[Assumption of projective reduplication in psychosomatic patients. I. Results of an empirical study].

The starting position of this study was the striking discrepancy between clinical hypothesis on "projective reduplication" and their empirical validation. Empirical data for the statistical analysis derived from a heterogeneous group of psychosomatically ill persons (N = 33) and a group of normal controls (N = 30). Using the similarity of the image of one's self and the one of others as an experimental analogy of the "projective reduplication", we could not ascertain any verifying hint for this syndrome. The results of the present study do not support the assumption of a clinical phenomenon according to the hypotheses tested. But it still remains uncertain whether these hypotheses are appropriate transformations of clinical experience.