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This volume attempts a pragmatic application of Fairbairn's object relations theory (as developed by Guntrip and practiced at the Tavistock Clinic) to a revised form of Jung's word association test. The procedure is considered an aid to the screening of clinic applicants. Subjects are required to respond in the form of a sentence to a standardized set of stimulus words 'chosen to emphasize the various roles in the main range of human relationships and their associated affects' (for example, 'friends', 'work', 'father', 'guilty', 'patient', 'fail', 'satisfied', etc.). Responses are then interpreted in their formal as well as their semantic aspects (grammar and syntax as well as meaning). The power of the test is illustrated by a statistical comparison of test results with independent clinical evaluation of the same subjects. The succinct insights afforded are impressive and should inspire further study.
Object relations theory, as presented here, seems to owe a good deal to Melanie Klein. Of course, oppositions and alternations are clinical commonplaces and are accessible to other than Kleinian