Psychoanalysis and Projective Methods in Personality Assessment

This unique book synthesizes the work of leading thinkers of the French School of psychoanalytical projective methods in personality assessment. The French School is a direct successor to Rorschach's and Murray's original approaches using the Rorschach Test and the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). Underlying this method is the idea of the coexistence of conscious and unconscious processes, of opposite instinctual pairs, and of agents that are ruled by conflicts (Freud). Transitional activity is seen as part of an intermediate space, a mediator space, and bearer of messages between the subject and the clinician (Winnicott). This book brings to life the important contributions of the French School, firstly exploring its theories and methods and then its clinical applications. Detailed case studies from different stages of life examine the psychopathology of everyday life with its severe and disabling states of suffering. Contemporary advances in research and clinical work are presented, and the groundbreaking early work of Nina Rausch de Traubenberg, Vica Shentoub, and Rosine Debray are also critically reread and discussed.

Clinical tools adapted for clinicians and researchers in the appendices include a useful schema to facilitate the interpretation of the Rorschach and TAT together, a list of latent solicitations for the TAT, and the current version of the TAT Scoring Grid.

This book is essential reading for clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, psychotherapists, researchers, and students interested in applying psychoanalytical theory to projective methods.