A Child with ADHD: Convergences of Rorschach Data and Case Material

Psychological testing and the analytically trained child psychologist.

“…Such endeavors can draw on both the psychoanalytic and developmental literatures, which offer valid methods for the following: evaluating children's thinking and internal representations based on Rorschach responses (Blatt, Tuber, & Auerbach, 1990;Meyer & Tuber, 1989), interpreting the thematic contents of young children's pretend play (Keren et al, 2005;Marans et al, 1991), discerning defensive style based on response to the Thematic Apperception Test (Cramer, 1991), and assessing the quality and coherence of children's narrative stories (Fonagy & Target, 2002;Main, 2000). In addition, there is substantial evidence that projective testing can serve as an important adjunct to ongoing child psychotherapy in the following ways: elucidating pervasive patterns of defense and dysregulation that arise in multiple settings (Harris et al, 2007), measuring changes in defensive organization during the course of treatment (Cramer & Blatt, 1990), and predicting adjustment in children who have been hospitalized (Tuber, 1983). McWilliams (2008) asserts that graduate students often find themselves captivated by dynamic ideas, but can become discouraged by the perception of diminished opportunities for psychoanalytic careers.…”

“…As Gilmore (2002Gilmore ( , 2008 and Rothstein et al (1988) observe, the analytic community's longstanding tendency to favor psychogenic over biologically based etiologies seriously limited their understanding of neurocognitive deficits for a number of years, a situation that these authors have attempted to redress. The collection of work on psychoanalytic treatments for learning disordered children remains small, but there is some evidence for increased interest in this approach (Harris, Reynoso, Meehan, Ueng-Maltale, & Tuber, 2007;Weinstein & Saul, 2005).…”

“…However, such criticisms overlook a substantial body of work, for example, Blatt et al's (1990) application of a widely used and well-validated method for assessing object representations on the Rorschach to a population of adolescents and young adults. In addition, there are abundant papers on the meaningful use of free-response tests for assessing diverse areas of child functioning, such as self-esteem (Semer & Yazigi, 2009), gender identity (Coates, 1990), separation and autonomy (Knight, 2005), defense mechanisms (Cramer, 2006), self-regulation (Harris et al, 2007; Meehan et al, 2008), and vulnerability to depression and anxiety (Exner & Erdberg, 2005).…”