A Repertory Grid Comparison of Endogenous and Neurotic Depressions

The Repertory Grid Technique was used to study the construct systems of patients diagnosed as Endogenous and Neurotic Depressions. Twenty-five patients of each category were administered a Rank Order Repertory Grid comprising ten elements and fifteen constructs. The completed matrices were subjected to principal component analysis. Inter-element distance was used as the psychological measure to compare the two groups on characteristics like sell-ideal congruence, self-esteem, self-criticalness, degree of identification with parents, and the degree of temperamental and/or personality differences between parents as perceived by them. No significant differences between the two categories emerged on any of the dimensions referred to above. One striking observation in many grids was a tendency to isolate the element 'self'. Another observation was the difficulties some subjects had with a few elements and constructs probably due to cultural factors.