No: 25 / PSYCHOTIC APPEARANCE OF NEUROTIC CONDITION: A RORSCHACH ANALYSIS

  • PSYCHOTIC APPEARANCE OF NEUROTIC CONDITION: A RORSCHACH ANALYSIS

    Summary :

    Is it possible for psychosis, failure of analyzing the reality, and neurosis, partial distortion of reality, to coexist or in which ways it is possible? The answer to this question will be sought at the protocol of Miss Z., who was put into a psychiatric clinic with complaints of "talking and laughing by herself", thoughts of "being the real wife of village cleric", "her father and brother's intention to rape", "her family's intent to kill her". Even Miss Z. didn't believe that she was ill, was diagnosed with psychotic disorder and hospitalized in assent of her family. Rorschach Test was applied to define and understand psychic functioning of her symptoms with a psychoanalytic perspective. In terms of this perspective, findings of this study, which gives important information about thought processess, early object relations, affective world, defense mechanisms, libidinal and aggressive impulses, will be discussed to explore the oscillation between neurosis and psychosis. As a result even though Miss Z?s daily life symptoms indicated psychotic condition, Rorschach showed castration anxiety, which is a neurotic condition. This study tries to find out if the family's defense mechanism of castration anxiety lead to symptom of Miss Z.'s psychotic symptoms.

    Keywords : Castration anxiety, psychosis, Rorschach, defense mechanism