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Clinical observations forming the basis of the present study have been collected in the course of years. While acknowledging the merits of recent publications on the subject, the writer wishes to point out that he arrived at his conclusions independently from other investigators.
As can be easily surmised by any reader familiar with the subject, it is the contention of this study that in a group of cases obesity is a somatic manifestation of a personality disturbance. To be more specific, the writer will attempt to show that in his observation obesity is an expression and a result of autoplastic processes dominated and regulated by unconscious motivations. These processes became possible of materialization, since they succeeded in securing the services of preformed biological and chemico-physical mechanisms.
According to this general thesis the presentation will contain three distinct parts. The first will point out some philosophical premises and implications, the second and main part will present the clinical observations, the third part will indicate some of the underlying biological mechanisms.
As a motto I would like to quote Walt Whitman:
Behold, the body includes and is the meaning, the main concern and includes and is the soul; (14)
When we look for philosophical premises for our investigation, we are inevitably attracted by Aristotle. He taught that the soul is the form of the body. The essential feature of the soul, in virtue