Differentiation and prediction in schizophrenia using the metacontrast technique

A perceptgenetic, projective test procedure, the metacontrast technique, was performed in a series of 66 young schizophrenics at admission in a psychiatric institution. The test responses to tachistoscopic expositions of stimulus pairs with incongruent or threatening contents are classified in terms of defense strategies representative of neurotic and psychotic states. The sample tested was followed up clinically after 14-17 years. At inception the series of subjects was dichotomized into one nonregressive (latent, pseudoneurotic, n = 42) group and one regressive, with full-blown psychotic symptoms (n = 24). The distribution of response types did not differentiate between the groups; neurotic and psychotic patterns were represented in both. At follow-up, the initial presence of signs of repression was significantly more common in such initially nonregressive patients as had escaped a later psychotic breakdown. A compound expression of test signs, hypothesized to be a predictor of future development, was shown to differentiate also between categories of outcome in terms of clinical picture and working capacity.