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Archives of Assessment Psychology

Abstract

The psychopathic personality is organized at a borderline level of personality. Additionally, while male psychopaths are considered to manifest pathological narcissism, female psychopaths are best understood in terms of malignant hysteria. Using Kernberg’s three components of borderline personality functioning (identity diffusion, reliance on primitive defenses, and transient lapses in reality testing), we examined the following Rorschach variables in 159 Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R)-delineated psychopaths (PCL-R > 30; 44 males, 115 females): Dv, M-, and Kwawer PMRs (identity diffusion); (H), (Hd), and Cooper et al. (1988) RDS (reliance on primitive defenses); and X-%, Xu%, X+%, S-, WSum6, and RDS massive denial (transient lapses in reality testing). In order to study the predominant gender-specific personality style, we also contrasted Rorschach variables associated with narcissism, hysteria, and paranoia, by gender: Narcissism, Fr + rF, EGOI, (2), W:M, SumV, MOR, RDS omnipotence, and devaluation; Kwawer’s narcissistic mirroring; Hysteria, IMP, AB, Hx, ROD, C, CF, SumT, Afr, CS intellectualization index, RDS primitive idealization, intellectualization, & repression; and, Paranoia, Dd, Hd, Ad, eye content, AG, AgC, AgPast, AgPot, SM, S, and RDS projective identification. Our Rorschach findings were consistent with theoretical considerations related to psychopathy and its gender-specific differences.

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