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Psychoanalytic Theory and the Rorschach
Abstract
Beginning at a level appropriate for the student, Lerner first provides a comprehensive introduction to the logic of Rorschach scoring and interpretation. Then, pursuing operational definitions of such contemporary concepts as splitting, primitive idealization, level of object representation, and the defensive maneuvers of the false self, he shows how specific types of Rorschach responses can be meaningfully related to the psychological processes that have been the focus of recent psychoanalytic theorizing. The result is to enlarge the possibilities of Rorschach interpretation in the clinical setting, most especially in regard to patients who evidence the deficits associated with preoedipal dynamics.
But the examination of Rorschach responses, when coupled to a rigorous research methodology, goes far beyond enhancing clinical judgment within the assessment process.
In addition to offering an overview of recent psychoanalytically informed research on the Rorschach, Lerner presents several of the more promising and widely used research scales. These scales will be valuable to research psychologists, as well as to clinicians and scholars interested in how formulations involving unconscious thought processes can be subjected to validation. In a variety of ways, then, "Psychoanalytic Theory and the Rorschach" provides important insight into the limitations, achievements, and promise of contemporary psychoanalytic theory to all those willing to take up the challenge of this unique projective instrument. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... The theoretical framework underpinning the analysis of the Rorschach Protocol in this research paper is the Psychoanalytic Object Relations Theory, as proposed by Lerner (1991). This theory offers a profound understanding of human personality development and functioning, particularly within the context of interpersonal relationships and object representations. ...
... According to Psychoanalytic Object Relations Theory, individuals' psychopathology and personality dynamics are deeply influenced by their early experiences in forming relationships with significant others (Lerner, 1991). The theory emphasizes the importance of these early object relations, suggesting that the quality of interactions with primary caregivers shapes individuals' internalized representations of themselves and others. ...
... Moreover, Psychoanalytic Object Relations Theory posits that disturbances in object relations can lead to various forms of psychopathology, including personality disorders and maladaptive coping strategies (Lerner, 1991). When individuals fail to establish secure, differentiated relationships with significant others, they may experience difficulties in forming healthy attachments, regulating emotions, and maintaining stable identities (Kohut, 1971). ...
This paper delves into the core character and personality dynamics of an inmate at Agra Jail using the Rorschach Personality Test. Results indicate a Schizoid and Depressive core personality, with nuances of Masochistic and Obsessive-Compulsive traits. Notably, human content is scarce in the protocol, alongside poor reality testing and organizational skills. Fluid self-object relations underscore the psychological complexity. Drawing on Lerner's method, the analysis intertwines with Psychoanalytic Object Relations Theory. Crime's emotional toll, compounded by societal stigma, underscores the need for clinical insight into criminal psyche. The Rorschach protocol offers an unfiltered glimpse into underlying personality structures, illuminating unexpressed emotional conflicts. This study underscores the importance of understanding the psychological intricacies of criminal behavior within a clinical framework.
... Schafer emphasized thematic analysis of the Rorschach and the analysis of defenses. His work has its present-day counterparts in the efforts of such authors as Arnow and Cooper (1988), Wilson (1988), and Lerner (1991), who use modern neoanalytic theories built around developments in ego psychology and objectrelations theory as foundations for Rorschach research and interpretation. ...
... We have already mentioned the more important research programs that support the position that the Rorschach is a valid and reliable method for assessing unconscious experience. We mention again that this research has evolved into a field in which several of the procedures have demonstrated more than acceptable reliability and validity (Blatt, 1975;Blatt & Lerner, 1983;Fisher, 1970;Holt, 1970;Lerner, 1991). ...
... In the former, we may use any of the well-validated object-relations scales (Strieker & Healey, 1990) or other empirically tested, psychodynamically oriented Rorschach procedures (Bornstein, 1996). In the latter perspective, we may use and integrate an inferential, content-based approach to the responses (Lerner, 1991;Schafer, 1954). The structural levels of psychological life may be assessed in an empirically validated framework by using the structural summary from the comprehensive system (Exner, 1993), whereas inferences about overt behavior and conscious cognition and affect may be obtained from that source and from self-report scales, intellectual inventories, clinical interviews, behavioral observation, or any other method that is needed. ...
The authors argue that the Rorschach can and should be used best with a nomothetic foundation that adds an idiographic approach depending on the goal of the assessment. The research supporting this position is reviewed as are conceptual models that are advantageous to this conceptual position. The authors posit that method variance has a powerful impact on the measurement process. Each method is of value in some areas and of limited relevance in others. Self-report measures are most likely to be useful when interest is focused on consciously available and behavioral dimensions of functioning. Depth-oriented, indirect measures such as the Rorschach are most likely to be useful when interest is focused on unconscious, longitudinal, and structural dimensions of functioning. However, to have a full picture of human beings, heteromethod assessment is necessary to capture the full range of functioning and to implement the analytic model of assessment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... The psychoanalytic tradition has been heavily steeped in content interpretation and analysis of the interpersonal dynamics in the testing encounter. This approach has been most adroitly addressed concerning the Rorschach project by the likes of Roy Schafer (1954), David Rapaport (1974), Paul Lerner (1991Lerner ( , 1998, Bruce Smith (2011), James Kleiger (2014), and many others. Given the already established connection between Rorschach and psychoanalysis, the readers are directed to these authors. ...
... Zygmunt Piotrowksi (1957) developed a clever blend of psychoanalysis, phenomenology, and behavioral correlate research in his Perceptanalysis. The Psychoanalytic Group (see Lerner, 1991) developed ingeniously grounded interpersonal and content interpretations, and the psychoanalytic system-adjacent work by the trained phenomenologist Ernest Schachtel (1966) provided an introductory view into phenomenological methods and interpersonal engagement with participants. Beck's student, Marguerite Hertz (1962), aimed to achieve the basic tenets of scientific acceptability for the Rorschach Test and developed norms for children. ...
This article summarizes the historical influences on Hermann Rorschach’s Psychodiagnostics in light of new findings and the retranslation of his monograph by Keddy and colleagues (Rorschach, 2021). This exposition situates his work in the historical context of Swiss culture and psychiatry at the time of his training and research, identifies theoretical influences on his thought given findings from recent scholarship, and describes collegial relationships that impacted his experiment. The potential influence of philosophical phenomenology on Hermann Rorschach’s work, had he not passed away prematurely, is postulated given his relationship with Ludwig Binswanger, the nature of his personality, and theoretical interests, particularly kinesthetic perception. A summary of phenomenological theory regarding Rorschach’s project is provided as well as potential future theoretical and methodological frameworks in light of this connection. Specific suggestions for Rorschach psychology, given solutions from historical and phenomenological explorations, are provided.
... Other authors have conceptualised m as positively related to suitability for psychodynamic psychotherapy. Lerner (1991) regarded m as indicating repressed material coming into awareness in the form of subjectively experienced tensions, and thereby giving opportunity for contact around the patient's feelings of distress. Klopfer et al. (1954) saw m as indicating an awareness of forces out of control and contended that m indicates strength because the individual does not use dissociation and disintegration. ...
... In the present research, human movement responses with ordinary form quality, MQo, were regarded as a positive indicator for dynamic psychotherapy. Human movement responses are generally interpreted as related to an innerdirected orientation and a capacity for imagination and fantasy (Blatt & Ford 1994;Exner, 1993;Lerner, 1991). Accurately seen human movement is regarded to indicate empathic capacity, whereas distorted M responses indicate lack of empathic capacity (Weiner, 1998). ...
... Deux ouvrages recents (Lerner, 1991;Exner, 1989) illustrent a. merveille l'emergence d'une double approche de Interpretation du Rorschach, a. la fois structurale et theoriquement fondee. L'ouvrage de Lerner, tout en insistant sur une approche plus systematique des contenus, suppose aussi que la production de percepts au Rorschach renvoie a la projection. ...
... Dos trabajos recientes (Lerner, 1991;Exner, 1989) constituyen excelentes ejemplos del interes emergente en utilizar ambos enfoques, el estructural y el basado en teonas, en la interpretation del Rorschach. El trabajo de Lerner, al enfatizar un estudio mas sistematico del contenido, asume que la production de los perceptos en el Rorschach involucra la proyeccion. ...
Two words describe the status of the Rorschach in the United States as we move into the 1990s. They are integration and elaboration. The integration is between structural and theoretically informed approaches to the test. The elaboration comes as researchers provide more and more data about various populations and clinical syndromes. This paper provides a survey of these trends over the past 5 years, surely among the most productive in American Rorschach history. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... Through recurring Rorschach imagery it appeared Ms. A was revealing a mental state of inertia via content that aligned with her experience-near subjectivity aggravated by her life situation, a noted occurrence in the Rorschach method (Lerner, 1991). ...
Content analysis is a storied and notorious supplement to Rorschach interpretation. This interpretive venture can prove fruitful in eliciting an interpreter’s experience-near subjectivity that otherwise escapes self-report or direct expression. Rorschach content analysis is particularly compelling when exploring the more frequent or recurring themes elicited through recurring content imagery. As Schafer (1954, p. 142) wrote, “it is the choice and patterning of these images that carry the patient’s individual stamp.” This paper aims to convey an individual stamp through a case study of a woman embedded in circumstances that appeared to decorate her percepts in imagery of captivity, immobility, seclusion, and feeling stuck. Supplementary to her summary of scores, a Rorschach content analysis was applied to refine the interpretation of her protocol, spark conversation, and help the patient feel more accurately understood.
... Der opstod en psykoanalytisk orienteret testtradition, som Rapaport stod fadder til, siden fulgt op af hans samarbejde med Gill og Schafer (1978) og videreført af bl.a. Killingmo (1980) og Lerner (1991) fra henholdsvis Norge og Sverige. ...
Psykoanalysens betydning kan vurderes på forskellige måder: historisk, teoretisk, behandlingsmæssigt, ud fra enkeltpersoners værk osv. I denne artikel tages udgangspunkt i Freuds banebrydende sygdomsforståelse, og der trækkes linjer frem til moderne psykodynamisk psykiatri og aktuelle diskussioner om diagnostik og kategorisering af psykisk lidelse. Herefter inddrages et område, som sjældent associeres med psykoanalytisk tænkning, nemlig den klinisk psykologiske testtradition, som psykoanalysen har været en væsentlig inspirationskilde til. Afslutningsvis introduceres tre repræsentanter for psykoanalysen, Thorkil Vanggaard, Otto Kernberg og Peter Fonagy, som på forskellig måde har præget psykiatrien og psykologien fra 1950’erne og frem til i dag.
... Supplemental systems have included object relations(Blatt & Lerner, 1983;Fisher & Cleveland, 1958;Kwawer, 1980), defenses(Cooper, Perry, & Arnow, 1988;, developmental psychopathology(Urist, 1977), dependency(Bornstein & Masling, 2005;Masling et al., 1967), trauma(Armstrong & Loewenstein, 1990), aggressive drive derivatives(Gacono & Meloy, 1994;Gacono, Gacono, Meloy, & Baity, 2008; Gacono & Smith, in press), and thought organization(Athey, 1974;Meloy & Singer, 1991). Also seeBornstein and Masling (2005),Kissen (1986),Kwawer, Lerner, Lerner, and Sugarman (1980),Lerner and Lerner (1988), andLerner (1991). ...
... These additional systems provide a useful complement to CS scoring, allowing for the quantification of important Rorschach content, traits, and processes (Arnow&Reznikoff, 1976). Most of these systems, including their reliability and validity, have been summarized in five books (Bornstein &Masling, 2005;Kissen, 1986;Kwawer, Lerner, Lerner, & Sugarman, 1980;Lerner & Lerner, 1988;Lerner, 1991). ...
This article is part I of a two part series. It discusses the interpretative importance of anchoring Rorschach data within a larger body of comparative (both nonpatient and clinical) group data.
... This theme of personality as a process rather than a fixed entity is especially prominent in post-Freudian psychodynamic theorizing (e.g., Blatt, 2008;Erikson, 1959). Accordingly, psychodynamic assessment of personality and personality pathology has aimed to measure not only aspects of personality structures (e.g., defenses, object relations), but also the process through which these structures become activated and how conscious and unconscious processes interact to produce a person's experience of themself and others over time (e.g., Bellak & Abrams, 1997;Lerner, 1991;Rapaport et al., 1968;Schafer, 1954). ...
There has been much research in recent years on the Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (AMPD) in the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM–5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Although this research has by and large validated the model from a psychometric perspective, it has sometimes been criticized by psychodynamically oriented researchers and clinicians for its (lack of) clinical utility and its disregard for the rich history and tradition of psychodynamic thought that formed the foundation for personality disorder research in the first place. These critiques have merit. However, there is much in DSM–5 AMPD that is not only consistent with the broad corpus of the psychodynamic tradition, but which may be useful to consider in psychodynamic research and clinical practice. In this article we review prominent (psychodynamic) critiques of the AMPD, consider the AMPD as a product of (and, thus, its dependency on) psychodynamic thought, and suggest how psychodynamically oriented researchers and clinicians might use the AMPD in their work in service of benefiting both the AMPD and psychodynamic thought more generally.
... Meyer TIMSIT (1974) a été le premier clinicien projectiviste de langue française à proposer une identification des organisations limites à partir du test de Rorschach. Il a stimulé, à partir de ses elaborations initiales, toute une série de recherches consacrées à ces entités tant dans les pays francophones (CHABERT, 1983(CHABERT, , 1987MERCERON et al. 1983, de TYCHEY 1982,1983,1994 qu'Outre-Atlantique (KWAWER et al. 1980 ;LERNER et LERNER 1988 ;LERNER 1991). ...
... Content analysis, from this point of view, rests, precariously I might add, "on the belief in universal symbols," a slender reed indeed (Piotrowski, 1971). Lerner (1991) laments that content analysis has been unwisely sacrificed in the search for psychometric respectability. Built on a powerful human encounter, empathy allows experiential access to experience-near phenomenology. ...
Content analysis is a late and contentious addition to the Rorschach canon. The determinants have ruled. Hermann Rorschach was at best, ambivalent about content analysis, focusing on the perceptual aspects of the process. Rorschachers have been not been conTENT about CONtent. The literature on the pros and cons and the how-to of content analysis is reviewed chronologically, concluding with eight issues and objections that have left Rorschach practitioners malcontent with content. Hoping to help practitioners improve the analysis of Rorschach content, ten suggestions, often with examples, are offered, these "hints" affecting both conceptualization and practice. A case fragment is appended to the review to host the above suggestions and to illustrate the (likely) less frequent "active evocation" of content to further the analysis.
... With regard to the Rorschach test, the following variables were considered: -Total answers (R); -Percentage of answers with negative form (X-%); -Locations: Global (W%), details (D%), rare details (Dd%), white space (DS); -Determinants: Shape (F%), Human Movements (M), Weighted sum of Colors (SC = 0.5 FC + 1 CF + 1.5 C); -Quality of the form: F-%, index of the failure in adapting the response to the stimulus features (for the evaluation, the appropriate tables of the manual were used); -Contents: Animal (A%), Human (H%); -Egocentrism Index: the weighted ratio of 'reflex' responses, 'Pairs' and the total number of responses: [3r + (2) / R], indicating tendency to selfcentring (Exner 2003); -Lambda index [F / (R-F)], which as mentioned in Comprehensive System an essential indicator of reliability of the protocol. Moreover, we considered the number of adaptive defences such as rationalization, intellectualization, minimization (Lerner, 1991;Di Nuovo and Cuffaro, 2004). From PAI the indices of validity and control (already described in the theoretical section) were extracted, adding two relevant supplementary scales scores: Refusal of treatment (RXR) and Treatment Process Index (TPI). ...
The debate about the validity of the Rorschach test, compared with psychometric inventories, is particularly relevant in the forensic evaluation.
The aim of the study is to present an overview on the control indices proposed in Rorschach (e.g. R, F%, Lambda Index) and in a personality inventory (Personality Assessment Inventory: e.g., openness, desirability, inconsistency, infrequency, negative and positive impression, malingering and defensiveness, treatment rejection) and to cross-correlate these indices.
The sample consisted of 50 adult inpatients with diagnosis of severe depression or psychosis, and a control group of healthy subjects, matched by gender, age and educational level.
The results show that the analytic style, as opposed to the global one, is related to greater openness to psychological assessment, less social desirability and defensive tendency.
The Rorschach Lambda index demonstrates good validity in detecting tendency to defensiveness, social desirability and dissimulation, both in normal and pathological protocols.
... The DSM-IV criteria approach these domains from a descriptive and behavioral perspective, while Kernberg's model emphasizes the psychological structures that underlie these behavior patterns. Kernberg's model of personality structure continues to be influential among dynamically oriented assessment psychologists and has been seen as a powerful tool for organizing projective/performance assessment data (Lerner, 1991). The integration of these two personality systems (DSM and Kernberg) enhances our ability to assess and understand personality structure by using a multi-method assessment strategy. ...
... The responses help the therapist in peeping through the inner self of the suffering individuals and bringing out the painful material on surface for processing. Such verbalization is a powerful therapeutic procedure recommended by many projective therapists (Freud, 1953, Lerner, 1991. The SIS has been used to study gender differences (Singh, et al. 1999), Marital discord (Manickam and Suhani, 2014), PTSD (Cassell, 2006, Cassell, et. ...
Somatic Ink blot Series (SIS) has been used with different clinical groups in India and found to be very effective tool in diagnostic evaluation and therapeutic intervention. It has also been used on various normal populations. However, the review of literature is scanty so far as the Iranian population is concerned. The present study is a modest attempt to compare the profiles of Iranian couples with existing Indian norms. Ten Iranian couples, studying in Mysore and living together, having no history of marital discord were administered SIS-II Booklet Form individually by one of the authors. The mean scores on the eleven scoring categories of SIS were compared. The mean age of the male was 42 years and female was 35.5 years. The mean scores on the eleven indices were as follows: Total number of responses (M:64; F:66.
... Outros autores dessa vertente teórica, como Lerner e St. Peter (1984a), Lerner (1991), Lerner e Lerner (1988), buscam fundamentar sua compreensão das respostas de conteúdo humano do Rorschach por intermédio do quadro conceitual oferecido pela teoria desenvolvimentista, pela psicologia cognitiva e pela teoria das relações objetais. Assim, procuram integrar nessas três perspectivas teóricas diversos achados de pesquisas relativas às respostas H, a fim de elucidar o significado das relações interpessoais e de sua contribuição para o desenvolvimento da estrutura psicológica dos indivíduos. ...
Foi feita uma revisão da literatura sobre as representações temáticas e de conteúdos, presentes nas verbalizações do psicodiagnóstico de Rorschach, tendo em vista a integração dinâmica das informações e a psicodinâmica do mundo interno/externo do paciente ou examinando. Foram passadas em revistas as principais abordagens e principais sistemas de trabalho com o Rorschach, na busca de aperfeiçoar o uso convencional de escores, integrados a pressupostos teóricos e modelos conceituais. Foi constatado que a partir da década de cinqüenta do século dezenove novas abordagens na organização dos temas foram incorporadas ao esquema clássico de aferição das verbalizações e respostas do Rorschach, gerando diferentes, mas cientificamente relevantes sistemas de avaliação psicológica. O conceito representação de objeto, o processo de interpretação dinâmica e integrativa entre os dados quantitativos do Rorschach e outras informações, constituem o Rorschach de que espera o psicólogo clínico ou psicólogo pesquisador numa avaliação psicológica.
... The Rorschach (Rorschach, 1921(Rorschach, /1951) is a particularly useful measure for assessing differential development of mental representations and psychopathology that has an extensive psychoanalytic theoretical and empirical evidence-base (Allison, Blatt, & Zimet, 1968;Aronow & Reznikoff, 1976;Aronow, Reznikoff, & Moreland, 1994;Holt, 2009;Kwawer, Sugarman, Lerner, & Lerner, 1980;Kissen, 1986;Kleiger, 1999;Leichtman, 1996;Lerner & Lerner, 1988;Lerner, 1991Lerner, , 1992Lerner, , 1996Lerner, , 1998Masling, 1983;Rapaport, Gill, & Schafer, 1945-1946, 1968Schachtel, 1966;Schafer, 1948Schafer, , 1954Schafer, , 1967Silverstein, 1999;Weiner, 1966). As a performance-based measure of personality assessment, thoughts and images attributed to the Rorschach are shaped by the organizing characteristics of the individual's inner representational world (Blatt & Lerner, 1983). ...
... Le clivage se manifeste dans une tendance à percevoir et à décrire les autres d'une manière partielle et excessive en amenant la division du bon contre le mauvais. Il peut s'agir de la frustration contre la satisfaction, du dangereux contre l'inoffensif et de l'amitié contre l'hostilité (Lerner P. & Lerner H. D., 1980 ; Lerner P., 1991 ; Cooper & Arnow, 1986 ; Cooper, Perry & Amow, 1988). Dans le protocole de Margaux, nous trouvons la description d'une image humaine entière où une nette distinction est faite de sorte qu'une partie d'un personnage est vue comme opposée à une autre partie : Planche VII, Réponse 10 : « Deux anges sur un nuage commun mais chacun porte une corne comme pour représenter le diable sur eux. ...
The contribution of projective clinical work in the understanding of repetitive suicide attempts : the case of Margaux. The repeated suicide attempts (phlebotomies and hanging attempts) made by Margaux can be seen within the framework of a borderline personality disorder. We attempt to demonstrate the value of a projective clinical approach which, combined with a straightforward clinical approach without additional instruments, makes it possible to understand mental functioning in situations where the presence of a psychosis was initially suspected. This clinical case suggests that self-aggression serves as a way of modulating intense negative affects and that failure in the task of separation-individuation, mobilized by puberty, violently intensifies the archaic defence mechanisms, in this case splitting, coupled with massive projection. In other words, the highly stimulating mental events associated with unconscious sexuality reduce the effort to make contact with the mind and favour recourse to the body in an attempt to expel all mental conflict.
... Ye jaise guitar ki body hote hai, peeche ye back portion hota hai (This is like the body of a guitar, and this is the back portion). Lerner's method (Lerner 1991) was used for analyzing the protocol in object relations perspective. The protocol clearly shows that V's internal world comprised of animals and non-living objects particularly those indicating primary process like toys, moth, animal skin. ...
The "object" of an instinct is the agent through which the instinctual aim is achieved and the agent is usually conceived as being another person. The present study is an attempt to explore the personality profile of V (having mental health problems) within the framework of object relations theory. V is a 26-year-old Indian female. She was going through marital separation at the time of testing. V gave a total of 26 responses on the Rorschach cards. The core character of Obsessive-Compulsive personality is clearly visible in her responses with sub-features of depressive and schizoid personality. Her thought organization features fragmented approach. V relates better with non-humans than humans. Her view of the world is reality tuned but she oscillates between withdrawal into fantasy and reality. Her internal self-object relations tend to be fluid and fused.
... The Rorschach Inkblot Method (Rorschach, 1921(Rorschach, /1951) is particularly useful for assessing differential development of mental representations and psychopathology that has an extensive psychoanalytic theoretical and empirical evidence-base (Allison, Blatt, & Zimet, 1968;Aronow & Reznikoff, 1976;Aronow, Reznikoff, & Moreland, 1994;Holt, 2009;Kwawer, Sugarman, Lerner, & Lerner, 1980;Kissen, 1986;Kleiger, 1999;Leichtman, 1996;Lerner & Lerner, 1988;Lerner, 1991Lerner, , 1992Lerner, , 1996Lerner, , 1998Masling, 1983;Rapaport, Gill, & Schafer, 1945-1946, 1968Schachtel, 1966;Schafer, 1948Schafer, , 1954Schafer, , 1967Silverstein, 1999;Weiner, 1966). As a performance-based measure of personality assessment, thoughts and images attributed to the Rorschach are shaped by the organizing characteristics of the individual's underlying inner representational world (Blatt & Lerner, 1983). ...
The present study consisted of a meta-analytic review of the criterion validity of the Rorschach Mutuality of Autonomy (Urist, 1977) scale. Search procedures yielded 27 independent samples (total N = 1,803, average n = 67, SD = 31) for inclusion in the meta-analysis. Results support the criterion validity of the Mutuality of Autonomy with an average overall weighted effect size of r = .24, p r = .18, p Q = 37.67, df = 26, p = .07), and all between-study moderator analyses were nonsignificant (ps > .19) with the exception of the specific type of criterion variable. Implications for future research and clinical practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)
... It appears that no attempt has yet been made to directly compare the Comprehensive System quantitative interpretation and psychoanalytic interpretation, even in the United States where these two approaches are the most fully developed (Lerner, 1991;Erdberg, 1993). It is interesting to reinterpret the results obtained by the Comprehensive System psychoanalytically, as Gacono (1990), Berg (1990), and others have done, but it may also be meaningful to compare the process of interpretation itself. ...
L’étude porte sur une comparaison entre deux méthodes d’interprétation d’un protocole de Rorschach: une interprétation selon le Système Intégré, et une analyse psychanalytique des réponses proposée par l’auteur.
Les styles défensifs et adaptatifs majeurs du sujet se sont reflétés de manière évidente dans les deux approches, et l’interprétation des traits de personnalité était congruente. Les hypothèses concernant les désirs, en se fondant sur les représentation (contenus) parlantes du protocole, étaient aussi congruentes.
Quelques points de désaccord sont cependant apparus: faut-il considérer les troubles qui ne sont pas suffisamment graves pour augmenter significativement les indices spéciaux du Système Intégré comme relevant d’un fonctionnement névrotique ou comme des manifestations des traits de personnalité de base; doit-on expliquer les attitudes contradictoires comme étant l’une une formation réactionnelle par rapport à l’autre; et comment interpréter le Type de Résonance Intime ambiéqual? On indique comment ces différences dérivent des différences dans les théories de la personnalité, dans la façon d’appliquer les données, et dans l’hypothèse interprétative concernant le Rorschach.
La façon dont l’auteur emploie les opérations du Système Intégré dans son interprétation présente des avantages et des inconvénients, et il souligne qu’il existe une réelle continuité entre l’administration, le système de cotation, et l’interprétation propre à chaque approche. En outre, l’auteur met en avant le fait que, quelle que soit l’approche utilisée, l’aspect le plus difficile dans la pratique du Rorschach, celui qui fait tout particulièrement appel à son habileté, c’est l’élaboration d’une description de la personnalité à partir des informations que fournit chaque interprétation spécifique.
... Zo wijst een overwicht aan orale thema's (voedsel, passieve behoeften, verzorging, warm vuur) op een orale driftfixatie die de intense afhankelijkheidsverlangens en sterke contactbehoefte van de patiënt kan verklaren. Voor Lerner (1991) zijn vooral de bewegingsantwoorden in het Rorschachprotocol informatief omdat dit bewegingsaspect steeds toegevoegd wordt aan de plaat. Ook regressieve tekenen zoals plotse impulsdoorbraken, denkstoornissen, blokkeringen of bizarre wendingen zijn interessant voor een psychodynamische hypothese (Chabert, 1983;Miller, 1987). ...
S a m e n v a t t i n g ] De toegenomen aandacht voor persoonlijkheidsstoornissen zorgde voor een opleving van de projectieve testdiagnostiek en een verbreding van hun theoretische onderbouwing. De bijdrage van deze instrumenten aan de diagnostiek van persoonlijkheidsstoornissen wordt in de desbetreffende lite-ratuur stiefmoederlijk behandeld. Aan de hand van concrete diagnostische vraagstellingen willen we aanto-nen dat projectieve technieken een plaats hebben op dit terrein. Verder relativeren we hun rol op het vlak van de psychodynamiek van persoonlijkheidsstoornissen en schetsen we hun inbreng bij de structurele per-soonlijkheidsdiagnostiek. Status van projectieve technieken Projectieve technieken worden vaak als oubol-lige instrumenten afgedaan. Niet geheel ten onrechte: Rorschachs vlekkenserie dateert van 1921; de Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) van 1935. Niet alleen ouderdom staat het ge-bruik van projectieve technieken in de weg, ze gelden ook als gecompliceerde en tijdroven-de instrumenten. De beschikbare scorings-en interpretatieschema's bieden weliswaar enig houvast maar schrikken af omdat ze de analyse van projectief materiaal tot vervelend detail-werk maken. Boven aan de lijst van bezwaren tegen de indirecte methoden van persoonlijk-heidsonderzoek staat hun lage wetenschappe-lijke status. Onbetrouwbaar en weinig valide, zo luidt het psychometrische oordeel. Voor ver-stokte tegenstanders vormen ze dan ook een smet op het blazoen van de klinische psycholo-gie. Jensen (in Masling, 1997) bijvoorbeeld laat de wetenschappelijke vooruitgang van de klini-sche psychologie afhangen van de mate waarin en de snelheid waarmee de Rorschach in de vergeetput verdwijnt.
... The three basic traditions that emerged in the assessment of defense mechanisms were observer-rated approaches, selfreport approaches and projective approaches. Only observer-rated and self-report approaches will be discussed in this chapter, since there is a large preexisting literature on projective measures (Cramer, 1990(Cramer, , 2006Hilsenroth, 2004;Lerner, 1991). ...
... Blatt adopted a more cognitive approach in which clinical experience is considered from a developmental framework. Researchers such as Urist (1977), and more recently Ipp (1986) and others quoted by Lerner (1991), apply Mahler's theory of separation-! ndividuati on and propose scales to assess the development of object relations. ...
Looking back at the various steps in my professional as well as personal life, I came across this sometimes obvious, sometimes hidden framework. My personal motivation could not have been better served than by the Rorschach, a sensitive test capable of revealing many such links. This could be reversed, however, and I could equally well propose that I became aware of this personal motivation through the Rorschach. Finally, I chose as my preferred paper the lecture I gave during the X International Congress of Rorschach and Projective Methods in Barcelona, published later in France under the title "The Rorschach, a Space for Interactions" (1985). I would like to devote these pages to the presentation and development of this theme. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... mosaic, a loose fitting composite of several complementary, internally consistent submodels, each of which furnishes concepts and formulations for understanding important aspect of personality development and functioning. The submodels commonly identified include drive theory, structural theory, object relations theory, and self theory (Pine, 1990;P. Lerner, 1991). ...
In this paper, the author reviews and integrates a select group of research endeavors which have attempted to operationalize and investigate concepts and formulations arising from object relations theory. The specific concepts to be reviewed include defense, object representations, and developmental object relations. The author chose these topics because they are basic and timely and because they represent areas in which investigators have devised, for research purposes, innovative, conceptually based scoring systems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... This approach places great demands on the examiner, of course, because it necessitates the recognition of his or her stimulus value to the patient and its precipitation out before interpreting the patient's interpersonal communication. Nevertheless, Arnow and Cooper (Arnow & Cooper, 1988) and Lerner (Lerner, 1991), among others, have demonstrated the effectiveness of utilizing these subjective data in interpreting such phenomena as the use of projective identification or the reliance on self-objects. ...
The psychoanalytic and empirical methods for the interpretation of the Rorschach constitute the dominant paradigms at present, reigning second in the United States, and first in the rest of the world. There has been recently an increasing interest in possible approach between both enforques. How and how much an integration could be obtained is the subject of this work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... Many self-and object-relations psychologists are interested in patients' views of their formulations. Paul Lerner (1991), for example, advocates such discussions of Rorschach findings. Finally, by now academic psychologists are far outnumbered by the practitioners they have graduated. ...
University training in assessment remains largely technological and classificatory, but practices are changing influenced by feminism and postmodernism. This influence is possible in part because of an implicit response to humanistic psychology's earlier challenges. This paper reviews the shift from holistic psychology into “objective” assessment, and subsequent humanistic calls for assessing the person as person. Fischer's approach to practicing and teaching human‐science assessment is then overviewed, and shown to be descriptive, contextual, collaborative, interventional, and structural. Future directions include political‐economic attunement, interdisciplinary cooperation and use of human‐science research in assessment.
... The purpose of defenses is, therefore, to terminate or modulate activation of the attachment behavioral system in order to prevent potentially disequilibrating subjective experiences of distress or discomfort. Projective testing is an excellent way to observe defensive processes at work because the ambiguous nature of the stimuli constitutes an implicit threat to the self (Lerner, 1991). The AAP is designed to assess the ways that individuals process and exclude attachment-related thoughts, emotions, and needs. ...
This chapter reviews the development, validation and use of the Adult Attachment Projective (AAP; George, West, & Pettem, 1997). The AAP is a projective instrument designed to provide a valid assessment of adult attachment states of mind, as conceptualized by Bowlby (1969). The AAP consists of a set of eight pictures depicting situations that activate the attachment behavioral system, such as loss of an attachment figure or physical threat to the self. The individual is asked to make up a story based on the pictures, and specific probes are used to insure that essential elements are included in the story. Research evidence to date provides strong support for the reliability and validity of the AAP. Results of studies looking at inter-rater reliability and construct validity have been especially impressive. The use of the AAP in psychological assessment is illustrated using an actual clinical case.
... In this article, we present a framework that integrates Id and Ego Psychology lines of development in the conceptualization of psychopathology for the purpose of guiding treatment. The simultaneous incorporation of id and ego lines of development has been addressed previously (e.g., Lerner, 1991;McWilliams, 1994, pp. 29-40;Smith, 1978). ...
This article presents a model for conceptualizing psychopathology designed to assist practitioners in evaluating patients and applying effective treatment plans. The model describes psychopathology as a function of (a) level of ego organization and (b) character style. Two adjunctive variables are discussed that augment treatment planning through (a) evaluation of the individual's current level of adaptive functioning and (b) confirmation of the diagnostic conceptualization and treatment approach by evaluation of the primary dynamic or conflict. These 2 major dimensions and 2 adjunctive variables are examined in relation to theoretical description of psychological functioning and procedures for assessment and treatment considerations, respectively. Key guidelines for the treatment of prototypical disorders are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... Graduate courses offer a third venue through which psychodynamics can be made relevant in the classroom. In addition to the connections that can be made in graduate developmental, social, and cognitive classes (see Table 2), there are numerous opportunities to develop these connections when teaching courses on assessment (especially projective testing; see Lerner, 1990), diagnosis (Shedler & Westen, 2004), psychotherapy (Luborsky & Crits-Christoph, 1990), and even community-based interventions (Pyszczynski, Solomon, & Greenberg, 2003). ...
Although psychoanalysis was once central to mainstream psychology, in recent years psychodynamic models of personality and psychopathology have become increasingly marginalized. The factors that combined to "disconnect" psychoanalysis from contemporary psychological science and clinical practice are examined, and strategies that can help reconnect psychoanalysis to mainstream psychology are described. These are (a) the use of nomothetic research methods to test and refine psychoanalytic concepts and (b) the communication of psychoanalytic principles and findings to colleagues, students, and members of the public. Opportunities and challenges that arise during this reconnection process are discussed, and prospects for the rebirth of a truly heuristic, integrative psychoanalysis are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Narcissistic pathology is difficult to assess in psychological testing of children and adults. Contemporary psychoanalytic diagnosis is based on Freud's (1915) metapsychological points of view and A. Freud's (1965) developmental profile, as in Schafer's (1954) Rorschach approach and Bellak's (1986) system for the Thematic Apperception Test and Children's Apperception Test. Bellak (1986) provided an analysis of the relation of the ego (self-concept characteristics of the main hero, conception of the world, interpersonal object relations, defense mechanisms, and 12 ego functions), id (thematic analysis, needs, anxieties, and significant conflicts), and superego. A case example of narcissistic pathology in a young child's Children's Apperception Test demonstrates this method of psychoanalytic diagnosis.
The COVID-19 pandemic and its requirements for social distancing and limited, if any, in-person contact have forced the child custody community to consider remote child custody evaluations (RCCEs) conducted through videoconferencing. CCEs are perhaps the most complex of all forensic evaluations, requiring complex, multifaceted assessments of multiple parties and their relationships in order to address the best interests of the child. Attempting these evaluations via videoconferencing should be done carefully and only after consideration of numerous factors, including whether this alternative can be safely and reliably accomplished. This article outlines the conceptual approach used by the child custody community for determining the foci of the evaluation, tailoring data collection via multiple methodologies, and analyzing the data. The article reviews the empirical literature demonstrating that professional relationships and various clinical and forensic processes have reliably and successfully used videoconferencing with adults, children, and different clinical and forensic populations. The article also outlines how evaluators conducting RCCEs must comply with the ethical demands of their discipline or profession, as well as ethical demands unique to remote service delivery. Finally, the article addresses how evaluators can prepare for challenges to their work that are based upon the standards for admissibility of expert witness testimony. The limitations of videoconferencing, including limitations specific to the demands of RCCEs, are also reviewed.
The scientific and philosophical background of personality assessment is examined, including review of hermeneutic methods in the human sciences. Following a keyword search and psychological test usage survey, it was concluded that the nomothetic scientific orientation predominates in forensic psychology. A topic debated since the middle 19 th century, the triumph of the nomothetic has implications for personality assessment models, interpretive methods, and description of human lives. This paper contextualizes personality assessment in 19 th and 20 th century hermeneutical philosophy, including the status of the nomothetic/idiographic divide. Hermeneutic philosophy-represented in the work of Schleiermacher, Dilthey, Heidegger, Bultmann, Gadamer, and Ricoeur-offers rich and relevant foundations of the art and science of personality assessment. The paper advances a research program and integrative methodology for interpreting human lives. Accommodations for an interpretive personality assessment are proposed, utilizing traditional and innovative applications. Hermeneutic praxis informs personality assessment methods reflecting the dialogical and recursive process of interpretation, application of the hermeneutic circle to assessment data, and the self-understanding of the practitioner. Forensic personology fosters epistemological and methodological integration with a focus on the whole person in the legal context.
This article examines the impact of psychoanalytic theory on the clinical practice of psychological testing. This impact has its origins in the work of D. Rapaport, M. Gill, and R. Schafer (1945–1946), who integrated the psychoanalytic model of the mind with psychological tests. Such integration allowed an expansion of the clinical inference process to a new level. The work of these 3 major thinkers has allowed psychological testing to expand far beyond the psychometric and atheoretical approach so prevalent in psychological testing before the 1940s as well as the descriptive emphasis on testing that is so popular today. The various contributions of psychoanalytic theory to psychological testing are explored in detail. Four functions served by psychoanalytic theory in psychological testing practice are delineated. Furthermore, psychoanalytic theory allows the psychologist to expand the number of data sources available in psychological testing. The authors conclude by tracing the various contributions and schools of psychoanalytically oriented testing that have derived from D. Rapaport's work.
In approaching the topic of the violent criminal offender from a psychoanalytic point of view, it is important to realize that contemporary psychoanalysis is not a unified theory. The original Freudian theory has been modified and expanded into several overlapping but coherent and distinct approaches to human development, psy-chopathology, and treatment. Most prominent among these are modern structural theory (most closely associated with Freud’s drive theory), self psychology (associated with the theories of Heinz Kohut), and object relations theory (stressing the formative developmental impact of interpersonal relationships).
In approaching the topic of aggression in psychiatric patients from the perspective of psychoanalysis, it is important to recognize that contemporary psychoanalysis is not a unified theory. As the original Freudian theory has been modified and expanded, it has gradually developed into several distinctive approaches within psychoanalysis. Though overlapping, each provides coherent and distinct approaches to human development, psychopathology, and treatment. Most prominent among these are modern structural theory (most closely connected with Freud’s drive theory), self psychology (associated with the theories of Heinz Kohut), and object relations theory.
The Form (F) response is based on the shape-form-outline of the inkblot, and is generally considered the simplest of the Rorschach determinants because it is easy to score, understand, and interpret. F is one of the very few concepts about which Rorschach, Beck, Hertz, Klopfer, Piotrowski, Rapaport-Schafer, and, later, Exner, have found consensus. Allegedly, it represents affect-free, pure-picture perception and, psychiatrically, is used to assess the capacity for accurate, consensually defined reality testing. However, Schachtel's 1941 (modified, Schachtel, 1966) article, Dynamic Perception and the Symbolism of Form, was the first to challenge this view by expanding the understanding of this determinant; his contributions are explored here. Schachtel explored the psychological function and meaning of the F response, offering 6 issues for consideration: (a) the role of form perception, (b) the perceptual attitude underlying the F response, (c) perceptual hold, (d) delay and the F response, (e) the development of the F response, and, most important, (f) the Dynamic Form response (DF). This article focuses on the DF response. The DF response recasts some F responses to include the presence of affect. When linked with Rapaport's (1958) concept of the autonomy of the ego, the DF response provides information on the ego' s ability to hold, tolerate, and neutralize affect. In short, the DF response carries affect (both nutriment and discharge) that is otherwise blocked in the pure F response. We build on Schachtel's work by offering suggestions for the clinical identification and use of the DF response.
Although few new students of the Rorschach are familiar with the work of Ernest Schachtel, he has made major contributions to Rorschach theory that are as relevant to current practice as they were a generation ago. This article examines several of the most important of these contributions, including: (a) the manner in which Schachtel called attention to the failure of proponents of the Rorschach to establish a clear rationale for it, (b) the ways in which he addressed this problem by elaborating theories about the nature of the test and the meaning of Rorschach determinants, and (c) his analysis of the central role of subjective definitions of the test situation in the response process. Particular emphasis is placed on examining how Schachtel's phenomenological approach to the Rorschach allowed him to deal with issues neglected by empiricists and clinicians and continues to afford a perspective on the test that complements rather than challenges their viewpoints.
This article is a review and reassessment of Allison, Blatt, and Zimet's (1968) The Interpretation of Psychological Tests. The book, a distillation of David Rapaport's approach to psychological assessment, is organized around 2 main foci: a discussion from the perspective of psychoanalytic ego psychology of each of the 3 major instruments (i.e., Wechsler intelligence scale, Rorschach, Thematic Apperception Test) in Rapaport's testing battery and a demonstration of how a clinician might interpret and integrate the results of each of these instruments with regard to a single case. I discuss the significance of this book, and of Rapaport's psychoanalytic approach to psychological evaluation, for projective assessment today. In addition, I present information regarding the intellectual backgrounds of Allison, Blatt, and Zimet and explain how each of them was influenced by Roy Schafer, who in the 1950s brought Rapaport's ideas about psychoanalytic theory and psychological testing to Yale University.
Presents the Children's Apperception Test (CAT) protocol of an 8-yr-old boy with narcissistic pathology and demonstrates the approach of L. Bellak (1986) in making this assessment. Bellak provided an analysis of the relation of the ego (self-concept characteristics of the main hero, conception of the world, interpersonal object relations, defense mechanisms, and 12 ego functions), id (thematic analysis, needs, anxieties, and significant conflicts), and superego. A summary of the CAT results and treatment recommendations are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study addresses a methodological issue regarding the preferred method of collecting early memories data—using an interpersonal administration to collect the data, or using a written procedure in which subjects are asked to record their early memories privately. Early memories from clinical and nonclinical control groups from two experimental conditions were scored on the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale (SCORS). The results support the superiority of the interpersonal administration over the private, written condition in differentiating clinical from nonclinical controls. The results are discussed in the context of contemporary trends in personality assessment, which attempt to limit interpersonal contact with the patient during the assessment process, in order to save time and money. The authors contend that this practice may yield less complex and less fertile projective data than the traditional interpersonal testing context.
We give an account of our experiences of coming from London in England to teach the Rorschach Comprehensive system at Shue Yan University in Hong Kong. We discuss some cross-cultural questions, relating these to some Rorschach variables, and we give a clinical example that shows how the test can be integrated with a psychoanalytic approach.
Herein I describe a clinical approach to assessment based in psychoanalytic theory. I discuss underlying clinical-humanistic values and the way in which the purpose of assessment is conceptualized. Recognizing that the underlying values and the purpose of assessment inform all aspects of the assessment experience, I discuss in detail the role of the assessor, sources of information, securing the assessee's active involvement, the clinical inference process, and report writing.
This article examines the impact of psychoanalytic theory on the clinical practice of psychological testing. This impact has its origins in the work of D. Rapaport, M. Gill, and R. Schafer (1945–1946), who integrated the psychoanalytic model of the mind with psychological tests. Such integration allowed an expansion of the clinical inference process to a new level. The work of these 3 major thinkers has allowed psychological testing to expand far beyond the psychometric and atheoretical approach so prevalent in psychological testing before the 1940s as well as the descriptive emphasis on testing that is so popular today. The various contributions of psychoanalytic theory to psychological testing are explored in detail. Four functions served by psychoanalytic theory in psychological testing practice are delineated. Furthermore, psychoanalytic theory allows the psychologist to expand the number of data sources available in psychological testing. The authors conclude by tracing the various contributions and schools of psychoanalytically oriented testing that have derived from D. Rapaport's work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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