The Rorschach: From Percept to Fantasm

Abstract

Recently I was asked to select from my various papers on clinical psychology the one I preferred and in which I expressed most clearly my approach as a clinical psychologist. This led me to think about what has been the main theme of my research, clinical practice, teaching activities, and scientific papers. I would like to call this theme a sensitivity toward all that is interactive and linking. This sensitivity, initially intuitive, became a systematic search for relationships and interactions.Looking back at the various steps in my professional as well as personal life, I came across this sometimes obvious, sometimes hidden framework. My personal motivation could not have been better served than by the Rorschach, a sensitive test capable of revealing many such links. This could be reversed, however, and I could equally well propose that I became aware of this personal motivation through the Rorschach.Are we really entitled to look for a link between the choice of our working tool and of our internal attitude? I think that it is worthwhile to do so, each of us for himself or herself, just as it is important to maintain awareness of the role played by our intuition in data interpretation, because this intuition complements scientific competence.Finally, I chose as my preferred paper the lecture I gave during the X International Congress of Rorschach and Projective Methods in Barcelona, published later in France under the title "The Rorschach, a Space for Interactions" (1985). I would like to devote these pages to the presentation and development of this theme.

Psychodynamic Assessment of Psychosis in Adolescence

“…From a psychodynamic viewpoint, the projective setting creates a transitional space (Winnicott, 1970), a “space for interaction” (Rausch de Traubenberg, 1993, p. 8), between perception and projection insofar as the instruction solicits verbal productions that call upon both visual/perceptual and imaginary/symbolic mechanisms. The question that arises to the clinician is the following: What are the mental operations and thought processes involved during the test?…”

Speaking Rorschach: Let Not Theory Come Between Us

“…The associations that people form to the inkblots reveal a great deal about their personality dynamics and their underlying needs, concerns, and attitudes toward themselves and others. Thus, as Rapaport (1946/1958) was perhaps first to point out, and as others have more recently elaborated (Blatt, 1990; Rausch de Traubenberg, 1993; Weiner, 1993), the Rorschach is both a measure of perception and a measure of association.…”

“…Les associations nous révèlent des aspects de la dynamique de la personnalité et des besoins, préoccupations, et attitudes face à eux-mêmes et aux autres, qui sont sous-jacents. On peut dire ainsi, comme Rapaport (1946/1958) a peut-être été le premier à souligner, et comme d’autres l’ont développé plus récemment (Blatt, 1990; Rausch de Traubenberg, 1993; Weiner, 1993), le Rorschach est à la fois une mesure de la perception et une mesure de l’association.La traduction des perceptions et associations Rorschach en descriptions fines du fonctionnement de la personnalité ne dépend pas de, et n’est pas limitée à, une orientation théorique particulière. Les tenants d’optiques théoriques différentes peuvent insister sur des aspects différents d’un protocole; et ils peuvent exprimer leurs conclusions dans des langages conceptuels différents.…”

“…Les associations nous révèlent des aspects de la dynamique de la personnalité et des besoins, préoccupations, et attitudes face à eux-mêmes et aux autres, qui sont sous-jacents. On peut dire ainsi, comme Rapaport (1946/1958) a peut-être été le premier à souligner, et comme d’autres l’ont développé plus récemment (Blatt, 1990; Rausch de Traubenberg, 1993; Weiner, 1993), le Rorschach est à la fois une mesure de la perception et une mesure de l’association.…”

The Rorschach Experience and Play Activities

“…Rausch de Traubenberg noted that during the Rorschach test situation there is “... opportunity for free expression and even for play ...” (1993, p.12). According to Leichtman (1988), “... examiners typically have great difficulty keeping two-year old children focused on the test or keeping the Rorschach card from being transformed into a toy” (p.577).…”