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Felix Deutsch states that whatever happens in one part of the organism is reflected in the whole and motivates the function of the whole. The stimulus is variable at the threshold and this variability determines the variation encountered
between stimulus and response. He distinguishes between visible and invisible stimuli. According to the 'law of the psychosomatic unit' the invisible bodily behavior is integrated into the psychosomatic pattern just as is the visible one. These patterns are formed as the result of experiences during the individual's psychological and biological development and are part of the personality profile characteristic of psychosomatic skin disorders. Deutsch illustrates with a patient in analysis. He discusses the use of certain photoelectric and mechanical plethysmographic recordings on the finger tips of both hands which show that a physical as well as an emotional stimulus applied on either side of the surface of the body evokes a symmetromimetic reaction in the rest of the body. Case data are given in which both psychoanalytic and plethysmographic observations are made to substantiate this thesis.