Prejudiced patients somatize distress and blame external events unlike unprejudiced ones

Evidence

Most of the coding categories were similar to categories used in other parts of the study. For example, prejudiced subjects were expected to be anti-intraceptive and extrapunitive. Several categories adapt traits of ordinary authoritarians to the special case of psychiatric patients. Prejudiced subjects were expected chiefly to complain of somatic or physical ailments such as dizziness, tremor, fast heartbeat, and the like, while unprejudiced subjects were expected to complain of such psychological ailments as anxiety, conflict, and depression. In addition, prejudiced subjects were expected to blame their troubles on particular unlucky external events—an illness, a divorce, a death. Unprejudiced subjects would be more likely to see their symptoms as having been present in milder form for years, possibly since childhood. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 522 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Among the prejudiced subjects, even those who were patients at the Langley-Porter Psychiatric Clinic resisted psychological interpretations. In their initial interviews they stressed their somatic or physical symptoms—dizziness, tremor, fainting, breathlessness. As causes they favored particular external events—a death, an illness, a shock. They sometimes spoke of psychological illness as if it were a breakdown of a machine; as if some “part”—the nerves or the mind—had given way under external stress. Because the prejudiced man’s psychic equilibrium is founded heavily on repression one would expect him to avoid introspection and psychological inquiries. And so anti-intraceptiveness fits in with the total construction. The unprejudiced subjects tended to construe human life much in the manner of modern psychology. A man is his own fate. Very much of what happens to him is a consequence of his character. For those of us who have become addicted to psychological inquiry there seems to be a dimension missing from the prejudiced person; he lives his life but does not examine it. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 565 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Both prejudiced and unprejudiced personalities pay a psychological price under poor conditions. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1834; Injuries become grievances only when the injured party perceives blame. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2173; Prejudiced personalities somatize distress while tolerant ones psychologize it — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 522 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Prejudiced personalities somatize distress while tolerant ones psychologize it #corroborates (0.95) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 522
• Prejudiced people frame psychological distress as somatic, mechanical breakdown. #expands (0.92) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 565