Understanding Personality through Projective Testing

by Steven Tuber PhD, ABPP

Overview

The past forty years have revealed a myriad of theoretical advances to Freud’s original conceptions of the personality. It has also witnessed the continued use of projective methods as a vital means of understanding the what and the how of mental health and psychopathology. Understanding Personality Through Projective Testing provides the reader with a comprehensive framework for linking these revitalized key domains of personality functioning to the quality of responses to projective testing in both children and adults. Six core aspects of personality: two facets of object relations (moving towards and away from self and others); the quality of defense mechanisms; the nature of affect maturity; the integrity of autonomous ego functioning and the capacity for playfulness are defined, articulated, and linked to one another in a reciprocal manner. Four commonly used projective testing methods: the Rorschach Inkblot Method (RIM); the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), the Sentence Completion Test (SCT), and the Animal Preference Test (APT) are then described in detail. Each of these projective methods is in turn presented as dynamically-based tools to indicate the relative performance of the patient across the six core personality domains. Clinical case examples provide both the beginning and more seasoned clinician with a comprehensive psychodynamic paradigm with which to view each of the testing methods, as well as enhanced methods with which to use each of the tests more subtly and hence with greater clinical acumen. A comprehensive battery of projective testing is then assessed through the protocol of a single adult patient, allowing the reader to integrate the value of each of the individual projective methods into a comprehensive assessment of the whole person. Readers will find the book a vital complement to both standard reference works on projective methods as well as books that describe personality along developmental and psychodynamic lines.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780765709240
Publisher:	Aronson, Jason Inc.
Publication date:	03/09/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	254
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Steven Tuber, PhD, ABPP, is professor of psychology and director of clinical training in the doctoral program in clinical psychology of the City University of New York at City College. He is the author of the critically acclaimed books Attachment, Play & Authenticity: A Winnicott Primer, and Starting Treatment with Children and Adolescents: A Process-Oriented Guide for Therapists (with Jane Caflisch) as well as over one hundred papers on the interplay between assessment and treatment in children, adolescents, and adults.Understanding Personality through Projective Testing was also selected as a finalist for the Goethe Award for Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Scholarship (2012).

Table of Contents

Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
Dedication
Chapter 1: A Story
Chapter 2: A Conceptual Framework for Personality Assessment: The Domains of Negative and Positive Object Relations
Chapter 3: Affects, Defenses, Ego Functions and the Capacity to Play
Chapter 4: The Rorschach: Translating The RIM to our Personality Domains
Chapter 5: Linking RIM Movement, Shading And Color Responses to our Personality Domains
Chapter 6: A RIM Case Example
Chapter 7: The TAT
Chapter 8: The Clinical Application Of the TAT
Chapter 9: The Sentence Completion and Animal Preference Tasks
Chapter 10: The Case of Nicholas: His RIM
Chapter 11: The Case of Nicholas: His SCT and APT
Chapter 12: The Case of Nicholas: His TAT, and a Case Summary
Chapter 13: Epilogue: Some Concluding Remarks
References
Figures
Index
About the Author

Editorial Reviews

In the current climate of clinical psychology training in which depth approaches to assessment and treatment are being deemphasized or eliminated (e.g., American Psychological Association Division 12 Presidential Task Force, 1999) in favor of symptom-focused methods, Tuber’s Understanding Personality Through Projective Testing is a welcome and refreshing antidote. Tuber’s volume follows in the tradition of classics on psychoanalytic psychological assessment such as Rapaport, Gill, and Schafer (1968); Schafer (1954); Allison, Blatt, and Zimet (1968); and Lerner (1998). As important and relevant as those texts continue to be, Tuber communicates his ideas and methods in a manner that is more accessible to contemporary graduate students, pre- and postdoctoral trainees, and early career psychologists who may have had less immersion in psychoanalytic theory than their predecessors in past decades. An experienced clinician, teacher, and supervisor, Tuber strives to write as if the reader is 'sitting in my classroom, sharing the dialogue with me' (p. ix), and he is largely successful. ... Tuber has made a meaningful and accessible contribution to the psychological testing literature at a point in time when useful and sophisticated psychoanalytic theory-driven approaches are at risk of being lost (Lerner, 2007). Tuber’s conversational style in communicating complex theoretical and technical ideas exudes passion for psychoanalytic theory and assessment, a generative spirit, and empathy for his patients, students, and readers. Tuber’s book offers hope that future generations of psychologists will appreciate the immense value in this way of thinking and working. Understanding Personality Through Projective Testing would be a highly worthwhile addition to reading lists in assessment seminars for advanced graduate students, interns, and postdoctoral fellows. The value of this book will be further enhanced by classroom time devoted to the thinking along with Tuber in his process of drawing inferences from the data in his detailed case illustrations.

Psychoanalytic Psychology

Projective methods, such as the Rorschach inkblot test, are valued by some and questioned by others for their use in allowing patients to project on ambiguous stimuli aspects of the self they either cannot or do not wish to reveal to others. Tuber (CUNY City College) describes the value of four projective techniques for uncovering patients' psychodynamic issues: the Rorschach test ("Tell me what this ink blot could be"), the sentence completion task (fill in the blank, e.g., "I miss so much _____"), the animal preference task ("What animal would you like to be?"), and the Thematic Apperception Test ("Tell me a story about this card"). Several detailed case examples are given, including a complete analysis of "Nicholas." The author presumes a fair amount of familiarity with the projective techniques mentioned, including the administration and scoring protocols. Written in a semi-conversational manner (complete with grammatical errors), the study is richly interesting, thought provoking, and detailed in procedural and interpretive recommendations. Overall, Tuber models a thoughtful reverence for patients and for the process of identifying and working through their emergent problems. Summing Up: Recommended.

Choice Reviews

In this, his third book, Steven Tuber again offers us a beautifully rendered teaching text that balances theory with the immediacy of his presence in the clinical moment. Tuber clearly loves his work—as a clinician and as a teacher—and this book illuminates projective testing with both a thoughtful, integrated mastery of his subject and an intimacy that testify to that love. From his rich and vivid portrayals of individual's psychologies as manifested in projective tests, Tuber draws the reader's attention to complexity and detail while never losing sight of the goal of testing—to explore with curiosity and compassion a person's internal world. This book holds promise to restore projective tests’ center stage position in training and in our efforts to serve our patients optimally.

Gemma Marangoni Ainslie Ph.D

Steven Tuber provides a superb, original, creative, highly readable, and pragmatic work that offers a new look at the Rorschach Inkblot Test, the TAT, and the Sentence Completion Test as methods to evaluate personality functioning. He integrates developmental, dynamic, and relational concepts to construct an understanding of the whole person and to form a scaffold that provides the reader with new steps to follow when using these projective tests to assess a person’s personality functioning, the meanings he/she assigns to experiences, and the developmental roots of these meanings. These steps, accompanied by clear, clinical illustrations, are very useful not only for professionals who are entering the field of projective testing in personality assessment, but also for experienced clinicians who are interested in expanding their understanding of, and effectiveness with, the use of projective testing in clinical practice.

Sebastiano Santostefano

Tuber's text is not merely for the graduate student, but also for the practicing clinician. His text is written with heart and soul, examining not just what the patient sees, but also how the patient sees it.  Tuber beautifully illustrates difficult concepts through case examples, his own clinical experience, and even through the experiences of his students. He has artfully integrated, and illustrated, the theories of well known experts.

Leonard Handler

For years I have heard doctoral students rave about Steve Tuber’s assessment class—now I know why. Steve Tuber's voice shines through in this wonderful book which offers a clear structure for evaluation that is as useful to experienced evaluators as beginning  students. Tuber wears his considerable erudition lightly and the writing reflects his easy command of the material by its humor, concision, and “readability.” A must for every tester, a book in the great tradition of Rappaport, Gill and Schafer, and Klopfer.

Lissa Weinstein Ph.D

Projective methods, such as the Rorschach inkblot test, are valued by some and questioned by others for their use in allowing patients to project on ambiguous stimuli aspects of the self they either cannot or do not wish to reveal to others. Tuber (CUNY City College) describes the value of four projective techniques for uncovering patients' psychodynamic issues: the Rorschach test ("Tell me what this ink blot could be"), the sentence completion task (fill in the blank, e.g., "I miss so much _____"), the animal preference task ("What animal would you like to be?"), and the Thematic Apperception Test ("Tell me a story about this card"). Several detailed case examples are given, including a complete analysis of "Nicholas." The author presumes a fair amount of familiarity with the projective techniques mentioned, including the administration and scoring protocols. Written in a semi-conversational manner (complete with grammatical errors), the study is richly interesting, thought provoking, and detailed in procedural and interpretive recommendations. Overall, Tuber models a thoughtful reverence for patients and for the process of identifying and working through their emergent problems. Summing Up: Recommended.

Choice