"I strongly recommend...Principles of Rorschach Interpretation to all serious students of the Rorschach
and even to beginning students."
--Contemporary Psychology
"Extremely well-written, with a thorough outline of RIM interpretation and personality diagnosis...a valuable
asset to any clinician working with children, adolescents or adults."
--Readings: A Journal of Reviews and Commentary in Mental Health
"Over the years it was probably necessary that the different strands that make up Rorschach interpretation-structure,
content, sequence, and test-taking behavior-spend some time mostly isolated from one another so that each approach
could grow and be refined. That separate development has happened, and now, with Principles of Rorschach Interpretation,
Weiner has brought the strands together. This wise and eminently useful book integrates all that we have accomplished
with the Rorschach in a presentation whose fortunate beneficiary is the personality assessment clinician."
--Philip Erdberg, Ph.D.
"This is the Rorschach book I have always hoped to read...an excellent work...it explains complex relationships
among Rorschach variables in a comprehensive manner...[and] in experiential and interpersonal terms rather than
in technical language.
--Leonard Handler, Ph.D., University of Tennessee
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Web Site, July, 2003
Summary
This second edition of Irving Weiner's classic comprehensive, clinician-friendly guide to utilizing the Rorschach
for personality description has been revised to reflect both recent modifications in the Rorschach Comprehensive
System and new evidence concerning the soundness and utility of Rorschach assessment. It integrates the basic ingredients
of structural, thematic, behavioral, and sequence analysis strategies into systematic guidelines for describing
personality functioning. It is divided into three parts. Part I concerns basic considerations in Rorschach testing
and deals with conceptual and empirical foundations of the inkblot method and with critical issues in formulating
and justifying Rorschach inferences. Part II is concerned with elements of interpretation that contribute to thorough
utilization of data in a Rorschach protocol: the Comprehensive System search strategy; the complementary roles
of projection and card pull in determining response characteristics; and the interpretive significance of structural
variables, content themes, test behaviors, and the sequence in which various response characteristics occur. Each
of the chapters presents and illustrates detailed guidelines for translating Rorschach findings into descriptions
of structural and dynamic aspects of personality functioning. The discussion throughout emphasizes the implications
of Rorschach data for personality assets and liabilities, with specific respect to adaptive and maladaptive features
of the manner in which people attend to their experience, use ideation, modulate affect, manage stress, view themselves,
and relate to others. Part III presents 10 case illustrations of how the interpretive principles delineated in
Part II can be used to identify assets and liabilities in personality functioning and apply this information in
clinical practice. These cases represent persons from diverse demographic backgrounds and demonstrate a broad range
of personality styles and clinical issues. Discussion of these cases touches on numerous critical concerns in arriving
at different diagnoses, formulating treatment plans, and elucidating structural and dynamic determinants of behavior.
Table of Contents
Part I: Basic Considerations in Rorschach Testing.
The Nature of Rorschach.
Approaches to Rorschach Interpretation.
Part II: Elements of Rorschach Interpretation.
The Comprehensive System Search Strategy.
Projection and Card Pull in Rorschach Responses.
Interpreting Structural Variables.
Interpreting Content Themes.
Interpreting Test Behaviors.
Conducting a Sequence Analysis.
Part III: Identifying Adaptive Strengths and Weaknesses: Case Illustrations.
Introduction to Case Illustrations.
Attending to Experience.
Using Ideation.
Modulating Affect.
Managing Stress.
Viewing Oneself and Relating to Others.
