Corresponding Author Information: Jed Yalof
Session Abstract: These four presentations cover the various ways in which Rorschach re-test findings are utilized in different settings. The first presentation discusses change over time using two case examples. One case involves test-retest formally, and the second case involves initial test and then inferences about what Rorschach change might look like based on an intensive treatment but without a second Rorschach test. The second paper reviews test-retest complexities in a child analysis. The third paper discusses test-retest considerations in a transgender client. The fourth paper raises questions about the meaning of retest with a case illustration. This latter paper, originally prepared by Dr. Bruce Smith, will be presented in his honor by Dr. James Kleiger.
Chair Information: Jed Yalof, PsyD | Immaculata University and Austen Riggs Center
Discussant Information:Jed Yalof, PsyD | Immaculata University and Austen Riggs Center
Presentation 1 Title: Context Considerations in Rorschach Testing
Presentation Abstract: The concept of test-retest has always been applied to time 1 and time 2 testing. The Rorschach test is helpful in identifying change based on structural modifications in personality character. This paper presents a case using the traditional Rorschach test-retest format, and then offers a second case based on a Rorschach test and predictive inferences about change drawn from a long-term therapy but without administration of a second Rorschach test.
Presenter:
Jed Yalof | Immaculata University Immaculata PA and Austen Riggs Clinic Stockbridge MA
Presentation 2 Title: Rorschach Assessment Before and After A Four-Year Child Analysis
Presentation Abstract: I present detailed structural and content data from Rorschach administrations before and after a four-year child psychoanalysis. The patient had been referred at age 5 for intensive treatment because of his severe emotional dysregulation and shame sensitivity. Although his symptoms and behavior improved meaningfully over the course of treatment, the comparison of pre/post Rorschach data is more messy, confusing, and humbling. In this presentation, I grapple to make sense of the complexity of the data and raised questions about analyst-as-examiner effects and transference, timing of reassessment, possible latent gender identity concerns, and the assessment of nonlinear structural change.
Presenter:
Anthony D. Bram | Private Practice Lexington MA and Cambridge Health ALlicance/Harvard Medical School
Presentation 3 Title: In Transition: Change in a Transgender Patient
Presentation Abstract: Our hope in this paper is to present a case study of a transgender patient in the early stages of transition from female to male while in intensive psychodynamic psychotherapy in a residential treatment center. In particular, we were curious what we might learn about this process from this patient’s experience, as well as about using performance-based measures in assessing these kinds of changes. We found pervasive and profound level of positive changes on the TAT, as compared to more circumscribed, modest changes on the Rorschach and offer thoughts about the difference.
Presenter:
Christina Biedermann | Private Practce and Adler School of Professional Psychology, Chicago IL
Presentation 4 Title: To the Last Presentation - Retest Findings: What Do They Really Mean?
Presentation Abstract: A much beloved figure in the SPA community, Dr. Bruce Smith prepared one of his last presentations for a Symposium on Re-testing Patients. Sadly, Bruce passed away before being able to present his contribution to the symposium. In a tribute to Dr. Smith, James Kleiger reflects on Bruce’s many contributions over the years and presents his last PowerPoint presentation entitled “Re-test Findings: What Do They Really Mean?”, which links psychodynamic assessment, the Rorschach in particular, to therapeutic changes in personality structure and dynamics and in transference and countertransference paradigms.
Presenter:
Bruce Smith (Read By James Kleiger | Private Practice, Bethesda, MD)
Dr. Jed Yalof
Jed Yalof, PsyD; ABPP, ABAP, ABSNP, ABP, is Professor of Psychology at Immaculata University and Chair of the Department of Graduate Psychology and Counseling at Immaculata University, and Director of the Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology. He was also the Director of College Counseling and Diagnostic Testing Services from 1984-1995. Dr. Yalof is board certified in Clinical Psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology, Assessment Psychology by the American Board of Assessment Psychology, School Neuropsychology by the American Board of School Neuropsychology, and Adult Psychoanalysis by the American Board of Professional Psychology and the American Psychoanalytic Association. He is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia and staff neuropsychologist at the Austen Riggs Center. His most recent book, co-edited with Anthony D. Bram and published by Routledge (2020), is titled, Psychoanalytic Assessment Applications for Different Settings.
Dr. Anthony D. Bram
Anthony D. Bram, PhD, ABAP, FABP, is in private practice in Lexington, MA and is on the faculty of Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School and the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. An SPA Fellow, Dr. Bram is the co-author of Psychological Testing that Matters: Creating a Road Map for Effective Treatment and co-editor of Psychoanalytic Assessment Applications for Different Settings.
Dr. Christina Biedermann
Christina Biedermann, PsyD, ABAP, is an Assistant Professor at Adler University, as well as a practicing clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst at Northside Chicago Psychology for Women, PLLC. She is also Clinical Associate Faculty at the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis. Board certified in Assessment Psychology, Dr. Biedermann works with adults, adolescents, couples, and families, doing both psychotherapy and psychodiagnostic assessment. She has presented and published on neuro/psychological assessment, working with treatment resistant patients, and working with the aftermath of complex trauma, as well as lectured at the Yale Child Study Center, the Yale-Riggs Family and Infant Mental Health training program, and the New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. She is a member of the American Psychological Association (Division 35, Society for the Psychology of Women; Division 39, Division of Psychoanalytic Psychology; and Division 56, Division of Trauma Psychology), the American Psychoanalytic Association, the Illinois Psychological Association, the Society for Personality Assessment, the International Psychoanalytic Association, the International Society for Rorschach and Projective Methods, the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis, and the Chicago Psychoanalytic Society.
Dr. James H. Kleiger
James H. Kleiger, PsyD, ABPP, ABAP, is a diplomate in clinical and assessment psychology and Fellow in the Society for Personality Assessment. Dr. Kleiger is a practicing psychologist and psychoanalyst in Bethesda, MD. He is past President of the Baltimore Washington Society for Psychoanalysis and previously the Director of the Postdoctoral Psychology Training Program at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, KS. He is the author of Disordered Thinking and The Rorschach; Assessing Psychosis: A Clinician's Guide (Co-authored with Ali Khadivi); Rorschach Assessment of Psychotic Phenomena, and soon the be published Psychological Assessment of Disordered Thinking and Perception (Co-edited with Irving Weiner). In 2020, Dr. Kleiger published his debut historical fiction The 11th Inkblot.