Verification of Rorschach Indicators of Sexual Abuse

We attempted to find Rorschach indicators of sexual abuse. In the present study, we investigated the propriety of 4 indicators that we reported in 2001 and more precise indicators of sexual abuse through statistical analysis of Rorschach records of 108 female psychiatric patients with a history of sexual abuse and 48 female psychiatric patients without it. We defined the sex locations on the Rorschach cards and took notice of the particular responses for them. Eighty-two of the 108 (76%) sexually abused patients and 1 of the 48 (2%) non-abused patients gave the sex response, inanimate movement response (m) or m tendency for the sex locations. Aggression and hostile responses were scored by Müstein’s Rorschach hostility scale; the scores for the abused was 19.99 ± 15.96 and for the non-abused, 12.37 ± 8.57. Number of form-color (FC) response equal to or lower than the total of color-form (CF) response and pure color (C) response (FC ≤ CF + C) was shown in 95 of the 108 (88%) abused and 30 of the 48 (63%) non-abused. Among these 3 items, the differences between the 2 groups were remarkably significant (P < 0.001). It becomes obvious that the 3 indicators as shown below are valid for finding sexual abuse histories for differential diagnosis: i) a host of aggression and hostile content; ii) loss of control in color responses, for example FC ≤ CF + C; and iii) the sex responses, m or m tendency for sex locations.