Using Rorschach CS Narrative Responses of the MOA Scale to Construct and Share Patient’s Model Scenes

Abstract

The Mutuality of Autonomy Scale (MOAS; Urist, 1977 ; Urist & Shill, 1982 ) provides a summary measure of a patient’s repertoire of previous interpersonal interactions. It lends empirical support for the hypothesized salience of object representations, including the patient’s subjective relational experience being an integral facet of personality. It also enhances the therapist’s capacity to access the patient’s inner relational world during the consulting sessions by activating the capacity to think metaphorically. Rorschach narrative responses included in the MOAS are useful in detecting initial representations of a patient’s relational modalities, in sharing the same verbalization, and in helping to construct the initial model scene. This entails significant communication from the patient about his or her life. These scenes can be used by the therapist and the patient to “depict something previously unknown, starting from what is known.” The purpose of using MOAS responses is to give the patient some initial cognitive and emotional representations to configurations of relational experiences, very similar to model scenes ( Lachmann & Lichtenberg, 1992 ). A clinical example is used to illustrate the relationship between MOAS responses and model scenes used in the psychoanalytical framework.