Five selected TAT cards were presented to matched groups of ulcer and colitis patients and control subjects. The protocols, devoid of medical clues,

were correctly classified beyond chance by a single author conversant with classical psychosomatic literature. Then the protocols, scored for six 'need' parameters, significantly differentiated the patients from the control subjects but not one disease entity from another. The most potent technique, performed by four independent judges, was an analysis of manifest content and stylistic aspects of communication. This latter technique seems to deserve further utilization in objectifying psychosomatic and perhaps psychoanalytic research.