Shapes that are untypical for three- and four-year-old children
Shapes that are phallic symbols
Jiggly lines that indicate anxiety
Straight mouths that mean people can't say anything.
Jagged mouths that mean anxiety
A mouth that is open and oval shaped
Darkened eyes
Eyeballs that are scribbled around
Eyes that are two different colors
Drawing something and then covering it up
Drawings something and not talking about it
Colors are very important and significant:
Black means the child is frightened or distressed; black is a morbid down color
Red means angry, unless the child is drawing a pretty red flower, when it is healthy
If every thing is the picture is red or red and black, this is very suspicious.
Blue, brown, and orange mean fear, anger, and depression
Pink, red, and green are healthy colors.
There appears to be no visual/motor neurological dysfunction with the Bender Gestalt. Personality interpretation reveals difficulty with dissonant elements of her personality, anxiety, timidity, possible paranoia, and marked ambivalence. She seems emotionally constricted, may lack impulse control, is perfectionistic and obsessive-compulsive, and may manifest dissociation, splitting, or isolation mechanisms. She may feel impotent. In addition she indicates much difficulty with sexuality and aggression. She may have a fear of penetration, anxiety about phallic symbols, or castration anxiety. She may have a desire to return to the womb and/or possible suicidal tendencies. She may have significant problems with ego boundaries.The HTP and TAT were similarly interpreted as indicating extreme psychopathology and the psychologist concluded that the woman had major weaknesses in areas crucial to parenting and was in need of long-term, intensive, analytically-oriented therapy, and therefore the father should have custody.
Now that I am no longer a member of the American Psychological Association Ethics Committee, I can express my personal opinion that the use of Rorschach interpretations in establishing an individual's legal status and child custody is the single most unethical practice of my colleagues. It is done, widely. Losing legal rights as a result of responding to what is presented as a "test of imagination," often in the context of "helping" violates what I believe to be a basic ethical principle in this society - that people are judged on the basis of what they do, not on the basis of what they feel, think, or might have a propensity to do. And being judged on an invalid assessment of such thoughts, feelings, and propensities amounts to losing one's civil rights on an essentially random basis.
[a] ... highly defensive stance which is accompanied with blocking, censoring, and inhibition of his underlying affect ... an undercurrent of anxiety, unrequited love, and cloaked sexuality ... difficulty with relating appropriately to others ... latent polymorphous perverse orientation to the environment ... fantasies (that may include) homosexual, bisexual, and exhibitionist feelings ... hostility toward women ...Examination of the man's actual responses to the Rorschach yields no evidence for interpreting his Rorschach as pathological. Although there is indication of scoring, apparently using the Klopfer or Beck scoring approaches, there is no report of any of the ratios and no attempt to base any of the interpretations upon either a scoring summary or specific responses.
The "take home" MMPI should be avoided in the forensic situation ... This practice can lead to questions as to whether the individual took the test in the standard way and whether all of the responses are purely his own, as highlighted by Graham's amusing anecdote about the mental hospital patient who had his ward colleagues assist him by voting on the appropriate answers.
Although based on peer nominations of subjects as strong, confident, influential, unintimidated in face-to-face situations, and showing initiative and leadership ... the title "dominance" may be partially misleading. That is, the scale reflects taking charge of one's own life - or not taking charge - considerably more than bossiness or being overbearing ... Do should be interpreted as taking charge of one's life ... e.g. as self-organizing, making workable plans, and meeting deadlines. This description, was, in fact, quite accurate for this man.
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