The Rorschach: Basin Foundations, Vol. 1

by John E. Exner Jr.

Volume 3: Assessment of Children and Adolescents provides practical, authoritative guidance in the Rorschach assessment of personality functioning in young people and in the identification of psychological disorders and developmental difficulties. Supported by conceptual formulations and research evidence, this text helps clinical and counseling psychologists deepen their understanding of the Rorschach and sharpen their skill in administering it. The Second Edition includes new material on the issue of projection, revised normative data on young people age 5 to 16, and a demonstration of the recently developed Comprehensive System "search strategy" for interpreting children's and adolescents' records. New to this edition also are sections on interpreting the Schizophrenia Index (SCZI), the Depression Index (DEPI), the Coping Deficit Index (CDI), and the Hypervigilence Index (HVI), and a discussion of bipolar disorder and the dynamic interplay of mania and depression. Subsequent chapters present new formulations of faltering personality development and antisocial behavior and new information on the assessment of learning disabilities and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A final chapter offers new material on Rorschach-based recommendations in child custody disputes. Throughout the text, explanatory concepts and empirical data are used to link features of normal and abnormal development with response patterns on the Rorschach, which are then linked to concrete criteria for diagnosis and treatment planning. The authors provide fourteen case studies to demonstrate clearly the application of these principles in clinical practice. Based on a system that has, over time, demonstrated both its validity and reliability, this book is an essential resource for all psychologists practicing, teaching, supervising, or researching personality assessment of children and adolescents.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction

488 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[Liam O'Leary · Rating 3 out of 5]

The definitive source material for anyone wanting to understand the practice and interpretation of the Rorshach test. Exner proposes a quantitative system for interpreting Rorshach test responses.

This first book explains the principles, the second book includes the more advanced scoring method for actually performing the test by Exner's standard. It is a big book, but with persistence, you can skim through to what you need to know.

Regardless of whether you agree with it or not as a legal standard of mental health, the book does fairly well at portraying its message: it is well structured and organised for people fairly new to this but who have a basic general familiarity with psychology texts.

One of the hiliarious things about the test, and one to remember, is that no matter how insane the images you say you are seeing in a given inkblot, if you explicitly declare that they are cartoon images (i.e. I am seeing a cartoon of [insert horrific imagery here]), you are seen as no less sane (if anything, more) than if you had made no response at all.

In short: shaky foundations, but consistent methodology.

[Lesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't roll your eyes about the ink blot test. An expertly adminstered, scored, and interpreted protocol can be admissible in a court of law!

[Peregrine 12 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dude, I feel sick. Is that a guy wearing a tux made of bacon? Just kidding - it's a tee shirt. Made of bacon.