Journal of Islamic Studies (Jan 1982)
The Relationship between Aggression in TAT Stories and Positive-Negative Behaviour in Psychotics.
Abstract
This study suggested that the psychotic, in his attempt to deal with unbound anxiety, developed implicitly one of two polarized formulations - that threat is to be expected from others or from oneself. Active or passive psychotic bechaviour was interpreted as an attempt by the patient to counteract a corresponding internal threat which would appear in the manifest content of his response in T A I stories. It was hypothesized that if threat in the subject's stories was directed toward the self , toward the main hero, the overt bechaviour would be largely characterized by overactivity, and if threat was directed toward others, by pathological passivity. Two sets of data - the stories and rankings of behaviour - were collected concurrently on 40 psychotic subjects. Despite the wide variety of symptomatic behaviours which psychotic patients manifest, two common denaminators, two modal styles, were postulated which would make themselves felt through their social stimulus value, i, e, the effect they would have on other people. These styles were designated as Active and Passive. The hypothesis was strongly supported - that there is a systematic, complementary relationship between the two variables. It was found that when threat was directed toward the self , toward the main hero, in the story, the subjects behaviour was significantly more likely to b€ judged overactive. Other-directed threat in stories occured significantly more frequently among overly passive psychotic subjects.
