A Rorschach Investigation of Attachment and Anxiety in Antisocial Personality Disorder

Abstract

We investigated the constructs of anxiety and attachment in a group of 42 offenders who met the DSM-III-R criteria for antisocial personality disorder. Each antisocial subject's level of psychopathy was assessed with the Hare Psychopathy Checklist (PCL). Three Rorschach variables related to attachment, anxiety, and coping were compared between subjects scoring greater than or equal to 30 (N = 21) on the PCL and subjects scoring less than 30 (N = 21). Comparison Rorschach variables are also presented from a sample of 60 antisocial personality-disordered offenders. Moderate psychopaths (PCL score, less than 30) produced texture and diffuse shading responses at a significantly greater frequency than severe, or primary, psychopaths (PCL score, greater than or equal to 30). There was no significant difference in the two groups' propensity for producing vista responses. Although there were no significant differences between the coping index scores, the trend suggests less conflictual functioning in the severe psychopaths. A virtual absence of texture responses in the severe psychopaths, and a significantly greater frequency of diffuse shading responses in the moderate psychopaths, add construct validity to the lack of attachment in psychopaths and the role of anxiety in differentiating secondary from primary psychopathy. We view the presence of vista responses in this population as a measure of a failed grandiose self-structure, and note that it often occurs in the records of moderate psychopaths who also present achromatic color responses.