A Critical Review on Using the Rorschach Method in Somatic Illnesses

Abstract

The Rorschach Inkblot Method is widely used in psychological assessment. Is it valid and clinically useful in the specific context of somatic illness? The goal of this article is to give synthetic arguments for deciding which Rorschach-derived measures to adopt in assessing individuals. Therefore, we reviewed three research directions in which this instrument has been applied and discuss methodological issues: (1) content scoring procedures of ego solidity and dependency, (2) the assessment of alexithymia, and (3) the prediction of self-care behaviors. This review identifies the main issues in using Rorschach in this field as being construct and discriminant validity. Future validation research should be developed and emphasize prevalidated external criteria and longitudinal designs.