The Mangled Butterfly: Rorschach Results from 45 Violent Psychopaths Kent W. Franks, Ph.D. * , Shoba Sreenivasan, Ph.D. y , Beverly J. Spray, Ph.D. z and Patricia Kirkish, Ph.D. x Participants were 45 violent California male prison inmates scoring 30 or more on the Psychopathy Check- list—Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 1991, 2003). Inmates were evaluated using Rorschach and neuropsychological test data. The participants’ intellectual functioning was within the low–average range and displayed a lack of flexibility. Rorschach data were not suggestive of chronic narcissism and anger as in other psychopathic samples. This group resembled Exner’s normative sample of high Lambda adults. Consistent with previous studies, psychopaths demonstrated poor emotional modulation, diminished reality testing, little interest in people, and virtually no attachment capacity. Most utilized a simplistic, avoidant, and concrete style. This appeared to be consistent with the concrete thinking and fragmentation attributed to the criminal personality. Concrete thinking is based upon lit- eral interpretations of events. Fragmentation is associated with attitudes that are situation specific and self-serving. Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. INTRODUCTION One of the first researchers to use the Rorschach inkblot test to systematically assess the personality of psychopaths was Lindner (1943). He found that the psychopath produced a recognizable Rorschach protocol that was characterized by superficiality, avoidance, explosiveness, incompleteness, and egocentricity (Gacono & Meloy, Behavioral Sciences and the Law Behav. Sci. Law 27: 491–506 (2009) Published online 13 May 2009 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/bsl.866 * Correspondence to: Kent W. Franks, Ph.D., The School of Professional Psychology at Forest Institute, 2885 West Battlefield Road, Springfield, MO 65807, U.S.A. E-mails: kfranks@forest.edu; Kfranks193@aol.com y Director, Forensic Outreach Services, GLA-WLA VA Healthcare Center; Clinical Professor, USC Keck School of Medicine. z The School of Professional Psychology at Forest Institute, Springfield, MO. x Consulting Psychologist, Department of Mental Health, State of California, Mentally Disordered Offender Program. Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.