Body image aberration and orality

Psychoanalytic theory and previous research on oral dependence both suggest that orality is associated with the development of weak, unstable body ego. The present study describes two separate experiments that examine this hypothesis. In the first, level of orality was found to be positively related to reported body image aberration among normal male college students (r = .52) but not among females (r = .06). Study II replicated these findings in a sample of psychiatric inpatients; orality was again related to body image aberration in males (r = .44) but not in females (r = .03). As expected, subjects in the clinical sample reported greater body image aberration overall than did subjects in the college student sample. These results and their implications are discussed in the context of past research on oral dependency, as well as findings that suggest that both body image aberration and orality may be associated with risk for schizophrenia and other psychological disorders.