A Somatic Psycho-diagnostic Approach to Personality Disorders: An Understanding of Personality through Spatial Orientation

This dissertation explores how the body?s movement in spatial orientation may play an influential role in the dis-ordering tendencies of personality. The somatic psychodiagnostic approach to personality presented in this dissertation advances the case for a more rigorous examination of the body/psyche dynamic in the formation, assessment, and treatment of personality issues. The hypothesis of this study is that stimulation of the motor/sensory system in movements through various spatial planes substantially impacts perceptions of self, others, and the world. These perceptions form the basis of the evolving personality. Rather than viewing personality as a set of fixed traits, personality is viewed as a state of consciousness on a continuum of adaptations to self, others, and the world. Research findings of this study with 70 research participants indicate that fixations in movement correlate with fixations in personality. In this schema a causal comparative relation between 12 fixated spatial orientations and 12 clinically recognized personality disorders is demonstrated in matrix, tabular, and textual formats.

William Bento, Ph.D. is the Associate Academic Dean at Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks, California. He currently has his private practice at the Center for Living Health in Gold River, California. He has been pioneering an approach to psychology based on Rudolf Steiner's indications of the essential nature of soul wisdom, Psychosophy.