Fisher and Cleveland Barrier and Penetration Scores: Correlations with Rorschach Category Scores

Abstract

Rorschach content responses which ascribe protecting and containing qualities to objects define the 1968 Fisher and Cleveland barrier index while flattened-open-fuzzy responses define their penetration index. in some samples the indices relate as a bipolar dimension, in others they are not correlated. However, in both cases there is evidence that indices assess behaviours and experiences associated with aspects of body-image boundary. It has been claimed that types of barrier responses may be unrelated and so associated with different psychological experience. It has also been suggested that correlations between indices and other variables, taken as support for their construct validity as a measure of body-image boundary are artefactual, specifically, that they represent established correlations between other Rorschach content scores and behaviours and experiences. This study examined relationships among types of barrier scores, penetration scores (obtained by different methods) and Rorschach category scores. All barrier scores were positively correlated, all penetration scores were positively related, and all barrier and penetration scores were negatively correlated. Explicable relationships were found between body boundary index scores and a few Rorschach category scores. A bipolar barrier penetration and a separate penetration dimension were isolated. The implications of these results vis à vis Fisher's 1986 contentions about the nature of boundary scores was discussed.