Body image and mental representation of body organs in patients with hematological
ma-lignancies and cancer: A study with the body grid
Cora Weber, A. Bronner, Frank Schoeneich, Otto Walter, Burghard F. Klapp
Dept. of Psychosomatic Medicine, Charité Campus, Virchow-Klinikum,
Berlin (Germany)
Abstract
55 patients with leukemia, malignant lymphoma and cancer (27 men, 28
women, mean age 46) were investigated with the Body Grid (Repertory Grid
Technique). Based on the constructs elic-ited six construct categories
were formulated (emotion, structure and autonomy, activity, power, function,
outward appearance) the constructs then were assigned to. The patients
mainly demon-strate a one-dimensional sight of their body (principal component
analysis). They mainly use con-structs focussing on the functional aspect
of their body and on aspects of strength and power. At the same time and
in contrast to our expectations the patients also choose constructs expressing
emotions and fear of death reflecting the existential threat of the disease.
Further studies applying the proposed system of construct categories should
be enrolled to find out to which extent they are similar or differ in other
groups of individuals.
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