Rorschach Assessment of Senior Adults

Irving B. Weiner, PhD, ABPP, is a retired professor of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences at the University of South Florida. He is a past president of APA Division 12 (Clinical Psychology), APA Division 5 (Quantitative and Qualitative Methods), the Society for Personality Assessment, and the International Rorschach Society. His published books include Psychodiagnosis in Schizophrenia (1966), Principles of Rorschach Assessment (2nd ed., 2003), Principles of Psychotherapy (3rd ed., 2009), the Handbook of Personality Assessment (2nd ed., 2017), and, with Shira Tibon-Czopp, Rorschach Assessment of Adolescents (2016).Liat Appel, PhD, is a clinical psychologist who is currently involved in an international research project on senior adults at Goldsmiths, University of London. Dr. Appel lectures in various clinical programs in Israel and practices clinical psychology in Tel- Aviv. She is a coauthor of the Rorschach Reality–Fantasy Scale (RFS-2, 2016). Her recent publications include an article on adolescents with psychosomatic disorders in Rorschachiana (2011); a coauthored article on national trauma in Psychology (2011); and a coauthored article on Shedler–Westen assessment in Psychoanalytic Psychology (2012). She was the 2016 recipient of the Society for Personality Assessment Exner Scholar award.Shira Tibon-Czopp, PhD, ABAP, is a clinical psychologist and visiting research fellow at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she co-conducts an international project on personality and attitudes in senior adults. She has been lecturing in various clinical programs in Israel and has worked in inpatient and outpatient public clinics. Some of her recent publications include an essay on the Rorschach Inkblot Method in the Encyclopedia of Adolescence (2012); a coauthored book with Irving B. Weiner entitled Rorschach Assessment of Adolescents (2016); and coauthored articles on the Rorschach Reality–Fantasy Scale and Rorschach psychometric validity in the Journal of Personality Assessment (2016).

"Written by three of today’s leading Rorschach scholars, Rorschach Assessment of Senior Adults fills a crucial gap in the literature, presenting a comprehensive, clinician-friendly framework for using the Rorschach Inkblot Method to assess psychological functioning in older adults. Blending empirical evidence with clinical wisdom and richly elaborated case material, the authors provide a step-by-step guide to this important assessment tool that will be useful to graduate students and early career psychologists as well as experienced clinicians and clinical researchers. This compelling and thought-provoking book provides a unique perspective on the opportunities and challenges in personality assessment of senior adults; it should be on every clinician’s bookshelf."Robert F. Bornstein, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Adelphi University, and Past President of the Society for Personality Assessment"As our population for senior adults grows with advances in health care, all too often an in-depth psychological understanding of these individuals lags behind. This is especially true for projective/performance-based assessment methods. Weiner, Appel & Tibon-Czopp’s new book impressively steps into this knowledge gap. Blending cutting edge conceptualization and research along with persuasive and lucid clinical application, Rorschach Assessment of Senior Adults is a tour de force! "F. Barton Evans, PhD, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, East Tennessee State University."This is a wonderful and long-overdue addition to the assessment literature! With clinical sophistication, along with empirical and theoretical rigor, Weiner, Appel, and Tibon-Czopp have produced a book that offers the clinician and researcher important guidance on how think about and assess personality and psychopathology in older people. In a society where the conceptualization of age is necessarily being reformulated, this book belongs on every assessment clinician’s shelf."Steven K. Huprich, PhD, University of Detroit Mercy, and Past Editor of the Journal of Personality Assessment"Weiner, Appel and Tibon-Czopp provide the first comprehensive, international book addressing older adults and the Rorschach. As Weiner has done before, these three authors weave conceptual approaches with research findings into a stimulating and accessible narrative. They introduce reference data for healthy seniors, seniors with Alzheimer’s dementia, and younger and older senior adults. Clinicians will benefit from the Rorschach case interpretations in the latter chapters. This impressive contribution should stimulate needed clinical work and research with this deserving population."Donald J. Viglione, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Alliant International University

• PrefaceAcknowledgmentsAbout the AuthorsPart I IntroductionChapter 1: Current Research and Perspectives on AgingNeuropsychological Research on AgingPsychodynamic Perspectives on Aging ConclusionReferencesChapter 2: Historical Developments in the Rorschach Assessment of Senior AdultsEarly History Standardized Data for Senior AdultsHistorical Developments in Applying the Rorschach as a Neuropsychological Tool ConclusionReferencesPart II. Conceptual ConsiderationsChapter 3: Effective Utilization of the Rorschach Task in Clinical Gerontopsychology The Nature of the Rorschach TaskInterpretive Significance of Test BehaviorsCommentsExpressive StyleInterpersonal StyleConclusionReferencesChapter 4: Parameters of Rorschach InterpretationProtocol ValidityInterpretation of Structural VariablesCognitive FunctioningAffective Experience Interpersonal RelatednessSelf-PerceptionInterpretation of Thematic ImageryIdentifying Responses Rich in Thematic ImageryFormulating Interpretive HypothesesJudging the Plausibility of Thematic InterpretationsSequence AnalysisConclusionReferencesPart III. Normative Rorschach Data for Senior AdultsIntroduction to Normative Rorschach Data for Senior AdultsReferencesChapter 5: International Normative Data for NonpatientsInterpreting Rorschach Cross-Cultural Normative DataNormative Data for Senior Adults in the Twenty-First CenturyImplications of the Normative DataConclusionReferencesChapter 6: Developmental IssuesBasic Developmental Concepts in AgingApplying the Rorschach for Assessing Developmental Personality ChangesRorschach Assessment of Younger and Older Senior AdultsCognitive FunctioningAffective Experience Interpersonal RelatednessSelf-PerceptionConclusionReferencesChapter 7: Patients with Alzheimer’s DiseaseCognitive and Emotional Symptoms in Alzheimer’s DiseaseRorschach Assessment of Patients with Alzheimer’s DiseaseCognitive FunctioningAffective Experience Interpersonal RelatednessSelf-PerceptionConclusionReferencesPart IV. Applying Rorschach Assessment of Senior Adults: Case IllustrationsIntroduction to Case IllustrationsChapter 8: Dementia: "Old miners" or "Happy clowns?"Background InformationInterpretation of Rorschach DataConclusionReferencesChapter 9: Bipolar Disorder: "A broken heart, ruptured in some way"Background InformationInterpretation of Rorschach DataConclusionReferencesChapter 10: Korsakoff’s Syndrome: "Reminds me of my life"Background InformationInterpretation of Rorschach DataConclusionReferencesChapter 11: Therapeutic Assessment of Acute Depressive Reaction: "Disgusting creatures"Background InformationInterpretation of Rorschach DataConclusionReferencesChapter 12: Traumatic Stress Condition: "Two people helping each other, but it’s hopeless"Background InformationInterpretation of Rorschach DataConclusionReferencesChapter 13: Manic Defenses: "Could be a conflict but it’s nice to me"Background InformationInterpretation of Rorschach DataConclusionReferencesChapter 14: Medical Condition and Somatization: "A slight indication of a butterfly"Background InformationInterpretation of Rorschach DataConclusionReferencesChapter 15. The Aprés Coup Effect: "Like a butterfly that is folded"Background InformationInterpretation of Rorschach DataConclusionReferencesChapter 16: Fibromyalgia and Alexithymia: "It’s better not to think about it than to suffer"Background InformationInterpretation of Rorschach DataConclusionReferencesChapter 17: Obsessive-Compulsive Personality: "I’m looking for a symbolic response"Background InformationInterpretation of Rorschach DataConclusionReferencesPart V. ConclusionChapter 18: Concluding Remarks+ReferencesIndex