Patients with neurodermatitis or rheumatoid arthritis conceive of their bodies as surrounded and protected by a sheath, whereas patients with interior symptoms, such as spastic colitis, picture their body surfaces as easily penetrated. These findings were demonstrated by two body-image indices on the Rorschach. The 'barrier' score is the total of responses that involve sheathing or protective value of the surface of a given percept, for example, a turtle with a shell. The second index, the 'penetration' score, is a count of all responses referring to the concept of penetration through a surface, for example, a bullet entering the flesh. Fifty-nine patients with exterior cancer and thirty patients with interior cancer were tested; those with exterior symptoms scored significantly higher on the barrier index than did patients with interior symptoms, and patients with interior symptoms scored higher on the penetration index. By means of a control group it was shown that the body-image indices do not merely result from the pain and other sensations associated with cancer.