The Specific Uses of the Rorschach in Clinical Practice

Abstract

Abstract. Our study addresses the question, “In what settings, with what age groups, and for what purposes is the Rorschach used internationally?” We present preliminary results from 342 Rorschach users representing 36 different countries from a survey created as part of the US contribution to a larger international project on teaching and using the Rorschach in different countries. The survey was distributed to R-PAS account holders with a request to forward to non-R-PAS users. Of the respondents, 80% used R-PAS, 35% used the CS, and 17% used both. Overall, 91% used the Rorschach with adults, and 43% and 69% with children and adolescents, respectively. The most common setting was private practice (63%). The most common reason for using the Rorschach was differential diagnosis (65%), with psychosis (58%) and personality disorders (56%) as the main diagnoses. US respondents were more likely to use the Rorschach to assess for psychosis (65% vs. 48%), especially emerging psychosis in adolescents (46% vs. 25%). We discuss the strong meta-analytic support for using the Rorschach to assess psychosis, a use supported by even the test’s staunchest critics. We close by discussing study limitations and future directions, such as translating the survey to different languages and implementing a wider distribution.