Concept-analytic Interpretation in Rorschach Testing

A new method of concept analysis of Rorschach tests is presented and its basic theory and clinical applications are explored. Generally, most clinicians using the Rorschach test for psychodiagnosis depend on what can be described as the counting method, which is based on a division of operations (data gathering, cording, and scoring) involved in quantitative analysis. The problem with this method is that the 'here and now' of a clinical situations is diluted because the Rorschach testing situation is not considered as a field of interaction, but rather as a data gathering method. In the counting method, key interpretations of the responses begin after quantifying the psychological data. As a result individual verbalizations, or responses, have no interpretative meanings. In contrast, the concept analysis that is based on ideas developed by Wittgenstein's late philosophy, gives prominence to clinical intuition from the stage of Rorschach administration. The most remarkable features of this method are, not adhering to the cording-category-system of the Rorschach system, and understand the background conditions that constitute individual responses as figure, as well as adjusting to the response process in which moment to moment formation and annihilation of a response co-occur. Moreover, the author advocates a 'nested loop model' of interconnecting immediate interpretation on the Rorschach situation and ex-post interpretive activity. The nested loop model is characterized by temporality and indeterminacy of the interpretation.