Borderline manifestations in the Rorschachs of male transsexuals.

It was hypothesized that male transsexuals manifest a character structure consistent with Kernberg's criteria for borderline personality organization. Exploring this hypothesis, Kernberg's criteria for borderline personality organization were operationalized using Rorschach measures. The following variables were examined: aggression (Holt System Aggressive Content Section), object relations (Urist's Mutuality of Autonomy Scale), reality testing (Exner System X + %), and self/object differentiation (Exner System Special Scorings). A group of male college students, a group of male borderlines, and a group of male transsexuals were compared on the above variables. Compared to the normals, the transsexuals and borderlines displayed significantly more intense levels of aggression, a lower level of object relations, poorer reality testing, and impaired boundary differentiation. The transsexuals and borderlines did not differ significantly. The results were taken as suggesting that male gender dysphorics may be a sub-group of the wider borderline diagnostic category.