Abstract

The working hypothesis is that athletic activity should have an influence on - attenuating them - some of the psychoneurotic personality traits of paraplegics. A psychological survey was made of two groups, athletic and nonathletic parplegics, using the Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire. An analysis of the results and a comparison with the findings of Colucci and Coll. with a group of normal students and those of E. Baldo and Coll. with a group of normal athletes has revealed that sport-therapy, in whatever was it is practiced, does attenuate the psychoneurotic personality traits in a rehabilitated paraplegic concerning Anxiety, Phobia, Obsession, Somatization and Depression without any influence on Hysteria. In regard to the slight attenuation of Obsession, it is probable that this reflects the continuation, on an unconscious level, of some conflict, somehow connected to being an invalid whith not even constant athletic activity, even competitive, can attenuate. Verf.-Referat