Rorschachmetode og psykoterapi. En egopsykologisk studie. (Rorschachmethod and Psychotherapy. An Ego Psychological Study): Bjørn Killingmo. Universitetsforlaget, Oslo 1980.

The author has worked as a clinical psychologist in private practice and for the Psychiatric Clinic at the University of Oslo for over 20 years. In earlier publications he has concerned himself with psychoanalytic treatment methods and evaluation of clients' fitness for psychoanalysis and psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy. This present book aims to describe the therapeutically relevant parts of the clients's personality through systematic analysis of the client's Rorschach protocol, combined with the clinical observation during the test situation, using it as a basis for planning the treatment. A systematic therapeutic evaluation presupposes that one can describe the diagnostic method, the psychopathological understanding and the therapeutic process in the same theoretical language, and this is what the author sets out to do.

The main argument for maintaining that the Rorschach method takes a unique position when aiming to evaluate fitness for psychoanalysis is the similarities that exist between the two methods. For example, both are unstructured situations that invite the client to take a free exploratory attitude; both methods involve instruction and procedure that promote projection and regression and activate transference, and the characterological defenses are brought to light. There are certain drawbacks as well in that the Rorschach situation only indirectly reflects the resistance of the client and probably cannot contribute to a prediction as to lasting motivation during treatment.

In the first part of the book the author examines the modern egopsychology and its clinical implications and thereafter defines a set of ego functions that can be specifically described through the use of the Rorschach test.

In the second part of the book the author uses rich material from his daily clinical practice of Rorschach responses in showing different parts of the client's ego functions, namely his ego profile, character formation, the level of ego development