Handbook of Rorschach Scales: Edited by Paul M. Lerner. New York: International Universities Press, Inc., 1975. 523 pp.

One of the major controversies in contemporary clinical psychology concerns the potential contribution of diagnostic psychological tests (particularly the Rorschach) to clinical and research endeavors. In the past decade there has been a considerable decline in the utilization of these procedures in many clinical settings and a marked reduction in the amount of training offered in these procedures in many graduate training programs. This decline in interest in intensive diagnostic assessment was in part a function of the disenchantment with individual psychotherapy and an increased emphasis on action-oriented, brief, crisis, and group treatment. This shift away from the interpersonal and intrapsychic was also expressed in an emphasis on behavior therapy, psychopharmacological intervention, and possible biological and genetic factors in psychopathology. These shifts have occurred partly because of the doubts about the efficacy of individual psychotherapy and its capacity to meet the mental health needs of our society. In this context, intensive diagnostic psychological assessment often seemed like an unnecessary luxury.

In addition to the social and political issues in mental health which have had consequences for the decline in interest in diagnostic assessment, there has been considerable doubt about the reliability and validity of projective procedures, especially the Rorschach. Many of these doubts are based on research done in the decade from 1945 to 1955 which led to an uncritical acceptance of the myth that diagnostic psychological tests (e.g., the Wechsler Intelligence Test, the Thematic Apperception Test, and the Rorschach) yielded unreliable data with little potential contribution for clinical or research endeavors. The convergence of the sociopolitical issues of the mental health movement with early negative research findings led to a marked decline in interest in diagnostic psychological assessment.

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