This report details procedures to measure annihilation anxiety, a concept derived from Freud's 1926 formulation of traumatic anxiety. A 25-item pencil-and-paper inventory administered to patient and to nonpatient samples is described, along with a brief summary of earlier findings. The delineation of nine interrelated experiential components of annihilation anxiety provides the background for the construction of Rorschach and TAT measures of the concept. Findings comparing the pencil-and-paper inventory and the projective test measures are presented as well as examples of responses judged to reflect annihilation anxiety from Rorschach and TAT protocols.

Howard, & Coonerty, 1993) for annihilation anxiety. Annihilation anxiety is denned here as the fear of one's impending psychic or physical destruction. Results reflected adequate RCS interrater reliability, content validity, construct validity, criterion validity, and divergent validity. Patient groups scored significantly higher on annihilation anxiety measures than did controls. Findings also demonstrated that certain aspects of RCS annihilation anxiety appeared more frequently than did others and may be more central to the construct. Results supported the contention that annihilation anxiety is associated with compromised ego functioning, when both are measured on the Rorschach.

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485 0894-9867,94fl7006485S07.aM) 0 1994 Plenum Publishing Corporation

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