Qualitative differences in manifest object representations: implications for a multidimensional model of psychological functioning.

The present study examined human representations produced in Rorschach protocols and in manifest dream recall obtained from 55 severely disturbed inpatients of a small private psychiatric hospital. Subjects were grouped according to specifically defined diagnostic criteria as (a) obsessive/paranoid borderline (23 subjects), (b) hysterical/impulsive borderline (17 subjects), or (c) nonparanoid, undifferentiated schizophrenic disorders (15 subjects). Transcripts of verbatim Rorschach and dream recall records were each quantitatively scored on the Blatt et al. structural scale of human percepts and the Krohn et al. thematic/affective scale. It was predicted that the obsessive/paranoid borderlines would present structurally more advanced percepts than either of the other two groups and that the hysterical/impulsive borderlines would present affectively more advanced percepts. Manifest object representations were different in the three groups. The results support the clinical and theoretical usefulness of a multidimensional perspective in the assessment of borderline and schizophrenic disorders that contrasts an overall health dimension with other dimensions related to structural and affective functioning within the individual's character style.