AbstractsMedical & Health Science

The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes in indices of withdrawal on the Rorschach tests of hospitalized schizophrenic patients. This involved examining them when they were acutely ill and again when they were judged to be clinically improved. Two major assumptions underlie the plan of this study. The first is that the behavior and symptoms shown by the acutely ill schizophrenic patient reflects his withdrawal in three areas: interpersonal relations, the world, and the expression and control of emotion. The second assumption is that the Rorschach test has satisfactory indices for these three areas and that these indices are sensitive to changes within individuals. The concept of withdrawal as occurring in three areas is derived from different emphases in three psychiatric schools. Withdrawal from people is emphasized by the Sullivan group. Withdrawal from the environment is emphasized in the views of Meyer and Campbell. Withdrawal of and from emotion is emphasized by the Freudian school which relates this activity with centering libidinal energy on the self. One unstructured projective test which reveals the subject's attitudes and feelings toward others, his perception of the world, and the manner in which he handles his emotions is the Rorschach test. The patient's attitudes and feelings are communicated indirectly through his responses to the Rorsehach cards. In order to use this test to study the changes in withdrawal, clusters of Rorschach scores meaningfully associated with the three withdrawal areas were first isolated. Ten Rorschach indices were chosen and organized into constellations according to present theory and clinical practice. The scores reflecting the empathy, rapport, and feeling toward others experienced by the subject, and hence interpersonal relations, are the Movement and Human responses (M and H) patterned out according to their quality and with regard to the locations in which they appear, and the ratio of form-color responses to the sum of color-form and pure color responses ( FC : CF ≠ C ). The patient's perception of the world is reflected in four sets of Rorschach indices: an index of the perception of reality ( F≠% ), an index of conformity with the thinking of the group (the number of Popular responses), evidence that the world is a source of fear and danger (responses with destructive and tension-laden Content), and distortion in distance maintained by the individual between himself and the world (Rejections-Denials-Self-references). The expression and control of emotion are reflected in four sets of Rorschach indices: the ratio of intellectually determined responses to the total number of responses ( F% ), the index of the affective energy available for response to external stimuli ( 8-9-10% ), the index of emotional maturity and control ( FC : CF : C: ), and the ratio of the sum of the emotionally toned responses controlled out of respect for reality to the sum of the emotional responses where form is secondary or lacking (FC≠FY≠FV: CF ≠ C ≠ YF ≠ Y ≠ VF ≠ V ). It…