Personality Profile of Individual Having Mental Health Problems (V): A Rorschach Investigation Megha Singh * , Jaya Chauhan ** and Pallavi Bhatnagar* # * Department of Psychology, Lucknow University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India E-mail: * megha_singh297@yahoo.co.in, # < dr.pallavib@gmail.com> ** SWASTI Society for Mental Health and Counselling, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India E-mail: swastimhcc@bsnl.in KEYWORDS Object Relations. Rorschach. Lerner’s Scoring System. Core Character. Melanie Klein ABSTRACT The “object” of an instinct is the agent through which the instinctual aim is achieved and the agent is usually conceived as being another person. The present study is an attempt to explore the personality profile of V (having mental health problems) within the framework of object relations theory. V is a 26-year-old Indian female. She was going through marital separation at the time of testing. V gave a total of 26 responses on the Rorschach cards. The core character of Obsessive- Compulsive personality is clearly visible in her responses with sub-features of depressive and schizoid personality. Her thought organization features fragmented approach. V relates better with non-humans than humans. Her view of the world is reality tuned but she oscillates between withdrawal into fantasy and reality. Her internal self-object relations tend to be fluid and fused. Address for correspondence: Megha Singh 3/357 Vikas Nagar, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India E-mail: megha_singh297@yahoo.co.in © Kamla-Raj 2011 J Psychology, 2 (1): 13-20 (2011) INTRODUCTION Object-Relations Theory “Depressive anxieties are a part of everyone’s normal development and that the guilt feelings which have developed are understood as part of the imagined harm done to a child’s love object.” - Klein 1952. Object-relations have occupied centre stage in psychoanalytic writing during recent years. Object relations mean interpersonal relations. The term object, a technical word originally coined by Freud, refers simply to that which will satisfy a need. More broadly, object refers to the significant person or thing that is the object or target of another’s feelings or drives. In combination with relations, object refers to interpersonal relations and suggests the inner residues of past relationships that shape an individual’s current interactions with people (Clair 1996). Object relations theory addresses not just the intense relationship between the child and the care giver but also highlights how internalized objects have a carryover effect throughout life in one’s relational world, thoughts, emotions and behavior. Fairbairn (1952, 1954) emphasized the developmental sequence of relational modes, beginning from “infantile dependence” and culminating into “mature dependence”. On a similar note, Mahler (1969) gave his three phase process of object relational maturation viz. autistic phase, symbiotic phase, finally, se- paration-individuation phase. Winnicott (1965) elaborated the process wherein through gradual frustration of the infants needing the mother, facilitates the child to progress from a stage of absolute dependence towards independence. Kernberg (1966) on similar note proposed the developmental progression from undifferenti- ated representation of self and other through representations split by affective valence to ma- ture, “whole object” representations integrating both positive and negative attributes. Melanie Klein’s theoretical (Klein 1952a) position- the connection between the ego and the impulses, the drives and the body feelings and their relationship to the outside world (represented by the touch and feel of a parent’s hands) serves as a base for creating meaningful object relations. Cooper (1996) in this context contends that for every human being the outer world and its impact and the kind of experiences they live through, the objects they come into contact with are not only dealt with externally but are taken into the self to become part of their inner world. Introjection and projection, the two major concepts of Klein go into the psyche to become a part of the inner world. According to the psychoanalytic theorists, psychopathology often