Elaboration of Some Sequence Analysis Strategies: Examples and Guidelines for Level of Confidence

Abstract

Although not the only way to approach the interpretation of Rorschach test data, the Comprehensive System (Exner, 1991) search strategy is the most systematized and empirically informed to date. Within that search strategy, a role for sequence analysis remains (Weiner, 1998). Sequence analysis adds a specificity of nuance useful in bringing personal meaning to, answering more difficult test questions about, or explaining apparent incongruities in the data. In this article, I elaborate a few aspects of some particular sequence analysis strategies as a way of supplementing Weiner's (1998) description. I discuss and expand the following ideas: (a) conjoint (configurational) examination of individual responses, (b) specifics about patient concerns, (c) specifics about response deterioration and their treatment implications, (d) specifics about response recovery and their treatment implications, (e) contribution of attitude toward the response, (f) minisequence and configurational analysis strategies for particular test questions, and (g) guidelines for establishing level of confidence in sequence analysis inferences.

Rorschach Oral Dependency in psychopaths, sexual homicide perpetrators, and nonviolent pedophiles

“…Such computations were an empirical way by which to represent a sequential analysis of the pairing of aggression and dependency. Sequential analysis has long been understood as a mechanism by which to evaluate the processes with which an individual copes with, defends against, and recovers from conflicting psychological impulses, needs, and states (Peebles-Kleiger, 2002;Weiner, 2003). Given the nature of our clinical samples, we expected that stimuli from a given Rorschach card would generate dependent or aggressive impulses, and that the generation of such impulses would more than likely be associated with the other impulse.…”

To Resume a Stalled Psychotherapy? Psychological Testing to Understand an Impasse and Reevaluate Treatment Options

“…But what happened next in the sequence moving to Card X was also illuminating: She provided three of four good-form (FQo) responses with no primary process (derepressed or critical) content or cognitive special scores: "crabs" (D1o Fo 2 A P), "insects" (Do8 Fo 2 A), and "faces looking at each other" (Dd25C M p o 2 Hd). In other words, she recovered; that is, her ego functioning stabilized (Bram & Peebles, 2014;Peebles-Kleiger, 2002). What facilitated her recovery?…”

Ego Psychoanalytic Rorschach Interpretation

“…As far as I know, mine was the only Rorschach text since Schafer’s 1954 book to provide a systematic description and illustrations of sequence analysis. Also of note, however, is a Rorschachiana contribution in which Baba (1995) compared a Rorschach Comprehensive System case interpretation with a psychoanalytic sequence analysis, and Peebles-Kleiger (2002) and Silverstein (2013) have more recently emphasized and demonstrated the often overlooked utility of a sequential analysis interpretive procedure.…”