Applying the Rorschach Comprehensive System to optimize intervention: a case of mother-daughter pair with psychotic symptoms
Poster C58, Wednesday, October%2010, 11:30%20am%20-%201:00%20pm, Essex%20Ballroom
Naomi Inoue1,2, Akiko Takahashi1, Ryu Ikeda1, Naoyuki Katagiri1, Takahiro Nemoto1, Masafumi Mizuno1; 1Toho University, 2Tokai University
It is often difficult to take a medical history from patients suffering from severe psychotic symptoms. In such cases, the Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS) sometimes gives beneficial information about those patients. In this presentation, we illustrate an application of the CS to a mother and daughter who were living alone with each other for years and whose histories were difficult to identify through interviews. The daughter, who was suffering from chronic schizophrenia and mental retardation, was admitted to the hospital because of worsening symptoms. One week later, the mother intentionally overdosed on sleeping tablets and admitted herself to the same hospital, complaining about auditory hallucination and heart pain. CS was first administered to the daughter and then to the mother by an experienced psychologist. Their protocols shared some of the same responses, including a unique answer, “a Biwa” (a Japanese traditional string instrument) on the Card VI, indicating their longtime symbiotic lives. However, the protocol analysis showed substantial differences between their mental states: The daughter’s protocol had one Texture (T) answer, whereas the mother’s protocol had no T answer but two Food (Fd) answers, revealing that the mother cannot satisfy her daughter’s dependent demand. This case shows that despite being simple and short the mother and daughter’s CS protocols provided us useful information about their psychological experiences and thus helped us choose optimal intervention strategies.
Topic Area: Psychosocial Interventions