Orality and Depression in Psychiatric Inpatients

Abstract

Psychoanalytic theory and previous research on oral dependence both suggest that an oral-dependent character style is associated with increased risk for depression. The present study examined the relationship of orality to three separate measures of depression in a sample of 40 psychiatric inpatients (20 males and 20 females). A significant, positive relationship was found between level of orality and depression scores for male patients but not for females. These findings are discussed in the context of traditional psychoanalytic theory, object relations theory, and previous research in these areas. Suggestions for future studies are offered.Object relations theory suggests that a person's characteristic thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are formed at least partly in response to childhood experiences with parents and other significant figures (Mahler, 1967;Spitz, 1965). These early relationships are hypothesized to be introjected or in ternalized and become the schemata by which subsequent relationships are interpreted (Bornstein, Galley, Si Leone, 1986). While earlier psychoanalytic theorists did not use object relations terminology to discuss the importance of the infantcaretaker relationship for later life, clearly they too felt it was central in personality development. For example, Freud (1905Freud ( /1953 sug gested that infantcaretaker interactions were of paramount importance, with the relationships experienced during the "oral" period setting the stage for all that followed. In this context, Freud hypothesized that "a child sucking at his mother's breast becomes the prototype of every relation of love. The finding of an object is in fact a refinding of it" (p. 222). This early activity of "finding" the caretaker (and the breast or bottle) becomes associ ated with the oral pleasures of receiving both food and tender physical contact. Thus the act of nursing comes to represent the love and protection of the primary caretaker (Fenichel, 1945). Freud (1905Freud ( /1953 and his followers hypothesized that an infant who is overly frustrated by the caretaker during this critical period will become "orally fixated." Fenichel (1945, p. 387) goes on to suggest that such oral

An Inter-Rater Reliability Study for the Rorschach Performance Assessment System

“…Inter-rater reliability for many of these specific variables has been reported in the literature, with good results. The ODL has been shown to have strong validity and reliability, with Pearson correlation coefficients typically greater than .90 (Bornstein, Rossner, & Hill, 1994;Juni, Masling & Brannon, 1979;O'Neill & Bornstein, 1990) and kappa coefficients greater than .80 (Duberstein & Talbot, 1993;Greenberg & Bornstein, 1989;O'Neill & Bornstein, 1990;O'Neill & Bornstein, 1991) languages, leads to some confidence that the strong inter-rater reliability from the past will carry over to the R-PAS.…”

Explicit Rejection of an Implicit Dichotomy: Integrating Two Approaches to Assessing Dependency

“…As its name suggests, dependency is indicated by Rorschach responses that include food and drink items, food organs, oral instruments, and oral activity. Because the scoring is relatively straightforward, inter-rater reliability for ROD scores tends to be high, with Pearson correlations greater than .90 (Masling et al, 1967;O'Neill & Bornstein, 1991). On the other hand, the ROD can be criticized for having subpar test-retest reliability, with 16-week retest coefficients of r = .67 (Bornstein et al, 1994), and internal consistency, α = .61 (Bornstein, Hill, Robinson, Calabrese, & Bowers, 1996).…”

“…As reviewed by Bornstein (1996a), the ROD has significantly predicted relevant behavioral criteria including help seeking (Shilkret & Masling, 1981), compliance (Bornstein & Masling, 1985), and sensitivity to interpersonal cues (Masling, Johnson, & Saturansky, 1974). ROD scores have been linked to relevant types of psychopathology such as depression (O'Neill & Bornstein, 1991) and alcoholism (Bertrand & Masling, 1969). It is worth noting that the most vocal Rorschach critics have written favorably about the properties of the ROD and the research programs that have examined it (Garb, Wood, Lilienfeld, & Nezworski, 2005;Hunsley & Bailey, 2001).…”

Oral Pessimism and Depressive Symptoms

“…There was no significant difference between the high-oral group, 75.62, and the low-oral group, 83.56, F( 1, 36) = 1.64, p < .05) in the male sample. These gender differences were not replicated in a later study (O'Neill & Bornstein, 1991). Forty voluntary psychiatric inpatients (20 men and 20 women) were administered the Rorschach,the MMPI, and the Beck Depression Inventory.…”