Meetings of the Psychoanalytic Association of New York

June 5, 1957. PERSONALITY AND PERCEPTION. Herman A. Witkin, Ph.D. and Helen B. Lewis, Ph.D.

An inquiry is made into the subjective and objective nature of the relation between the ego and the environment. The sense of the location of the body

with reference to the vertical and horizontal axes in space is based upon two kinds of determinants: first, the gravitational pull which apprehends the true upright position; second, the apperception of the body in relation to the surrounding visual field. Special situations were devised in which these determinants were separated. Some persons, at one extreme, succeed very well in maintaining the separateness of body from field and are able to bring the body to the upright position. Others require that the body be more or less aligned with the tilted field to perceive the body as upright: strong sensations of body tilt are 'unfelt', the body seems to 'fuse' with the field. The latter are designated as 'field-dependent'. In general, most subjects fall between the two extremes, but in all, one mode of perceiving or the other has remained a stable characteristic over a period of years. Women are more 'field-dependent' than men (less aware of sensations from within). 'Field-dependent' perceivers tend to have less well-developed egos: lack of self-esteem, impulsiveness, passivity. 'Field-independent' perceivers tend to have better-defined and more adequate egos. Performance in these perceptual situations reflects the subjects' characteristic 'life style'. These tendencies are correlated with fundamental differences in development. A variety of evidence suggests that children who remain in a more 'field-dependent' way of perceiving (primitive form of perception) have made less progress toward self-differentiation and function at a lower intellectual level. One of the influences contributing to the generally lower level of differentiation among 'field-dependent' children is a mother-child relationship which is chara