Poster summaries THE TONGUE EVER TURNS TO THE ACHING TOOTH: A PILOT STUDY OF

Excessive self-preoccupation is indicated in various theoretical models as a core characteristic of depression. Research that measures self-preoccu-pation by examining natural language suggests that dysphoric and depressed persons spontaneously use many more self-references than do nondysphoric or nondepressed persons (see, e.g., Bucci and Freedman 1981; Rude, Gortner, and Pennebaker 2004). From a Freudian point of view, self-preoccupation can be understood as a narcissistic turn inward due to the withdrawal of libido from others (Freud 1917). According to Blatt’s theory of depression (1998), excessive self-focus can be seen as characteristic of introjective depression. Self-preoccupation is often measured lexically, by counting the num-ber of self-references on free-response tests. However, lexical analyses that examine how self-preoccupation is related to other themes expressed in natural language are scarce. This type of research is relevant, as it would indicate whether self-preoccupation is connected with othe