Autokinesis and character style: A clinical-experimental study

Abstract

THIS paper reports the results of a study which repeats and expands an earlier one1 which demonstrated a relationship between character style and autokinesis, the experiencing of motion of a stationary pinpoint of light in a totally dark room. In the present paper we discuss in more detail the logical links between the concept of ego-closeness-ego-distance and character style, and present factor analytic data in support of these postulations. The term ego-closeness-ego-distance is a semantic convenience for capturing what we believe is a central personality dimension. This dimension is conceived of as a continuum reflecting quite opposite kinds of personality organization at the extremes and with intermediate forms of organization in the midrange. Ego-closeness refers to a relatively unwavering investment of attention in the immediate stimulus field and a concomitantly greater receptiveness to, need for, and acceptance of external stimuli. Values and interests generally are formed more in terms of ongoing social realities and environmental circumstances. Ego-distance implies a greater capacity to detach attention from external circumstances, less dependence upon external stimuli, greater accessibility to subjective experience, resulting in a more isolated, autonomous position of self in relation to the external world. With the ego-close-ego-distant concept in mind, it follows by definition that persons organized in such a way as to be ‘close’ to their environment will be more open and vulnerable to environmental stimuli. Openness to external stimuli means in the first place that the apparatuses of perception and consciousness are sufficiently invested with attention so as to permit the registration of external stimuli in the psychic apparatus and in awareness.8 Persons whose attention is more exclusively and continuously deployed on to the external