{"title":"Inkblots, Psychotherapy and the Tavistock Clinic","authors":"Janet Sayers","doi":"10.1111/bjp.12921","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>The purpose of this article is to recount the early history of the Rorschach's inkblots test in Europe and the USA; its subsequent application in highlighting the ill effects on children of bombing during the Second World War; its wartime use in selecting military personnel; its post-war use in selecting patients for psychotherapy at the Tavistock Clinic in London and subsequent decline in this use of Rorschach's inkblots in favour of focus on the psychotherapy patient's transference experience of the psychotherapist treating them. The article ends with evidence of interest, beyond psychotherapy, in Rorschach's inkblots and with the implications of this for the author's principal conclusion regarding the value of these inkblots in evoking the free association and conversation crucial to psychotherapy.</p>","PeriodicalId":54130,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Psychotherapy","volume":"40 4","pages":"455-466"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/bjp.12921","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"British Journal of Psychotherapy","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjp.12921","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"PSYCHIATRY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to recount the early history of the Rorschach's inkblots test in Europe and the USA; its subsequent application in highlighting the ill effects on children of bombing during the Second World War; its wartime use in selecting military personnel; its post-war use in selecting patients for psychotherapy at the Tavistock Clinic in London and subsequent decline in this use of Rorschach's inkblots in favour of focus on the psychotherapy patient's transference experience of the psychotherapist treating them. The article ends with evidence of interest, beyond psychotherapy, in Rorschach's inkblots and with the implications of this for the author's principal conclusion regarding the value of these inkblots in evoking the free association and conversation crucial to psychotherapy.
期刊介绍:
The British Journal of Psychotherapy is a journal for psychoanalytic and Jungian-analytic thinkers, with a focus on both innovatory and everyday work on the unconscious in individual, group and institutional practice. As an analytic journal, it has long occupied a unique place in the field of psychotherapy journals with an Editorial Board drawn from a wide range of psychoanalytic, psychoanalytic psychotherapy, psychodynamic, and analytical psychology training organizations. As such, its psychoanalytic frame of reference is wide-ranging and includes all schools of analytic practice. Conscious that many clinicians do not work only in the consulting room, the Journal encourages dialogue between private practice and institutionally based practice. Recognizing that structures and dynamics in each environment differ, the Journal provides a forum for an exploration of their differing potentials and constraints. Mindful of significant change in the wider contemporary context for psychotherapy, and within a changing regulatory framework, the Journal seeks to represent current debate about this context.