Book Description

Written by three leading experts in Rorschach content analysis, this practical volume presents the Rorschach as it is frequently used by experienced psychologists. It covers both traditional and alternative approaches to interpretation, providing a thorough exposition of the perceptual and content roles of the Rorschach in assessment and treatment. The book breaks new ground in several ways. The authors have focused on creating a work that is clinically relevant and useful. To that end, perceptual scoring and tabulation have been simplified in order to make the presentation more understandable. Pathological verbalizations and content analysis are covered in depth. An extensive discussion shows how the Rorschach and other projective techniques can be used not only for assessment, but as tools in the psycho-therapeutic endeavor. Coverage of the Consensus Rorschach explains its use with more than one subject - a technique that is particularly useful in marriage and family counseling. Finally, the book includes extensive case material and verbatim protocols that show the reader how to use the methods of interpretation presented. The authors begin with a brief history and review of the current status of inkblot techniques, followed by a discussion of traditional administrative techniques and what is known about blot stimulus characteristics. Traditional scoring and interpretation are presented, including the simple content categories, tabulation, and traditional perceptual interpretation. The section ends with a brief summary on normative data and a chapter covering the scoring of pathological verbalizations. The second half of the book presents the "content-idiographic" approach toRorschach interpretation. The theoretical underpinnings of content interpretation in general and idiographic content interpretation in particular are introduced, and the weaknesses and problems in this approach are explored. This section includes detailed coverage of content sequence analysis and content-oriented methods of administration, with particular reference to the Content Rorschach Technique developed by the authors. The Consensus Rorschach Technique is also described, and there is a discussion (with case studies) of how clinicians can integrate the Rorschach and other projective techniques into their psychotherapeutic work. The book ends with three complete protocols, offering additional insight into both traditional and content techniques.