The rorschach search for the borderline Holy Grail: an examination of personality structure, personality style, and situation

Much of the research on the use of the Rorschach to diagnose borderline disturbance has sought to discover a specific borderline pattern or Rorschach configuration. Given our increased understanding of borderline functioning representing a level of personality organization (or personality structure), this single pattern approach is excessively simplistic. It fails to consider the complex interaction between personality structure, personality style, and situational variables. An approach to the Rorschach assessment of borderline functioning is presented using a clinical example. The patient was tested at the onset of psychotherapy and then some 4 years into treatment. Results from the two testings were compared using Weiner and Exner's (1991) Rorschach variable clusters for assessing change in psychotherapy.     

A theoretical explanation of the dissociative reaction and a confirmatory case presentation.

A theoretical explanation for the classical distinction between the conversion and dissociative hysterias was advanced based on previous research with cases of conversion hysteria and multiple personality. The principles were illustrated and extended using Rorschach and Hand Test data from a fugue state.     

Identification and Ego Defensiveness in Thematic Apperception

A theoretical explanation for the classical distinction between the conversion and dissociative hysterias was advanced based on previous research with cases of conversion hysteria and multiple personality. The principles were illustrated and extended using Rorschach and Hand Test data from a fugue state.     

An Outcome Study: Changes in Rorschach Variables of Adolescents in Residential Treatment

Admission Rorschach variables were compared to 2-year reevaluation responses of adolescents (n = 50) in residential treatment using Weiner and Exner's (1991) 27 structural variables. Fifty adolescents who had previously failed to improve in outpatient treatment and multiple hospitalizations were subsequently placed in residential treatment. Following 2 years of residential treatment, they showed positive personality changes as indicated by a reduction in Rorschach indices of impaired functioning. Positive treatment changes in interpersonal awareness were discussed utilizing a social identification index formulated for this population. Results indicate the utility of the Rorschach test-retest method of assessing treatment outcome.     

A Rorschach Study of Narcissism Defense,and Aggression in Borderline,Narcissistic, and Cluster C Personality Disorders

We examined the differences between narcissism, mode of defense, and level of aggression on the Rorschach. We also investigated differences in borderline, narcissistic, and Cluster C personality disorders by examining responses to Rorschach content variables. The Lerner Defense Scale (P. Lerner & H. Lerner, 1980), the aggressive content section of the Holt (1977) method for assessing primary process manifestations, a modified version of Exner's (1986a) Egocentricity Index, Wagner's (1965) exhibitionistic M score, and grandiosity were scored on the Rorschach protocols of 17 borderline, I7 narcissistic, and 17 Cluster C personality disorders. Borderlines were found to employ primitive defensive structures to a greater degree and severity, show more intense and overall aggression as welt as more responses on the three forms of aggression in the Holt method, and have higher levels of grandiosity. Narcissists evinced significantly higher levels of egocentricity than borderlines and higher levels of idealization than the Cluster C group. Convergent validity was found on the measures of defense and aggression, which showed a strong relationship between primitive aggression and primitive defense.     

Psychodiagnosis of personality structure: psychotic personality organization.

Recent developments in Rorschach psychology, including nomothetic approaches focused on scores, ratios, and indices and idiographic approaches focused on content emerging from psychoanalytic theory, offer the Rorschach clinician a rich and potent interpretive methodology. This article examines the structural diagnosis of personality organization with a focus on psychotic personality structure. Rorschach approaches to the differential diagnosis of psychotic personality organization are presented. The Rorschach is viewed as indispensible in the differential diagnosis of personality organization, especially in the so-called "borderline" cases.     

A Rorschach Study of Personality Development In Identical and Fraternal Twins

To determine whether identical twins show greater resemblances in their general personality make-up than fraternals, seven pairs of identical and eight pairs of fraternal twins were studied using the Rorschach Inkblot test. The results of the inter-twin correlations, on the various Rorschach categories indicated clearly striking similarity or resemblance in identical twins, but no similarity in the case of fraternal twins. This study also clearly demonstrated the usefulness of the Rorschach technique for the study of personality.     

Rorschach records of Nazi war criminals: a reanalysis using current scoring and interpretation practices

The Nuremberg trials focused worldwide attention on 22 Nazi war criminals. Rorschach Inkblot tests were administered to these Nazi leaders in an attempt to understand the Nazi personality. Past studies which have described and interpreted these Rorschach records have made at least two types of errors in their analyses. One is that of overinterpretation and excessive inference. A second common error has been the failure to detect meaningful distinctions between protocols that represent significant differences in personality style. This latter error is shown in repeated attempts to group all Nazi protocols into one distinct "Nazi personality." This investigation attempted to quantify the analysis of these Nazi Rorschach records, specifically those Nazi leaders who were sentenced to life imprisonment or execution for their war crimes against humanity, by utilizing Exner's (1985a) standardized Comprehensive Scoring System as well as computerized objective interpretation software based on the Exner system (1986). This modern analysis of the Rorschach records demonstrates that the Nazi war criminals cannot be grouped together into one specific mental disorder that would adequately characterize these diverse individuals. The varying degrees of psychopathology of the Nazi leaders are illustrated by analyses of individual Rorschach protocols.     

Depression,Alexithymia, and Pain Prone Disorder: A Rorschach Study

The relationship between depression and chronic low back pain (LBP) is controversial. Theorists differ in the emphasis they place on predisposing versus reactive factors in LBP disability and depression. Alexithymia has been suggested as a predisposing factor in psychosomatic disorders, including chronic LBP. This study addresses the association between depression, alexithymia, and LBP using the Rorschach comprehensive system. LBP patients were hypothesized to be distinguishable from Research Diagnostic Criteria-diagnosed inpatient depressives, to exhibit features of alexithymia, and to resemble a group of DSM-III personality disorders. Subjects were 33 chronic LBP patients. Results supported the hypotheses. On depression measures, LBP patients differed significantly from depressives (p < .001). LBP patients exhibited Rorschach features consistent with alexithymia. They also exhibited a number of similarities to the personality disorders group. The role of alexithymia as a cognitive-mediating factor in coping and adaptation is discussed.     

Relationships among Eysenck's extraversion, Rorschach's Erlebnistypus, and tolerance of experimental tonic pain (Cold Water Pressor Test)

In a group of 42 healthy volunteers the correlations between the concept of Extraversion-Introversion as defined by Eysenck and Erlebnistypus as defined by Rorschach were analysed to relate these with the tolerance of an experimentally induced tonic pain. We conducted an experimental procedure comprising a test and retest. At test the subjects were administered the Rorschach, the Eysenck Personality Inventory, the Cold Water Pressor Test, a nongraduated Visual Analogue Scale, and the Italian version of the McGill Pain Questionnaire. At retest the experimental induction of pain was measured again. At test subjects who scored higher on the EPI Extraversion scale tolerated pain longer and did not modify their performance at retest. Also, the concepts of Extroversion defined by the Rorschach test and by the Extraversion scale of the Eysenck Personality Inventory shared some psychophysiological features of higher tolerance to pain. These personality features did not influence how subjects qualitatively describe the immediate painful experience.     

Depression, alexithymia, and pain prone disorder: a Rorschach study

The relationship between depression and chronic low back pain (LBP) is controversial. Theorists differ in the emphasis they place on predisposing versus reactive factors in LBP disability and depression. Alexithymia has been suggested as a predisposing factor in psychosomatic disorders, including chronic LBP. This study addresses the association between depression, alexithymia, and LBP using the Rorschach comprehensive system. LBP patients were hypothesized to be distinguishable from Research Diagnostic Criteria-diagnosed inpatient depressives, to exhibit features of alexithymia, and to resemble a group of DSM-III personality disorders. Subjects were 33 chronic LBP patients. Results supported the hypotheses. On depression measures, LBP patients differed significantly from depressives (p less than .001). LBP patients exhibited Rorschach features consistent with alexithymia. They also exhibited a number of similarities to the personality disorders group. The role of alexithymia as a cognitive-mediating factor in coping and adaptation is discussed.     

The Rorschach in the context of performance-based personality assessment

In this article, I draw on literature concerning the current status of the Rorschach Inkblot Method (Exner, 2002), performance-based personality measurement, direct versus indirect personality assessment, and dual-process models to suggest a reconceptualization of the Rorschach. The goal is to offer an updated conceptual framework for thinking about the Rorschach that can potentially be used both to enhance the image of the method and to provide direction for future research on the validity of specific Rorschach scores.     

Coping Style of Psychiatric Patients with Somatic Complaints

To investigate the impression that personality traits found to be characteristic of somatizing patients are related to the more basic personality dimension of “passive-coping style,” 17 matched pairs (one patient who presented himself with somatic complaints, and the other with psychological complaints), were administered the Rorschach Test during the process of intake. Rorschach variables found to correspond with coping style in prior studies, were used for evaluating the Rorschach records of the Ss. Statistical comparisons between the total coping scores of the somatizing and non-somatizing patients supported the initial hypothesis that the somatizers scored significantly lower on the variables of active coping. Tentative explanations for these findings were presented in the discussion.     

Prediction of differences in Rorschach protocols from the Personality Assessment System

The Personality Assessment System (PAS) is derived from certain subtest scores on any Wechsler test by rather simple calculations. It purports to measure, among other personality attributes, developmental changes in the Internalized-Externalized (I-E) dimension of personality, which is akin to the Introversion-Extroversion construct reflected by some Rorschach measures. PAS scores from a tightly defined sample of normal adults were contrasted with Experience Balance (EB) and Body-image (B) scores derived from Rorschach protocols by "blind" scorers. Significant relations were found between EB ratios produced via the Exner and Klopfer scoring systems and the primitive (early childhood) I-E scores from the PAS. The B scores produced by the Body Image scoring system were related to the basic (adolescent) I-E PAS scores. Although significant, the PAS-Rorschach correlations were relatively poor, in part because it was difficult to define the center of the internalization-externalization continuum in terms of the Rorschach protocols. It is, nevertheless, provocative that traditional scorings of the Rorschach responses of adults assess differences not only in this personality trait, but also in its development, as determined from scaled scores on Wechsler subtests.     

Schizophrenic, depressive, and nonpatient personality organizations described by Rorschach factor structures

Rorschachs of 155 schizophrenics, 102 depressives, and 186 nonpatients were collected and scored using the Comprehensive System. Twenty-seven Rorschach variables considered central to interpretation were selected for study. Factor analyses and partial correlations controlling for number of responses, R, were generated in order to investigate the personality organization of each of the three groups. A three factor solution was found to be optimal for each group. Patterns of personality organization were discussed within the three groups and factor structures were compared and contrasted. While similarities occur between the three groups, each group also manifests a unique personality organization. These findings support the hypothesis that schizophrenics and depressives differ from nonpatients in kind, rather than degree of disorder.     

The Response of African Americans to the Rorschach: A Review of the Research

Studies exploring the performance of African Americans on the Rorschach were reviewed. The review revealed the limited number of studies done in this area of study, as well as the fact that the research paradigm for all of this research has been limited to comparing the Rorschach performance of African Americans to that of Whites. However, no one has offered a rationale for such a research paradigm. Without a scientific reason to expect personality to be a function of race, another research design was recommended, one that explores the effect of a variety of aspects of living conditions on the development of the personality of African Americans.     

Rorschach aggression variables: a study of reliability and validity

This study investigated the extent to which 6 Rorschach variables of aggression (A1, A2, AG, MOR, AgC, AgPast) are related to one another, to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed. [DSM-IV]; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) Cluster B personality disorder criteria, and to self-report measures of anger, aggression, and antisocial behavior. Seventy-eight patients were found to meet DSM-IV criteria for an Axis II disorder, Cluster A personality disorder (paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal) = 9, Cluster B (antisocial personality disorder [ANPD] = 16, borderline personality disorder [BPD] = 23, histrionic personality disorder = 5, narcissistic personality disorder = 12) = 56, and Cluster C personality disorder (avoidant, dependent, obsessive-compulsive) = 13. The results of this study indicated that (a) these 6 Rorschach aggression variables can be scored reliably; (b) 2 factors, revealed by factor analysis, accounted for 77% of the total variance; (c) selected variables were found to be empirically related to DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for ANPD and BPD; and (d) selected variables were found to be empirically related to a self-report measure of anger and antisocial practices. The conceptual nature and clinical utility of these Rorschach aggression variables as well as implications for future research are discussed.     

The future of Rorschach in personality assessment

This article considers the Rorschach and its prospects for the next century in the context of two broad issues in psychology, as well as some test specific challenges confronting those interested in the Rorschach and its applications. The broad issues are the matters of personality as a topic of study in psychology, and the relation of findings about personality to treatment planning. The specific issues concern the definition of the Rorschach, research about the test stimuli, and the expansion of information concerning the interpretive usefulness of some structural variables that are poorly conceptualized or for which interpretation may be overly generalized. Some recommendations concerning collaborative research efforts are also offered.