The Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test (BVMG) continues to be used with considerable popularity despite the development of much more effective and comprehensive neuropsychologic test batteries. After reviewing the development of the BVMG and the methodological problems that lead to its purported effectiveness, this article concludes that it is essential that the sole use of the BVMG to determine "organicity" be abandoned.In many respects there should not be a need for this article. However, despite the tremendous advances in neuropsychologic assessment, the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test (BVMG), as developed by Bender in 1938, continues to retain its popularity in clinical practice in detection of organic dysfunction (Golden & Kupperman, 1980;Reynolds, 1979). Demonstrating this point is Golden and Kupperman's (1980) survey, which indicated that a substantial number of American Psychological Association (APA) approved clinical/counseling programs continue to teach the BVMG as the sole assessment technique for evaluating cerebral dysfunction. Similarly, Reynolds (1979) recently demonstrated that the BVMG ranked fifth in overall quality of psychometric refinement, rankings that differ little from previous studies examining test usage (e.g. Brown & McGuire, 1976; Lubin, Wallis, & Paine, 1971). Such findings indicate the entrenched usage of the BVMG.Because of what we consider inappropriate continued use of the BVMG, we intend to briefly review the literature in terms of the BVMG's development as well as the apparent selective inattention to its lack of clinically effective discrimination of brain damaged/dysfunctional patients. Several case studies will be presented. Review of the LiteratureBecause of its simplicity, short administration time, and initial studies of its success (see Bender, 1938), the BVMG rapidly became the revered test for establishing organicity. By 1964 Koppitz declared that it is "generally accepted that the Bender Gestalt Test is a valuable aid in the diagnosis of neurologic impairment" (p. 71). Similarly, several scoring methods were developed that gave further credance to the "objectivity" of this measure for evaluating cerebral dysfunction (

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