Color Preferences of Borderline Patients and of Normal Controls

Abstract

20 female patients who met the DSM-III-R criteria for the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder and 23 normal female controls were asked to rank-order eight Lüscher color cards, at first with no specific use for the colors mentioned, then as a color for their own dress or jacket, then for their living room, and then as a color they would like their friend to wear. Very few statistically significant differences ( p <.01, 2–tailed) between the groups were found. Borderline patients ranked more favourably than controls the use of black color for their living room (Pearson r = .51) and were less likely to favour grey color for this purpose ( r = −.45). When no specific use for colors was mentioned, the borderline patients ranked red more favourably than the control group ( r = .47). Within the normal control group, statistically significant differences between the ranks of the same color were noted depending on the particular use of the particular color.