You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Somatic manifestations shift from one location to another. Although these pathways are frequently peculiar to the individual, they seem to fall into three well-defined classes. 1. The well-known hysterical displacement (for example that 'from below upwards'), in which the symbolic significance of the parts involved is the principal determinant. 2. Displacements in which physiological events are predominant; for example, in which muscular tension is eliminated by autonomic discharge. 3. Displacements from the center to the periphery, and from the periphery to the center, along three axes of displacement: the head and the body, the interior of the body and the body surface, and secretion in skin and other nonvoluntary organs in reciprocal relation to muscular activity. Kepec's article is important because it demonstrates patterns of shift in somatic expression and presents clinical examples. This abstracter, however, believes that to describe all the phenomena as 'displacement' is misleading. Kepecs states that physiological as well as psychological forces are important in the shifts from the center to the periphery and from the periphery to the center. He believes that the shifts have a directional function; for example, by the shift from the body to the head, feelings and ideas come closer to consciousness and to volitional activity. His topographic and economic interpretations need more proof.