Schizophrenia and dementia in the Thematic Apperception Test: An angst and object relation analysis

Abstract

Within the scope of Psychoanalytic Psychology, this study empirically draws on aspects of the classical discussion between the schizophrenia and the former denomination, dementia praecox. The aim of this research study is to explore a possible association between a specific psychic personality structure and the diagnoses of schizophrenia and dementia, in terms of angst and object relation patterns. The sample consisted of 58 female participants, 30 participants diagnosed with schizophrenia (M = 68.83 years of age, SD = 8.13) and 28 participants diagnosed with dementia (M = 83.36 years of age, SD = 7.51). The instruments used for psychological assessment were the projective test TAT (Murray, 1973; Shentoub, 1999) and the Manual for the Measurement of Symbiosis in Human Relationship (Summers, 1978). The fragmentation angst and the fusional object relation are associated with schizophrenia and, in turn, the abandonment angst and the anaclitic object relation with dementia. It was assumed that specific psychic personality structures were associated with the different diagnoses. In a continuum, the psychotic structure is connected with schizophrenia and, the borderline structure with dementia. The discussion highlights significant issues of this study. Some suggestions for further research have been proposed.

Key words: dementia, schizophrenia, psychoanalytic psychology.