ABSTRACT--A general form used for analyzing residual stresses measured using the holographic blind-hole method is introduced in this paper. Adopting the general form presented, the residual stresses can be obtained using three relative displacements measured from a single interference fringe pattern. Even for the case in which phase-shifting holographic interferometry is not employed, interpolating calculations for determining the fringe orders are not needed, since the choice of data points becomes more flexible when using this general form. Two experiments, the first one carried out by the authors and the second one published previously, are used to illustrate the applicability and usefulness of this general form. Suggestions for the applications of this general form are also established via the upper bound error estimations.