Differentiation between patients with schizophrenia and borderline disorders in the Percept-genetic Object-Relation...

Schizophrenics (12 males), borderline patients (12 males), and self-selected normal controls (11 males, 17 females) were compared using PORT (Percept-genetic Object-Relation Test), a projective test, diagnosis being on the basis of DSM-III and Kernberg's six descriptive borderline criteria. The aim of the study was to compare the three groups in order to distinguish the two clinical groups from the control group, but also to distinguish the borderlines from the schizophrenic patients with specified diagnosis. The two patient groups differed from the controls on 15 different PORT signs/patterns. In addition, the borderline patients and the three schizophrenics of unspecified diagnosis showed signs in PORT of dissolution anxiety, splitting, whole configuration (fusion) and sexualization as defence, which the schizophrenics with specified diagnosis did not, although catatonic/hebephrenic, simplex, and paranoid schizophrenics could be distinguished in the test. Characteristic of the schizophrenics was also diffusion of domains of object relationships. In a blind prediction study with PORT involving five male and five female patients with severe psychiatric disorders (diagnosed by DSM-III-R), borderline patients could also be distinguished satisfactorily from schizophrenics.