Should I stay or should I go? Personality Assessment Inventory and Rorschach indices of early withdrawal from psychotherapy.

Abstract

The Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) and the Rorschach were used to investigate differences between patients who withdrew early from university-based outpatient psychodynamic psychotherapy and those who continued in treatment. The study employs two sets of analyses, one utilizing the complete sample (N = 101) and a second comprised of comparison pairs matched on the specific therapist delivering treatment (n = 36 for Rorschach; n = 38 for PAI). It was hypothesized that early withdrawers would score higher on the PAI Treatment Rejection Scale (RXR) and the PAI Treatment Process Index (TPI) than treatment continuers. It was also hypothesized that early treatment withdrawers will have better overall interpersonal relationships, less need for closeness and intimacy, less available psychological resources and more current stimulus demands, and lower levels of psychological/cognitive disturbance as measured by the Rorschach. In addition, differences between the two groups on PAI treatment and clinical scales and subscales were examined. Results indicated that PAI RXR differentiated between the two groups (p< .05) in the expected direction. Limited differences between withdrawers and continuers were found on the Rorschach and other PAI scales. Potential explanations for the findings as well as a discussion of clinical applicability are presented.

Beginning and end of treatment of patients who dropped out of psychoanalytic psychotherapy

“…Looking specifically at studies that have examined PP, we found that patients who discontinued treatment had: less willingness to start psychotherapy [14][15][16] ; a concept of "cure" that diverged from the therapist's ideas 17 ; less insight 18,19 and less psychological mindedness 16 ; lower levels of therapeutic alliance 20,21 ; more frequent use of immature defenses, especially narcissistic ones 19,22 ; a less dynamic work and less involvement in the exploration of problems 20 ; high levels of aggressiveness 15,23 ; low selfesteem 15,23 ; poor object relations 15,16,23 ; deficits in the ability for introspection and in frustration tolerance 24 ;…”

Rorschach assessment of childhood sexual abuse severity, borderline pathology, and their interaction: An examination of criterion validity.

“…The Rorschach protocols used in this study were collected between 1997 and 2009 from patient assessment as part of programmatic psychotherapy process and outcome research . Rorschach protocols in the current sample share some overlap with those used in 3 other studies (Charnas et al, 2010;Hilsenroth, Charnas, Zodan & Streiner, 2007;Zodan et al, 2009).…”

Relationship between Two Dimensions of Object Relations and Group Psychotherapy Attendance Rate in Borderline Personality Disorder Individuals

“…There is a paucity of studies focusing on the relationship between premature termination psychotherapy and aspects of personality measured by projective techniques such as the Rorschach and the Thematic Apperception Test [20][21][22][23]. And yet, these aspects of personality are particularly important from clinical and research perspectives for at least two reasons.…”