The aim of this study was to verify the occurrence of typical mechanisms or dynamics of patients with panic disorder, according to the principles of the structural psychopathology phenomenon. Four patients participated in the study, assessed according to the criteria of Axle 1 of the Structuralized Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-I). The participants responded to the proposed task using the Rorschach methodology and the interpretations were based upon the switch on / switch off mechanisms in the structure of language. The results did not show a standard mechanism in the patients, but, with regard to these mechanisms, they demonstrated a definite inadequacy in terms of the transition between both mechanisms. When the epilepto-sensorial style was predominant, the more evident failures occurred with the transition to the switch off mechanism, while the schizo-rational style demonstrated a failure to integrate when the patients employed the switch on mechanism. Therefore the language and perception were more appropriate when using switch on mechanisms for the epilepto-sensorial style and the switch off mechanism for a schizo-rational style.
Anxiety; Phenomenon-structural psychopathology; Rorschach test; Projective techniques
