Citation

Ulett GA, Martin DW, Mcbride JR. Am. J. Orthopsychiatry 1950; 20(4): 817-827.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1950, American Orthopsychiatric Association, Publisher Wiley Blackwell)

DOI

10.1111/j.1939-0025.1950.tb05480.x

PMID

14789970

Abstract

The Rorschach technique is today accepted as a useful method of rapid personality evaluation and an aid in uncovering basic personality patterns; its ability to predict suicidal tendencies, however, is not sufficiently well known. A 21-year-old white single male, with six and a half months' service in the Air Force, first entered the Medical Service of the hospital on January 17, 1947, complaining of chest pain of two weeks' duration and "nervousness" since the age of 13 years. The past medical history revealed only that he had had a spontaneous pneumothorax in April 1946 that had re-expanded in two months. The case is presented in which the Rorschach test revealed the underlying personality disturbance and indicated suicidal tendencies. Despite the patient's apparently adequate clinical adjustment, an episode of alcoholic indulgence released unconscious hostile tendencies, and self-destruction was achieved by barbiturate ingestion. The clinical value of the Rorschach test is discussed. (APA PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

Language: en