Healthy, Neutral, and Unhealthy Content in the Rorschach Responses of Schizophrenic and Normal Adults

Abstract

The present study contrasts the group Rorschach protocols of psychotics and normals who had been equated for certain socio-economic factors. The Ss' protocols were scored for “healthy, neutral, and unhealthy” contents, and the hypothesis under test was that psychotics would give primarily neutral content, whereas normals would proffer more healthy and unhealthy Rorschach contents. This hypothesis was substantiated. Indeed, over two-thirds of the abnormals gave predominantly neutral responses to the Rorschach, while over half of the normals gave predominantly unhealthy responses. The range of unhealthy content in the present study was rather high, suggesting that adults may give more of this content than children. The findings are discussed in terms of a “defensiveness” interpretation of S's test behavior.