[Extracting specific profiles in two clinical subgroups of patients suffering from addiction]

According to research literature, people suffering from addiction to alcohol or illegal drugs are presenting well defined troubles of identity. The aim of this study consists in showing structural similarities and differences between those two clinical subgroups, with the help of the Rorschach test which we have interpreted in an integrated quantitative and qualitative manner. We constructed a rating scale for the test of Rorschach, following the phenomenological and structural tradition of Mucchielli. This rating scale is considering as well the special phenomena as the global judgment of the experienced clinical psychologist. It is differing from the classical psychogramme by its holistic perspective, as it takes into account the interaction of different factors in a specific context. In an exploratory perspective we applied this rating scale to the Rorschach protocols of two small samples of people suffering from alcoholism and of people suffering from drug addiction. The patients belonging to both subgroups were in a state of abstinence at the period of the test. Thus their answers are reflecting an interaction of their basic personality and long term effects of the toxic products, but not the immediate effects of alcohol or illegal drugs. We have compared the answers of the two subgroups of dependent people with the help of non parametric statistics. Their specific profiles have been extracted with optimal scaling techniques. The results are discussed in relationship with structural psychopathology.