Differential linguistic patterns across Rorschach, TAT, and SCT in individuals with PTSD.

Background

While prior studies have examined linguistic markers of PTSD using everyday discourse or autobiographical narratives, comparative studies identifying specific markers across different projective personality tests remain limited.

Objective

To investigate whether language features in projective personality tests differentiate individuals with PTSD from non-PTSD controls and assess their predictive value for symptom severity.Method: Verbatim transcripts from 283 participants (183 PTSD, 100 controls) across the Rorschach, TAT, and SCT were analysed using NLP across six categories: negative emotion, positive emotion, insight, causation, body-related, and self-focus. ANCOVAs with Bonferroni correction compared linguistic indicators between groups controlling for age and sex. Hierarchical regression analyses assessed predictive validity for symptom severity.

Results

Following Bonferroni correction (α = .0028), four indicators showed significant group differences (ηp² = .036-.092): Rorschach Negative Emotion, SCT Positive Emotion, SCT Insight, and TAT Negative Emotion. In the PTSD group, TAT Negative Emotion was the strongest cross-symptom predictor of PTSD, depressive, and anxiety severity. Reduced Rorschach Body-related language and elevated SCT Insight were associated with greater symptom burden. TAT Positive Emotion negatively predicted symptom severity. In the non-PTSD group, SCT Self-Focus was the strongest predictor of PTSD-related severity, and SCT Positive Emotion negatively predicted anxiety. A sensitivity analysis revealed that SCT Positive Emotion and TAT Negative Emotion did not replicate under a more conservative Core Lexicon and should be treated as exploratory; only Rorschach Negative Emotion and SCT Insight were robust across lexicon configurations.

Conclusions

Individuals meeting PTSD criteria showed reduced somatic language and elevated negative emotional expression, while self-referential processing and positive emotional expression emerged as salient markers in non-clinical individuals, though these differences should be interpreted cautiously given substantial demographic imbalances. These preliminary findings suggest that projective linguistic analysis may have potential as a supplementary approach in trauma-related research, pending external validation and replication in independent datasets.