Obese Israelis and controls were administered the Rorschach, TAT, and a level-of-aspiration task. The obese Ss scored higher on oral dependence than the control Ss on both the Rorschach (p=.01) and TAT (p=.02). There were no differences on either test for oral sadism, although the Rorschach subcategories of overwhelming figures and burdens and TAT themes of deprivation discriminated significantly between the groups. The most sensitive oral dependence subcategories were nurturers, supplicants and food organs (Rorschach), and themes of passivity, optimism, and helplessness (TAT). When only those Ss who scored above or below the median on both tests were considered, predictions regarding obesity were 90% accurate. Contrary to expectation, the obese Ss set level-of-aspiration goals more realistically than the controls.

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Stephen A. Mitchell's theoretical writings are examined, with particular emphasis on his differences with drive theory, the consequences of his recommendation for greater involvement by the analyst, his (naive) trust in psychoanalytic self-correction, and the problems that follow from his belief that empirical data have little to contribute to psychoanalysis.Stephen A. Mitchell died unexpectedly on December 21, 2000, at the age of 54. It was a tragic loss because he was already one of the most influential and articulate leaders in psychoanalysis and he had a great deal more to contribute. His book with Greenberg Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory (Greenberg & Mitchell, 1983) sold 44,000 copies in the English edition alone (Spezzano, 2001, p. 10) and was instrumental in catapulting object relations theories into a leading place in American psychoanalysis. It was followed by Relational Concepts in Psychoanalysis (Mitchell, 1988), Hope and Dread in Psychoanalysis (Mitchell, 1993), and Influence and Autonomy in Psychoanalysis (Mitchell, 1997).His obituary notices described a man of enormous enthusiasm, discipline, and intelligence, whose caring and warmth attracted huge numbers of students and followers, making him "the most sought after teacher at NYU and at White, a mentor beyond parallel" (Ghent, 2001, p. 7). A founder of the relational school in psychoanalysis, he was a thoughtful (and persistent) critic of the psychoanalytic drive model. In contrast to a good deal of psychoanalytic writing, so often turgid, tedious, and impenetrable, Mitchell's prose is so well written it looks effortless. Friends and critics alike would have to agree that few have had such powerful influence on contemporary psychoanalysis.I am indebted to a number of colleagues for their counsel in the preparation of this essay. Drs.

Eighty undergraduates were asked to solve a series of difficult puzzles, with the instructions that they could ask for help as often as necessary. Half the subjects had an experimenter of the same sex and half of the opposite sex. The subjects were categorized as high or low dependent based on the percentage of oral dependent responses they gave on the Rorschach test. The results indicated that while the male subjects generally performed as predicted (with high oral dependent males asking for help more than low oral dependent males), the opposite results were obtained for females. Additional analyses suggested that what has been called oral dependence consists of at least two factors that relate in different ways to other variables.

Psychoanalytic theory suggests that people with oral characteristics should be dependent on others and should develop skills in predicting the responses of others. Using previously unacquainted students, the experimenters found that males who reported many oral images were better than low-oral males at predicting male personality test responses. Orality was unrelated to accurate perception by males of females or to accuracy of females' interpersonal perception. To corroborate this finding, Peace Corps trainees, previously well acquainted, were studied. Results were identical: Orality was significantly related to accurate interpersonal perception for males predicting males but only in that case. An independent assessment of fitness for Peace Corps work was positively related to both oral imagery and accurate interpersonal perception.The personality characteristics of accurate judges. These results were explained on the perceivers of others are not well understood. Because of the methodological problems involved in obtaining measures of accuracy of perceiving others (Cronbach, 1955;Shrauger & Altrocchi, 1964), the question has not been widely investigated. It is known that an important influence in shaping perceptions of others is "the manner in which the perceiver structures his interpersonal world fDornbusch, Hastorf, Richardson, Muzzy, & Vreeland, 1965, p. 440]." Psychoanalytic typology provides one model for the way in which perceivers structure their perceptual world. Gordon (1966Gordon ( , 1967, using a task that avoided many of the pitfalls described by Cronbach and Shrauger and Altrocchi had graduate students in clinical psychology evaluate a sample projective protocol. She found that judges scoring low on a penciland-paper test of anality showed more confidence in their ratings, saw the test subject as having fewer healthy aspects, and reported him to be less likable than did high-anal