Rorschach correlates of adolescent self-mutilation

The present study examined various Rorschach variables of aggression, dysphoric affect, and disordered thinking in relation to self-mutilation in samples of self-mutilating (SM; n = 16) and nonself-mutilating (N-SM; n = 26) adolescent inpatients. Categorical comparisons indicated that SM patients had significantly higher mean scores for Aggressive Past (AgPast), but not for Aggressive Content (AgC), Aggressive Movement (AG), Morbid Content (MOR), Inanimate Movement (m), Sum Shading (SumY), and the Perceptual-Thinking Index (PTI), than N-SM patients. Additionally, logistic regression results suggested that PTI and AgPast were the most robust predictors of group membership. The authors propose that self-mutilating adolescents may struggle with internally directed aggression and victimized sense of self that, when coupled with disordered thinking, significantly predicts self-mutilation.