Visceral Perception and Symptom Report An Epilogue

Abstract

In the Preface I stated that when considering the cognitive aspects of visceroception, I stand somewhere halfway between “pure experimental” and “ecological” sensory physiology and psychology. This reflects my early acceptance of the fact that in addition to the physiologically rooted viscerosensory trend, represented by the present volume, a second, rather cognitive tendency has emerged, rooted in ecological and social psychology. The representative contemporary author of this novel direction, James W. Pennebaker (1982, 1985, 1995), has stated: “visceral perception does not occur in vacuo” (1985, p. 155). By this he meant that all individuals perceive and report physical symptoms and that these symptoms are always subject to distortions in each stage of perception. The distortions caused by already existing, stored sets, expectations and brain schemes will modify the “pure” percepts. This is why the researcher is steadily confronted with the dilemma: “laboratory” or “field” research in visceroception? In the Preface I asserted my “half-and-half” opinion. In the preceding chapters I tried to argue in favor of my point of view.