Analysis of Rorschach inkblot responses of 22 alcohol-depended patients of the Acute Ward, Psychiatric Hospital of Petra Olympus, Greece.

The Acute Ward is a relatively small psychiatric ward that receives both voluntary and involuntary admissions of psychiatric patients of a catchment area of about 1000000 people.

The material used for this study was the Rorschach inkblot responses of 22 alcohol-depended patients (19 males, 3 females) that were hospitalized in the Acute Ward during the first semester of 2009. The test was administered once, 2-5 days after admission and scored according to J.E. Exner's Comprehensive System.

Rorschach profile was similar for most of the cases. 19 out of 22 Rorschach performances (with no significant differences among the sexes) revealed recurrent attempts to elucidate alcoholic ‘signs’ and put forward characteristic alcoholic perceptual style. These patients also produced more responses revealing greater interest in other people, marked though by ambivalence, feelings of aggression and withdrawal or isolation from social interaction. Dependency needs were also exhibited.

The Rorschach inkblot test is a psychological projective test of personality in which subjects’ interpretations of 10 standard abstract designs are analyzed as a measure of emotional and intellectual functioning and integration. It gets into the deepest recesses of patients’ psyche or subconscious mind. In the case of these alcohol-depended patients displayed specific problems of personality structure comprising a concrete Rorschach profile.