In 1976, Blatt, Brenneis, Schimek, and Glick developed a comprehensive scale for assessing the organization and content of the "concept of the object" in Rorschach responses. Utilizing developmental theory, they developed procedures for assessing the representation of human figures on the Rorschach in terms of the degree of differentiation, articulation, and integration. This analysis of Rorschach responses has proven to be of considerable value in clinical research and has provided empirical data for the study of severe psychopathology. The present paper considers the clinical utility of this conceptual scheme. Five prototypic patients, each representing a particular diagnostic category, were selected for study on the basis of clinical case records. The object representations of the five cases are presented and analyzed in detail, and conclusions are drawn about possible configurations of object representations in different forms of psychopathology. The value of a systematic assessment of object representations for differential diagnosis as well as for the study of change in the psychotherapeutic process is considered. This approach to Rorschach interpretation represents an integration of object relations theory into Rorschach methodology. These new concepts of test assessment and interpretation offer the promise of providing a methodological framework and theoretical foundation for further innovative use of the Rorschach and other projective procedures.
This study assesses the concurrent validity of two Rorschach defense scales designed to identify borderline defensive structure. A Rorschach scale designed by Cooper and his colleagues was systematically compared to a defense scale constructed by Lerner and Lerner. Despite considerable overlap on a conceptual and operational level, the scales are based on divergent theoretical models (developmental arrest and fixation) and Rorschach units of analysis (all responses and human responses). Our results are based on the capacity of each scale to discriminate between independently diagnosed samples (neurotic, outpatient borderline, inpatient borderline, schizophrenic) and the relative discriminatory power of particular defenses within each scale to differentiate between groups.
Developmental theory, cognitive psychology, and object relations theory now offer a general conceptual framework for integrating diverse research findings on the Rorschach human response and for highlighting the developmental significance of interpersonal relationships and their formative contribution to building psychological structure. A comprehensive study of the human response on the Rorschach utilizing three dimensions of Blatt's Concept of the Object Scale (accuracy, differentiation, content) demonstrates that a systematic assessment of object relations--of concepts of self and others--is an important core issue in personality development and useful in making distinctions among diagnostic groups (neurotics, outpatient borderlines, inpatient borderlines, schizophrenics). The results illustrate that particular developmental and cognitive properties of human responses produced on the Rorschach show distinct patterns of differential impairment related to type and severity of psychopathology.
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