You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
This is the presentation of a new projective technique for psychological testing. The method combines certain diagnostic characteristics of the Rorschach and the Thematic Apperception Tests.
The Object Relations Technique consists of thirteen cards, nine by eleven and a half inches. Twelve contain pictures of human forms and other objects. These are drawn in varying degrees of clarity, allowing scope for the projections of the subject's own perceptions into this unstructured material. This permits psychological interpretations to be drawn regarding the individual's personality structure, his anxieties, defenses, etc. The thirteenth card is blank. The subject is asked to tell a story in response to each card.
The pictures, being less specific than those in the Thematic Apperception Test, require greater projection from the subject to identify and clarify the material. The unstructured quality provides some of the advantages of the Rorschach plates, but in the reviewer's clinical practice this test has been found useful as a supplementary rather than as a substitute technique.
The basis of this procedure is the psychoanalytic concept of unconscious object relations. The perceptual processes of the subject, and their effect upon the dynamic structure of his interpersonal relationships, are the points of study, as reflected in his projections.
This is a valuable contribution to the field of psychological testing; it offers a method of studying unconscious processes which effectively complements existing techniques.