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October 31, 1950. THUS SPEAKS THE BODY, ANALYTIC POSTUROLOGY. Felix Deutsch, M.D.
Over a period of seven years Dr. Deutsch has studied the postural behavior of patients in analysis as a research problem in the origin and development of motility. Whatever happens in one part of the body is reflected in the body as a whole and is integrated into the function of the whole organism. The
amount of physiological discharge corresponds to the amount of undischarged emotion. Analysis provides a particularly favorable experimental setting for examining such physiological expressions, and such splitting into individual components of behavior. Studies of posture are useful also in evaluating therapy and in affording clues to prognosis. The method of recording postures is described, daily records being summarized in a final 'posturogram'.
Each patient has a characteristic basic posture typical for him. Immobility in compulsives represents a defensive attitude of the ego against instinctual impulses. Postures change with the shift of the psychodynamic situation. Where the ego is unable to control instinctual impulses, there is considerable variability in posture during the analysis. Thus, the postural behavior of paranoids and individuals with homosexual panic is disorganized. Ego function can be considered effective when it succeeds in maintaining an equilibrium in postural behavior, when there is coördination and synchronization. Complications arise when there are motivations of different orders. Multiple motivations result in postural configurations consisting of a combination of differently determined postures of single parts. Examples of clinical syndromes and their postural correlates are given.
Dr. Edith Jacobson asked if certain types of patients were more apt to express their conflicts posturally than others, and if so, which ones. Dr. I. Peter Glauber drew parallels between postural behavior and the form (in distinction to the content) of speech in neurot