It was on this slide as on Slide 3 that
there was no significant difference between psychotic and
non-psychotic intensity responses.
In this slide (see
Slide 1) the subject's back is toward the viewer.
The head
is down, arms and legs are bent in toward the trunk.
The
40
two slides that presented extremes of body posture were the
slides that did not show significant differences in
:response.
Research dealing with assumptions about the
:possibility of universal intensity in "open" body and
:"closed" body postures would help to clarify this area.
As it is, "open" seems to portray "high 11 feelings, and
• ~closed" seems to portray "low" feelings, yet both appear
to communicate similar intensity to psychotic and non'psychotic subjects alike.
The degree of intensity that the psychotic subjects
gave the various slides presented interesting material for
thought.
Certain slides actually acted as a trigger for an
emotional catharsis.
The catharsis seemed to start from
the perceived emotional state of the subject in the slide
and would "explode" from there.
An example is Slide 5
where a person is shown on hands and knees with head down
and one clenched fist lifted above the head.
When this
slide was shown to subject 10 of group 1, she reacted by
throwing herself on the floor and pounding it with her
fists.
This would be considered a seemingly intense
reaction, yet when this same subject marked the inventory,
. it was noted that she marked it "C" -- little or no
observed intensity.
On another occasion, a subject again
, reacted by actually putting his own body in a posture like
the observed slide and then marking the inventory "A"
high intensity.
41
In terms of further research, it would be interesting
, to investigate what about the slides themselves caused the
similar response in the psychotic as well as the nonpsychotic.
It would also be interesting to take the
observation from a simple visual level and put it in a
situation where the subject would be asked to mold his own
body into the observed posture in an effort to see whether
or not more intensity would be felt.
It could be expected
that with more body involvement would come a higher
probability of body empathy.
~n
this researcher's opinion, this study supports the
findings of many other researchers:
namely, that the most
successful therapies are likely to be those that recognize
the indivisibility of mind and body.
It is also this
researcher's opinion that future research may indicate that
most aspects of an individual's behavior are influenced by
the ways in whi.ch he/she has learned to deal with his/her
body as a psychological object.
Therefore, much of therapy
may then be aimed at learning new ways of dealing with the
body.
42
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46
I
I
APPENDICES
I
47
Appendix A
BODY POSTURE SLIDES 1-10
IN PRINT FOR.M
______ / .
\
J
Slide 1
49
\
.,
I
'.
•;
1
'
/I
I
I
Slide 2
50
Slide 3
51
-;..\
,I
../ 'I .
Slide 4
52
Slide 5
53
I·( /
.
I
6 -
l
~--~ ·
! '
Slide 6
54
j
,)
j ·
I .
I
Slide 7
55
.~
\
. :.;.:;.--
~.
\
Slide 8
56
I
(
I
\
Slide 9
57
.
/
(
.1
f
..
·'
}
~' -..-•
\
(
'
....
Slide 10
~
·~
58
Appendix B
SLIDE INTENSITY INVENTORY
i
!
l------------------~-----------------------------------------------: ___________ 1
----,-,---
---
59
SLIDE INTENSITY INVENTORY
[Instruction:
Pleas~
rate each slide on the basis of the
subject's intensity of feeling.
A rating
of A says the subject is feeling very
intensely,
~
says that the subject is feeling
with moderate intensity, and C is little or
no intensity of feeling.
Slide
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Rating