Contaminated thinking: A specimen of the primary process.

We conducted an intensive analysis of contaminated responses on the Rorschach. The process of contaminated thinking assumes different forms which are analogous to the numerous varieties of dream condensation. Most of these responses combine regressive and progressive features, in that they combine primary and secondary process thinking. Many appear to have dynamic significance as well. We described the struggle implicit in such responses, between a regressive loss of objects, and an effort to remain in contact with reality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rorschach correlates of time estimation.

This study was designed to test the hypothesis that Rorschach scores which have been suggested as measures of the ability to delay gratification of needs are related to the manner in which the passage of time is perceived. 51 men and women were given individual Rorschachs and then were asked to estimate the lengths of various time intervals. Correlations between the Rorschach scores and time estimations revealed that Ss with low % M and high Sum C overestimated the time intervals to a significantly greater extent than those with high % M and low Sum C. Time estimation scores were not related to % FM or % m. These findings appear to support the hypothesis that M is inversely related to the motivation for the rapid passage of time while C is positively related to the same motive. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Zygmunt A. Piotrowski: Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions: 1980.

Provides the biography of Zygmunt A. Piotrowski and announces that he has received the Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions (1980) for his tireless efforts as a researcher, clinician/therapist, and teacher. His extensive experimental and clinical work with the Rorschach test has demonstrated its usefulness as a comprehensive personality assessment tool. A selected bibliography is also provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Zygmunt A. Piotrowski (1904–1985).

Presents an obituary for Zygmunt Piotrowski. Though most widely known for his development of and research with the Rorschach test, devising a system he referred to as perceptanalysis (to emphasize the centrality of the image, as opposed to the secondary associations elicited), his more than 150 publications covered 105 separate topics. Born in Poznan, Poland, Piotrowski studied psychology, the history of philosophy, and symbolic logic. His PhD dissertation was on the perception of time. He did postgraduate study at Teacher's College of Columbia University, worked at the New Jersey Neuropsychiatric Institute, and served as adjunct professor of psychology at Temple University and as a visiting professor in the Department of Mental Health Sciences at the Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital, now Hahnemann University. He taught psychology courses, primarily in the Rorschach and other forms of test-based diagnoses, at many major universities, including New York University, Yeshiva, Fordham, Xavier, Rutgers, Laval in Quebec, and the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. The unifying theme in Piotrowski's research was the demonstration that the manner in which we structure our visual worlds predicts how we feel and live and how we build not only our homes and cathedrals but also our societies as well. Piotrowski passed away in 1985. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pre-oedipal phenomena, affect disorders, and biological psychiatry.

With the emergence of biological psychiatry as a major political, conceptual, and treatment force, the diagnosis of endogenous depression is being applied across a broad range of clinical conditions. In such a climate, controversy surrounding the diagnostic enterprise, the somatic treatment of affect disorders, and the conceptualization of psychopathology poses important and exciting challenges to psychoanalytic psychologists practicing in medical settings. These issues are examined through a clinical illustration involving an 18-year-old adolescent girl diagnosed and treated as a "major affect disorder." Her Rorschach protocol is highlighted with a view toward describing and coming to understand the patient's experience of depression, significant others, and herself. The role of psychoanalytic object relations theory, developmental psychoanalysis, and self-psychology in providing a phenomenologically based, "experience near," unified view of the whole person is advanced as one possible corrective measure for slowing down and critically evaluating the movement toward an exclusively biological view of psychopathology and treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Speed of form recognition as a function of stimulus factors and test anxiety.

This study evaluated the usefulness of several theories about Rorschach color shock. Using an arabic-greco-latin square design, the influence of color, pattern of color, figure, and anxiety level on response time was investigated in 192 Ss. "The influence on response time of stimulus attributes affecting complexity was confirmed. The hypotheses that highly anxious persons are greatly affected by colors are not confirmed. Partially verified were predictions made from Hullian behavior theory. It was found that drive level and figure difficulty were related to response time in that highly anxious persons became slower with increasing difficulty of figure during warm-up trials. During the test series, however, the predicted relationship was not found." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: Samuel J. Beck (1896-1980).

Presents an obituary for Samuel J. Beck (1896-1980), whose name has been synonymous with the Rorschach Test for nearly 50 years. Beck worked tirelessly to develop the Rorschach as a scientific tool that would have some meaningfulness for all of psychology. Beck's first book, Introduction to the Rorschach Technique, in 1937 was the first monograph of the American Orthopsychiatric Association. Subsequently, his three-volume series (Rorschach's Test: Volume 1-Basic Processes; Volume 2-A Variety of Personality Pictures; and Volume 3-Advances in Interpretation) appeared between 1944 and 1952 and became standard in the field for thousands of students and practitioners. Throughout Sam Beck's long career in teaching, practice, and research he labored fruitfully to close the gap between scientific method and clinical practice by continually illustrating how the idiographic and nomothetic approaches could be neatly blended into the study and understanding of the person. Beck was an excellent teacher, a dedicated and extremely skilled Rorschacher, and a model clinician. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality differences on the Rorschach of dissociative identity disorder, borderline personality disorder, and psychotic inpatients.

Patients with dissociative identity disorder (DID) are often diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and misdiagnosed with psychotic illnesses. This study is designed to determine whether the Rorschach protocols of 67 patients with DID differ from those of 40 patients with BPD and 43 patients with psychotic disorder (PSD) in variables reflecting capacity for working alliance, complexity of experience, and ability to reason despite traumatic flooding. As theoretically and clinically predicted, the DID group could be distinguished from the PSD sample by the DID group’s significantly higher level of traumatic associations alongside their more logical reasoning (e.g., Trauma Content Index [TCI], WSUM6). In comparison to the BPD group who, by definition, were also likely to dissociate and struggle with other trauma based symptoms, the DID sample showed greater social interest (Sum H), self-reflective capacity (FD; Form Dimension), ability to perceive more accurately and think more logically (X-, WSUM6). The authors discuss the treatment applications of these findings and make suggestions for further research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Rorschach: Facts, fictions, and future.

A large body of empirical evidence supports the reliability, validity, and utility of the Rorschach. This same evidence reveals that the recent criticisms of the Rorschach are largely without merit. This article systematically addresses several significant Rorschach components: interrater and temporal consistency reliability, normative data and diversity, methodological issues, specific applications in the evaluation of thought disorder and suicide, meta-analyses, incremental validity, clinician judgment, patterns of use, and clinical utility. Strengths and weaknesses of the test are addressed, and research recommendations are made. This information should give the reader both an appreciation for the substantial, but often overlooked, research basis for the Rorschach and an appreciation of the challenges that lie ahead. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Performance of Personality Assessment Inventory and Rorschach Indices of Schizophrenia in a Public Psychiatric Hospital.

The present study investigated the performance of indices of schizophrenia from the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI-SCZ; L. C. Morey, 1991) and Rorschach (Rorschach SCZI; J. E. Exner, 1993) in a heterogeneous sample of 24 inpatients at a public psychiatric hospital in the southeastern United States. Results indicated modest agreement between the PAI-SCZ and Rorschach SCZI. More important, the PAI-SCZ but not Rorschach SCZI reliably differentiated inpatients with schizophrenic-spectrum diagnoses from inpatients with other psychiatric diagnoses. In settings in which psychotic disorders falling outside the schizophrenic spectrum are common, the PAI-SCZ may be better suited than the Rorschach SCZI to aid in the differential diagnosis of schizophrenia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)