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“Regulatory Mechanisms of the Perceptual Apparatus on Involuntary Physiological Actions”
T. L. Dorpat, M.D.
Seattle, Washington
February 14, 1966 Meeting
Psychological processes mediated by the perceptual system control the central nervous system pathways of those somatic reflexes that have central sensory connections. Regulatory mechanisms of the perceptual apparatus on these involuntary physiological actions are first described and then explained with a psychoanalytic theory. The positive hallucinatory sensation regulatory mechanism involves the initiation of involuntary motor and secretory actions by somatic hallucinatory sensations. Several investigations showed that somatic hallucinatory sensations brought about involuntary motor and secretory actions in conversion symptoms. Hallucinatory somatic sensations preceded motor and secretory actions occurring during states of instinctual drive arousal. At times of erotic excitement hallucinatory genital sensations led to erections. In thirsty subjects hallucinatory taste sensations led to salivary secretion.
The fact that the involuntary physiological actions did not occur without prior hallucinatory sensations led to the conclusion that the physiological actions were caused by the hallucinatory sensations. They were termed somatic hallucinatory sensations because they occurred in the absence of any peripheral stimulation. The psychoanalytic theory advanced to explain this regulatory mechanism is as follows: In the absence of a stimulating object, the drive for sensory stimulation with the object revives memories of previous sensory stimulation in the form of hallucinatory sensations. The hallucinatory sensation causes the involuntary physiological action. The theory advanced is identical with Freud's theory of the primary process and of dream formation. The only addition to Freud's theory is that the somatic hallucinatory sensations have a regulatory effect upon physiological actions. The functioning of the primary proce