Psychosomatic Medicine 7:80-84 (1945)
© 1945 American Psychosomatic Society

The Rorschach Performance with Neurocirculatory Asthenia

¹ Directorate of Medical Services, N.D.H.Q. (Army), Ottawa, Canada

Rorschach records have been made of 50 individuals presenting the symptoms of neurocirculatory asthenia. These have been compared with the records of 50 soldiers and selective service examinees considered to have no psychiatric disability after short interview, and with 199 other records as follows: 50 symptomfree civilians of superior intelligence, 50 miscellaneous civilian psychoneurotic patients, 24 patients with brain disease, 50 individuals with migraine headaches, and 25 individuals with other headaches. The neurocirculatory asthenia group shows in common with the miscellaneous psychoneurotic group a high level of "Instability Rating" (18.2±1.65 in neurocirculatory asthenia, 17.9±1.53 in miscellaneous neurosis, and 11.9±62 for all 299 cases). The failure to respond to a card is the most significantly high item among the neurocirculatory asthenia cases. The failures, however, tend to take place most commonly on Card VII in neurocirculatory asthenia rather than on Card VI as in the mixed neurotics. The neurocirculatory asthenia subjects also show an even greater tendency to overemphasize whole answers and to give only one response per card than did the migraine and brain disease subjects whom these signs have appeared previously to characterize at least partly. When an interpretation is added to the objective statistical analysis, the Rorschach features characteristic of neurocirculatory asthenia are seen to represent a tendency to give up easily in the face of difficulties, and the presence of an obsessional conscientiousness which makes their problems appear more difficult to them than they need be. When the cases are divided according to chronicity, the more long-standing cases show the tendency to give up readily most markedly, while those of recent onset are a little higher in the obsessional conscientiousness. The type of difficulties most important for the neurocirculatory asthenia group is suggested to be other than that of sexual conflicts which are relatively more important in the mixed group of civilian neurotics.