MIRRORING INDICATIONS IN PROJECTIVE TESTS
Part 2 of several
posts based on Marshall Silverstein's excellent book:
Self psychology and diagnostic assessment: identifying
selfobject functions through psychological testing.
Prof. Silverstein
has two newer books:
"Disorders of the Self "
In this book, he applies self psychological
analysis to the ten DSM Axis II personality disorders, plus other conditions
that lend themselves to self psychological understanding (e.g. depressive
personality, somatization, and the vertical split). The case studies for all of these areas are of
adult or adolescent cases.
And
"Personality
Assessment in Depth"
This is a book of case studies using complete
psychological test protocols, analyzing all responses. This book is not based predominantly on self
psychology. The main thrust of the book
is the complete analysis of integrating test results across different
projective tests, using structural data and analysis of content.
A few words
about using projective tests:
I'm aware of the criticism of projective
tests. But I perceive psychology as an
integration of science and philosophy about human nature. I think psychologists must know and use the
newest evidence based approaches to assessment. They also must look at the child, his
personality and life circumstances in light of a philosophical
viewpoint about
human nature.
Each theory or body of knowledge that helps the
psychologist reach insights about the child, that touch his heart and help him
recruit the school staff and the family to the child's benefit - is good. Good practical results for the child can be
achieved through science in combination with a philosophical stance. I suggest we recruit both ways for the
child's benefit.
Therefore I suggest we assess the emotional world of the
child using interviews with the child, his parents and teachers, observations,
questionnaires (like ASEBA), projective tests and integrate all that with the
information from the "cognitive" part of the assessment.
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