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CH PTER

INTERPRETATION

O THE T A T

f we

accept the hypothesis

of

determinism

of

psychological behavior. it follows

that deductions concerning the personality

of

an individual can be based

on

any

kind

of

performance. Similarly, nearly any test can be anal) Zed for a

great

many

different aspects

;md, since each dimension

is by

necessity a function

of

the

testee's personality, one is bound to have resuhs. The crux of the malleI'.

of

course, is for lests

to

combine maximal applicability with maximum validity,

reliability,

and

economy.

By

the same token.

we

need those analytical variables or

scoring categories that

will

offer the most information with the least effort.

I like to think

of

scoring categories as fishnets. I f a net has a large, coarse

mesh,

one

may only catch a

few

very large fish, losing many medium-sized ones.

On

the

other

hand.

if

a net

is

exceedingly fine meshed,

one

may catch so many

tiny organisms as

to

make

it

almost impossible

to

pull

in

the net

and

haul in a

useful catch.

Therefore one

must select the sort

of

net best

adapted to

the task at

hand and the desired goal. For research purposes, a very finely meshed set

of

categories may be desirable. Having very few variables, or none at all. may leave

one

almost

emptyhanded.

The ideal set

of

variables

will

be one that obtains

enough

information for clinical purposes without making the task overwhelming.

Before discussing different methods that have been applied to interpreta

tion

of the T.A.T., it

seems appropriate

to enumerate

briefly some

of

the working

assumptions held

by

psychologists concerning the nature

of

psychological tests.

Interpretations

of T.A.T.

responses,

and

the diagnostic inferences based

on

them,

are

most useful when the

interpreter

views such responses in the light

of

the

broader

framework provided

by

the following assumptions, which have been

noted previously by Feifel (1959). First, psychological tests represent a way of

securing behavior samples

of

the individual. Second, the individual's test re

sponses

are

the

end

results

of

thought processes stimulated

by

test items. These

end

products are causally linked to the person's typical ego-organizing principles,

that is, to

the

means used in selecting

and

organizing internal

and

external

stimuli.

Test

responses should be differentiated from scores. Scores

are

de

signed to facilitate .intra-

and

interindividual comparisons

and,

as such,

are

ex

tremely useful in clinical testing,

but

to reason only in terms

of

the score,

or

even score patterns,

is

to

do

violence to the

nature

of

the raw material (Schafer,

I 948). Third, interpretation needs to take account

of

the context in which the test

responses are made. For example, the meanings

of

similar formal test patterns

may

differ

in dissimilar contexts. Fourth, a battery of tests is needed in order to

75



it} CHAPTER

obtain a good picture of the many dimensions of

ego

functioning; no one test is

able to reach all the different le els of ps\ chic functioning.

A. Brief Review

of

Literature

on

Interpretive Methods

The

original techniqllc used

h\ Murra\ and his

co-workers

depended on

an

analysis

of the

stories

by the need-press mcthod.

While it

is

best

to consult

MlIrr,,,''s

hook

(MlIrra\ ,

19-t:\) 011 the

details

of the need-press concept. it may

su nice here to say t

hatc\ ery

scntence was analyzed as to the needs of the hero and

the em'ironlllelllal foret'S (press) to

whirh

he is exposed. To choose a very simple

example.

he (the hero) loves her. hut she hates him: need (for) lo,e met by (press)

hate.

Every story was analyzed thlls accordiHg to all needs and presses. and

each

need

and press received a

weighted

score. A rank-order system of the

needs

and

presses could then be

tabulated.

: \ t the S;lI11e timc.

the hierarchical relationship

of

the needs to

eadl

other

was investigatcd. with

such concepts of Murray's as

need-nmflict. need-suhsidiation.

and need-fllsion. Nearly a

dozen

possible

SLhemes of categories wei'e de e\oped by Murray and Hellak in 1941 at

the

Han'ard Psychological Clinic. :\ test manual ilel a guide to

the

interpretation

were

designed

based

on

an earlier one h White

and

Sanford 1941).

Aside from

a

page for the recording of the (luantitatiH' need-press data.

there

was also a page

for the recording of more mo.lar quali tatiH' d a t a ~

not unlike some

of the catego

ries descrihed in

the recommendations

for

interpretation that

are indicated

below.

.

The need-press scheme of interpretation

still has Illany

advantages for use

in

experiments

in which detail

is

most

import,int

and

time is no o l ~ i e c t The

method has not become at all popular dinicalh·:however.

since

it is not easy to

master the need concept, and it t a k e ~ four to five hours on the average to

interpret 20 stGries with this s : ~ · s t e m · TI.{ercfure a great number of attempts

to interpret the T.A. '. have been deH'k1ped.

Wyatt

194 i . in an excellent

re

view .of the

scoring

and analysis of

thc·I·.A.T

• speaks specifically

of Rapaport's,

Henry'S. Rotter's, Tomkins's. and his'q,, n method. aside from

the need-press

allah·sis.

U(}lIt \

1947)

suggestions

for

the

interpretation

of

the T.A.T. are pre

sented

in three steps.

of

which

the

first

refers

to II aspects

of

responses

to be

utilized for

interpretation. These

are

as

10llows:

1 Autobiographical quality; coherence; predominant mood; handling of sex; end

ings and their relationship to the story; repetition

of

themes; unusual wording; attitude

toward the world; characteristics of central figure; typical methods of solving problems;

characters that can be identified with mother. father, son, and so on.

2. In the second step,

five

principles of interpretation are proposed: frequency of

occurrence

of an idea; unusualness (regardlng plot. language. misrecognition); determi

nation

of

identification; determination

of

cliches; and selecting alternate interpretations

(decision between two possible interpretations). .

3.

The

third step contains qualitative suggestions for the analysis

of

personality

trends as

the

final step of interpretation.

•



•

l;-..JTERPRETATION OF

THE

T A T

77

I n a

later paper. Rotter al/(I

jt'S.50I" (1951)

proceed

in five steps:

1 The entire

protocol

is read

for suggest

in'

leads

(Il lood.

unusual plots. unique

verbalizations. methods of solving problems, and frequency

of

specific themes) and for the

formulation

of e l 1 l a t i \ t ~

interpretations and queslions to lx' investigated

further.

2.

Earh

story

is

analyzed for basic ideas

and

strucllIral characteristics

and is

com

pared

with plot norms.

3.

Earh story is

considered

as a

unit in

order

to iclentih'

the characters, the

conflicts.

and the

relationship;

to decide whether the matcrial is wishful. autobiographiral. or

superficial; and to select hypotheses on tltt' hasis

of

ronsistenry.

4.

All tilt. stories <lrt cOllsidered as

Ollt

( ) q ~ a l l i l e d cOlllhined unit.

5. Tht, interpretive hypotheses

an' integrated

into a final sUlllmary evaluation.

under

five l';llegories: familial altitudes: sot'ial and st'xual allitudes; general (educational.

v()(,;llional. etc.) auitudes; personality dlaractl'ristil-s: and t,tiological implications.

Ral)(llmrt'J (19-ti)

iltlerpretation.

;l("cording to Wvatt. is predicated 011 an

examination

of the cliche qllality

of the

responses. and

the

s l t l ~ j e n s deriatioll

from cliches

serves

as a hast' line for

orientation,

In his poillts of ,'ie"," for

scoring. Rapaport

suggests two

1 I l ; ~ j o r

dasses:

A.

Formal

charallt'ristil's

of l O r ~

strllrtUl"e.

of

which tllt'l"e are three aspt't'ls:

I Compli(l lrt'tl'i/il ill.l/rudiol/.\ ( o m i ~ s i o n s

and distortions; misplacing

of

elllph;lsis;

dwelling Oil picture raliter

I k l l l

Oil situation; illlro<illnion of figures ;lIld

objccts lIot pi(·tuH'd) .

2.

COlIs;.l/m(.\' i/ ';/ i

IIII'II'.I/I'/'\ /Jlmil/dilill

(itlll'rin<ii\'idllal fonsistellcy. as SIIO\I n

by

deviation

ill expressin' and aggrt'ssin'

qualities: devialion from

the

lI 'lIal

significance

of

a p<lrlicular pinurt"

and

dC\'ialion

conn'ming

l a n g u a ~ l

and

narrative form: intl"aindividual

n ) J l s i s t t n l ~ )

3. C I / l l m c l r , . i . ~ / i o lif

t'I'rbllli:lllillll

B. Formal charactl'rislirs of slorv folllent:

1. Tol/t, o armliI'f'

2.

FiKllrrs

(if'J/OI)' i d r l l l i J i r a l i l l / l . ~ alld 1111'/11(1)

Prt'.\('lI/l1{I(lIH

3. Slr;lIillgs allil aUil/ldr.\

4. Obslaclrs

Hen, ' (1947), in

the

most extensive

and detailed

schellle

for

analysis

next 10

Murray's, distinguishes

(A)

form characteristics

from

H )

(Ontt'llt characteristics,

A.

Form

characteristics

are

divided into major c a t e ~ ( / r t n , l'ath of which h;ls sneral

subclasses:

1

.411/0l11l1 al/d kind

o imagiual

prodllrtiol/ /length

(If 'tory. allloulll

and kind

of

introduced content; vividness. originalitr; rhythm and smoothness: variation

in the consistency of all these factors)

2. Organizational

qualities

(presence

or

absence of

antecedents of

story

and

of

outcome; le\'eI of organization:

coherence and lo0c manner

of

approach

to

central

concept; contribution

of

elaborations

and of

details; variation in

the

consistency of all these)

3. Acuity

o COllcepts,

obsen aliOlIS,

and their

inlegratio1l

4. Language structure (movement. action, qualifying. descriptive words, etc.)

5.

I

ntraception-extraception

6 Relation

o story

told

to

total

thought content

(condensed, suppressed)

•



78

CHAPTER

4

B. Content characteristics:

1.

Gellaal

ton(

(positive

and

negati\'e tone of language: passl\'lty or aggres

siveness of language: expressed

or

implied conflict; expressed or implied

interpersonal harmonies

or

affiliative action

and

thought)

2

Positit·t

con/lmt

(characters described

in

the story; interpersonal relations; ac

tion core of story)

3 Nt gatil t

COlltt 1lt

(what subject failed to s a ~ : whal

hc

might have been expected

to

say

4 D) lwlI/ic structure oleO/llmt (symbols. associations)

In the

relation

of

the form

and

content characteristics. eight areas are

considered: mental

approach;

creativity

and

imagination; behavioral

approach;

family dynamics;

inner

adjustment; emotional reactivity; sexual adjustment; de

scriptive

and interpretive

summary.

Tomkins

(1947), in a systematic

anempt

at a logically consistent analysis

of

fantasy, distinguishes four m ~ o r categories:

1.

Vectors. comprising needs. or the quality of strivings for. against, under,

by, ua\\'ay,

Hfroln:

of:· •

2. Levels. such as those of wish, da\·dreams.

3, Conrlitions that may be

eithcr ~ x t e r n a l

forccs

( ~ f u \ T a y s

prcss)

or inncr

statcs.

such as anxiety or depression. Conditions do not refcr

to

the goals of strivings but to given

states

the

individual finds outside

or

inside himself.

4, Qualities. such as intensitv. contingellcy ( c e r l a i l l l ~ · ) . IClllporal considerations.

The principle

underlying

this system of analysis is that t:ach class can be

related to any

other

class.

One

ector'can be the

o l ~ j e l

of

any

other

vector (e.g.,

the

wish to act).

Tomkins's method.

which is primarily for tr<lining

and

research, comprises

both scoring

and interpretation.

Each story is st'orcd according to the previously

mentioned four

main categories:

10

vectors,

I i

levels.

12

conditions,

and

6

qualifiers. The

interpretation utili ;;:es

three main approaches:

canons of

infer

ence, such as Mill's methods (of agreement.

differenn'. of

toncomitant variation.

etc.) and additional methods (for the study of calise: and

clTe:ct

involving two

or

more factors); level analysis (degree of variance, rdative frequency. causc-cffect

relationships, and sequence analysis

of

levels) to stud\' the: relationship bctwccn

overt

and

covert needs.

thc degree

to which the

s l l l ~ j n t

is

awarc

of

his own wishcs

and

behavior,

and the nature of

the conflict bct\\'l'l'l\ repre:sscd wish

and

rc

pressing force;

and

diagnosis

of

personality. which illdudes

rdative importancc

of the

family, love

and

sex, social relationships,

and

work.

KOTChin

s (1951) use of Tomkins's

method

is a variant of

the

previously

mentioned approach.

I t is less formalized and therefore better

adapted

to clinical

use. I t examines the characteristics

of

the heroes, the more generalized

meanings

of the

main themes, the outcomes, and the levels. It also analyzes the areas of

family, social relationships, work, and so on.

Wyatt (1947) uses 15 variables for the analysis

of

the

T.A.T.: (I)

story

description, (2) stimulus perception, (3) deviations from typical responses, (4)

deviation

from

self, (5) time

trend,

(6) level

of

interpretation, (7)

tone of

story, (8)

quality of telling, (9) focal figure, (10) other figures,

(II)

personal relationships,

(l2)

striving, avoidances, (13) press, (14) outcome, and (15) thema.



•

I ~ T E R P R E T T I O N

O

THE T A T 9

Magda AnlOld s (1951) method of interpreting the

T.A.T.

emphasizes the

contentof

the

stories. Situations involving interpersonal relations, such as parent

child. heterosexual,

and

so on.

are

examined for the feelings

and

actions de

scribed.

Thus

information

is

obtained about the subject's attitudes, conflicts,

and

dominant

problems.

he

stories

are

also subjected to a

brief

sequential analysis

in

order

to

see

whether

there

is a consistent development

of

the central theme.

The

five steps in this procedure are: synopsis. situational analysis. analysis of

attitudes (from the situational analysis). sequential analysis, and final integration.

B ~ t f )

mll (1951) works on the le,'el of manif est story content, deli beratel}'

leaving aside. for the most part. formal aspects of the performance. She uses the

Murray-Sanford scheme

of

variables-need and

press-with

numerous changes

intended to bring the scheme into close harmony with clinical approaches

and

psychoanalytic theory. Each need or press is recorded together with the charac

ters who

are

the subject

and

object

of

the beha ior. so that a given variable can be

examined in relation to the context in which it is expressed. Also

recorded are

surface defenses. such as conflict, denial.

r ~ j n i o n of

behavior, fantas)', uncer

tainty. etc.; intensity of variables. which

is

expressed numerically; and outcomes.

The results are analyzed in terms of main feat tires ill variable scoring and in

variable sequences.

Leo1lard £1 011 l95Ib) uses

a nonnati,'e, statistical approach. Norms are based

011 all 20

T.A.T.

cards for adult males administered in prescribed

order.

Stories

are rated for emotional lone (from very sad to verv happy)

and

for outcome (from

complete failure to greal success).

Themes are

noted according to a checklist of

more than 100 themes classified as interpersonal. intrapersonal,

and

impersonal;

disequilibrium (tension)

and

equilibrium. Any deviations

fromlhe

task

of

making

up

a narrative

and

any distortions

of

the physical properties

of

the pictures, as

well as certain other formal characteristics, are noted. The ratings are then

compared with the norms. The basic data for this system

are

the frequency and

unusualness

of

specific fantasy content. Interpretation of personality

structure

and COnlelll

depends on

the theoretic orientation of the

interpreler and on the

behavioral data from

other

sources.

Reube1l Fi1le s

(1951) method stresses primarily feelings

and

interpersonal

relationships.

It

makes use

of

a checklist for scoring

the

presence

or

absence in

each slory of feelings (affection. anxiety. pain, etc.): interpersonal relations (mov

ing toward, moving against. elc.) between specific types

of

persons

mother

to

child. man to woman, etc.); and the outcomes (favorable, unfcl\'orable,

or

indeter

minate). The interpretation

is

a sort of qualitative summing-up of the results.

A Arthur Hartman

(1951) uses a p s ~ c h o m e t r i c approach that was originally

designed for research

and

aims at establishing quantitative norms as a basis for

interpretation.

It

consists

of

the following steps:

I. Each story

is

rated

on

a five-point scale fur

65

response categories covering

~ h ~ m a t i c

clements, feeling qualities. topics

of

reference.

and

formal response character

Istrcs

2. Numerical ratings

on

each category are totaled for all stories,

and

consistency

and

trend

of

ratings

are

noted.

3. From a list

of

over 40 personality variables, which previous research proved

significantly correlated with certain response items, those personality variables are selected

which are associated with each response category found

important

in the protocol.

•



80

CHAPTER

4

4. Data thus obtained are integrated with

other

findings. to obtain a clinicallv

meaningful personality picture.

The

method

used by

Robert Holt

(1951)

is

a clinical

approach

in which

the

interpreter reads

over

the

stories.

jots down

tentative hypotheses as he goes along.

and integrates these notes into a final personality summary. There is no formal

scoring system, and the method Illay be described as intuitive. The theoretical

bases are those of psychoanalytic theory and Murray's need-press formulations.

The system devised by

Walther

ot l and Dlll id Shapiro (1951 ) deals primarily

with

the

functioning of the ego. First. interpersonal warmth

and

hostility and

flight from such interpersonal feelings are translated into scoring symbols.

Then

the

sequence of these interactions is analyzed. and finally

the interpretation

provides a pic ture

of

the process of

coping

with the social

environment.

In

SeYllour Kleballojj s

(1951)

method. intcnded

primarily for research.

the

contelll

of

the stories

is

tallied on a checklist according to o \ e r t l ~

Slaled

Ihemas

grouped

under

such categories as luss of life. aggression, inlernal stress, and

positive themes. Profiles of absolule and perrentage frequencies for each thema ,

and each category are then analyzed. Interprctation is based on that analysis.

) ose Lasaga (1951) uses a dinicalmethod intended to discover

the

psychody

namic causes

of

neurotic and psychotic disturbances and to be an aid in psycho

therapy.

t f o c l ~ e s

attention on the patient's main conllicts

and

emphasizes the

fact

that

conflicts may be disguised a process

of

symbolic substitution.

The

actual

procedure

consists

of the

following:

reading the record

for

general

impres

sions;

underlining

phrases that express

the

main idea

or

important

aspects

of

the

main idea;

summarizing

earh story in terms of the main idea; finding

dues

for

discovering the key conflicts: studying anomalies among the ideas or among

reaction times; taking into consideration basic data

about the

patient; and

knitting all these impressions together into a summary evaluation.

Helen Sargent (1953) has devised two--illethods. The Sargent I nsight Test

Scoring Method was originally developed for scoring written responses to the

author s

Insight

Test

but is applicahle to

the '1'.;\.'1'.

Affects (A)

arc

scored under

2

categories (pleasure. aggression. etc.) and three cxpressive modes (artion.

manifest, and

latent

feeling expression); defense activities (D) are scored

tinder

three

categories (evaluations. elborations.

and

qualifications). Maladjustment

(M)

scores, based on the use of the first person

pronouns,

irrelcvant feeling expres

sions,

and

subjectivism, are also obtained. The ID ratio and the A-I)-AID

pattern are evaluated

and

interpreted in terms of established norms, together

with qualitative interpretation

of

the content.

The Cox-Sargent T.A.T.

Normative Scoring

Method

is

designed as

a re

search tool for analyzing

the

normative aspects

of

responses

to

individual T.A.T.

pictures.

t

uses the following main categories: feelings ( frustration, anxiety. etc.):

heroes (man, girl, etc.); needs (security, conforll1ity, etc.); threats (guile death.

etc.); actions to meet

need

or evade

threat

(negative, evasive, etc.); and outcomes

(success, failure, etc).

Percival Symonds s (1951) method utilizes the impressions received from

careful readings of the protocol as a whole,

rather

than from the separate stories.

The

data

extracted

from

the

stories are classified largely in

terms of themes

(aggression, love,

punishment,

anxiety, defenses,

moral standards,

conflicts,



•


OF THE

T.:\.T.

81

guilt. depression. forms

of

sublimation. etc.)

and

relationships

(to

parents, sib

lings, teachers, etc.).

The

final write-up

attempts

to synthesize

the

themes

of

primary

importance and

to indicate

the

dynamic relationships

among

them.

Ralph K

Whitf

(1951) has devised a "value analysis"

method,

whercin the

manifest

content is

rewritten in terms

of

50 value words that

represent

motivating

forces.

In

addition.

the

notations indicate whose point

of

view

is

considered. so as

to shed light on the storyteller'S identification.

and

also indicate

the

terms in

which the char.tcters are described. in order 0 get at the storyteller's "social

perception." The data are treated qllalllitatin'ly by tallying. A frustration

satisfaction ratio is obtained from the freqllen<.:ies

of

the positivc and ncgativc

valucs.

The

overall imerprctatioll

depcnds

Oil thc clinical insight and disciplined

imagination

of the

analyst."

PiotrOlI . iki

1950) docs not

offer i l l l \

systematizcd. formal

method of

ap

proach

to

the T.A.T..

hut he lists nine rules

of

intcrpretation. as follows:

1. Pwt"l'l'd

unthl'

asslI Illpt ion

that

'1'.:\."'. stories I'd

let:

with Illuch g.·l'atl'r frl'edolll

and willI Illuch

Il'sS distonionlhe

tl'stee's acti\'ities and

altitudes than

the\' relief

the aflual

indi\'iduals

toward whom

his acti\'itil's are

directed

and tuward wllllli. ht' assullles

the

altitudes

manif('sted

ill the T.:\.

2. When

illlerpret

ing T.A.T. stories. pron'cd 011 the asslIlIlpt iont hat e\'cn'figurc ill

Ihe T.A.T. stories

cxpresses SOllle

aspcct

of

the tt'stee's personality.

3.

The

Illore <Kff'ptable

an

intended

anion

(d rin') is to I h(' consciousnt'ss

of

the

leSlt'("

the greater

thl' s i m i l a r i t ~ , I>t·t\\,('cn

the

testet' and Ihe '1'.:\.'1'. figure to

whom the

drire is

allributed.

'

4.

Bear

in mind that the

d e ~ n · t

of genl'l'alil,ation

of

your conclllsions aff('('\s Illt,ir

v a l i d i t ~ , .

The

more

spl'rific

the

n>lldusiolls . t ht'

more

diflicllh

it

is

to

WilliI'm

and

the more

easy

it

is to ill\'alidate

Ihem

hy facts.

The

more general

and

Illort' restrained Ihe

(onrlu-

siems.

II1C

mort.' likelv

thn

are to bt' , ' ~ i d .

5.

Take into : ) l I s i ~ l e r c l l i o l l the p o s s i b i l i t ~ , that the

stories lIIay not

rdlen

gcnllillt'

d.'in's bllt Sll perlicial ~ l I l d stereol\"p(:d all illldt's

developed

hy

the

tt'Slec ill

order

to hide his

specilic

personalit y

traits,

;;'c.

6.

PJ'{)(,t'ed

Oil

the asslimption th:i'r the slories fretJuelllly rcllect what the s u l ~ j e r t

Ihinks and feels

about pcrsons

represented

J,' the

LAT.

ligures

(i.e .

ahout

Ihl'

old

and

the

young.

Ihe mall'

and the

female >t'rs\)\}s), Of courst'. lht' T.A.T.

would

disclose

thc

testee's idcas &Iboutlhose

old. young.

male. and fcmale

persons who pIa}' illlportam

roles in

his life r

. lher

Ihan

his ideas

ahout

old.

young.

mak.

or

femalt' persolJs. as

such.

7.

The

more aried and the more incompalible

the

dri\'es in a

s l l l ~ j e c l s

stories.

the

greater

the

possihilit\,

of poor p ( ' r ~ ( l I l a l i t y integralion. of great inner lension.

of

fear

thaI

lhe unarn'J>lahle dri\'Cs will undermine self-conlrol and will

prompt

lhe s u l ~ j e n lO

aCI

colllrary

10

his sdf-illlereSl.

The

grealer lhe diversity of

lhe

T.A.T. drives. the

grealer

lhe

tesle("s illd('(isj\clless

ami

allxielv,

8.

The

(hallceS

of

a T.A:r .

thema

being l l 1 a n i f e ~ t e d in lhe s u l ~ j e c [ ' s

overl behavior

are positively

correlated

with

the frequency o f t h ( ~ lhema's

appearance in

lhe T.A.T

wilh

lhe consistency of the lOlal T.A.T. record (absence

of

incompalible themas), and with lhe

emotional

intensity

accompanying

lhe

e x p r e s ~ i o n of

the

thema.

9.

Employ

all

formal rules

which have

been proven

valuable in

the sludy of

creative

associalive

power.

Theses

rules arc not

specific 10 the T.AT. and refer

to

a variety of

formal aspects

of Ihe T.A.T. performance:

uneven

pace

in

lhe production

of

lhe

stories,

long and

variable pauses,

marked differences

in

the

number and

elaboration

of

ideas

elicited by

some pictures

as compared with

those prompted

by other

pictures,

disregarding

of picture details which usually produce comments, farfetched and bizarre notions, sud-

den or

gradual

increase or decrease

of ideas, and so on,

David McClelland (1953), addressing himself to achievement motivation

exclusively, has deivsed a measure

of

this motive as it

is

expressed in imaginative

•



82 CHAPTER 4

stories, particularly the

T.A.T.

First, the scorer must

determine

whether or not

the story contains any reference to

an

achievement goal that would justify scoring

the subcategories as achievement related. Stories

are

scored for such Achieve

ment Imagery (A.I.) only when at least

one of three

criteria, all

of

which deal with

manifestation

by

a story

character of

Competition with a

standard of

excellence,

is

met.

The

scoring subcategories are:

1 SI(/tt d IIt f {/ Ji} . (/(IIi( l

l

( l/Irlll (N). Someone in

the

story slates the

desire

10

reach an

adlien melll

goal.

2

1 1 I . ~ t l 1 l l / l t l I / a l

(lrlil it),. lh one

or

more dlaracters; is

scored

1

+,

I?, 1- 10 indicate

whether

the outcome

of

th e

i n ~ t r l l m < . n t a l

anivil

is

successful.

doubtful.

or llllslJ( cessful.

3. Allti(i/J(/tory

~ o ( / I

slalt s ( ;a+, (;a-),

S(;meonc in

the

story alllicipatcs goal at

tailllnent

or frustration

alld failure,

4. Obslllr/t s

0 . b1ork.I Storics

arc

s('ored for ohstacles when Ihe

progress of

goal

dire<.'ted activity

is

hl(}('ked

or

hindered

1)\

a personal ohstacle (Bp)

or

em ironmenlal

obstacle (B\\'),

5. Nu,.lumll l /In'ss

(Nup).

Forces in the sto\,\', personal in

source,

which

aid

the

chat'acter

who is

involn d in ongoing achieH'mellt-related activity .Ire

scored

nurturant

press,

6. AjJi (IIi ( sla/I s (G+. G-). :Hkctin states ass(}('iated with goal.lttainment. active

masten. or frustration of the achievemcnt-directed

arti,'itv

are scO\'eel

(;,

i.

Arh;t l t II/t llllllrmll

(Ach Th), Achievement thema s(ored

when

the

achievement

imagery

is elaborated

so

that it beromes the

n ntral plol

of the

story.

The

11

achievement' score for

all \

individual

is computed

by

combining

indexes as follows. Unrelated imagery is scored

-1. doubtful

achievement imag

ery is scored 0, and A.1. is scored

+

I. If a story is scored for A.I., the subcategories

are scored. Each sulxategory

is

scored only once per story

and

given a weight of

+ I. An achievement score for each story

is

obtained by summing algebraically tlte;

category scores for that story. The t achie\'ement score for the subject

is

the total

of scores obtained

on

all the stories.

Fred Pine

1960)

has deYised a manual for ratitig drive content in

T.AT.

stories. Dual significance is posited in

the

use

of

drive

content in

these themes;

absence of such

content

implies a pervasive, rigid,

and

fragile system

of

ego

defenses, whereas at the

other extreme there are

two possibilities: (I) a weakening

of

ego control

over

impulses, such that results

are

maladaptive,

or

(2) drive

energies have been neutralized so that they can be used in productive mental

activity. The present manual provides a method for rating libidinal and aggres

sive drive material in the manifest content of stories,

and

also describes a proce

dure

for rating the

degree

to which drive content

is

integrated into the theme

(effectiveness

of

such integration

is

considered an index

of

ego control).

Three

ratings

are

obtained for integration of drive content, based

on three

types ofdrive

content

that

are

distinguished: thematic, incidental,

and nonappropriate. Three

ratings

are

also

arrived at for three

levels

of

directness

of

expression

of

drive

content; these levels

are

direct-unsocialized, direct-socialized,

and

indirect

disguised

or

weak. An especially useful

method

for a modified, quantitative

content analysis of

T.A.T.

stories of

the

entire families of schizophrenics, delin

quents,

and

normals has

been

described by Stabenau

and

colleagues 1965),

and

a

scoring manual was developed by

Werner and

colleagues.



INTERPRETATION OF THE T A T 8

T.A.T. responses have obviously been

studied

in many ways.

more

or less

complex. The simplest procedure is the inspection

teclmiqut .

It is frequently help

ful merely to read through the stories. treating them as meaningful psychological

communications; one simply

underlines

anything that seems significant. specific.

or

unique.

When an experienced examiner rereads the

stories a second time. he

can. almost without

effort.

find a repetitive pattern

running

through them. or he

can find facets of

different

stories falling

together

into a meaningful whole.

This

method

becomes easier the more experience one has with

the

T.A.T. or the more

clinical. particularly psychoanalytical. experience one has.

I n psychotherapy (see Chapter 7) it Illay be particularly helpful to have the

patient hold

one

carbon copy of the T.A.T. stories while the psychotherapist has

another. and then have the patient free associate generally to the stories and

make his own attempts at illlPrpretation.

Since I believe that the strength of the LA.T. lies in its ability to elicit the

content

and

dynamics

of

interpersonal relationships and the psychodynamic

patterns. my method of interpretation and

I l l ~

scoring categories arc primarily

concerned with these dimensions

and

only to a small extent with the formal ,

characteristics.

The main thing to

remember

in the interpretation

of

the T.:\.T.

is

the

following: The T.A.T. pictures arc best seen psychologically lS a series

of

social

situations and interperson'll relations. Instead of responding to real people in

real situations. tlie s ~ b j e t is responding to people in the pictures. which he

imagines as certain social situations.

Sill<:e

he is under less constraint of conven

tionality

of

reality. his responses

are

more

likely

to

depict his

inner

feelings.

This

means

we

get at the contemporary patterns of his social beha\'ior and mar be able

to infer

the genesis

of

these palterns. Interpretation

is

the process of finding a

(ommon

denominator ill the nnllelll porary

and

genetic behavior patterns

of

a

person (Bellak. 1948).

Among

other things. this definition

of

in.unpretation implies what cannot be

too strongly emphasized. particularly for the beginller:

:\

diagnostic statement

should hardly ever be made that is based 011 ;;

datum

re ealed in onl\' one story.

Impressions gleaned in one instance call he considercd a cry tentati e inference

only. for which

one

must try to find (orrohoration in other stories or through

some source

of

information external to thl'

1

\.'1'.

A

rl jJrlilit.l

pailI m

is 11ll

brJt

assurance

that onl

dol S

1101 drat leilll

WI arlt /arl.

To

give a

more

definite frame

of

referl'llce for scoring

and

a more objec

tively comparable scheme

of

interpretation. 1 have designed the system that

Psychological Corporation has published as the Bellak T.A.T. Blank and Analysis

Sheet* (Figure

4-1).

I beJieve that it is a system simple enough to be most easily

mastered. to serve as a guide and frame of reference.

and

to make it possible to

glean the most important data of a complete lO-story T.A.T. in about half an

hour.

I am indebted to the Psychological Corporation

of

New York Cit)' for permitting me to reproduce

here material that they originally published as the Bellak T.A.T. Blank. Analysis Sheets. and Guide

to

the interpretation of the T.A.T.



84 CHAPTER 4

N m ~

_______________________ lor)'

_____

TAT r i c l u r ~ ____

2. Main bero: . g ~

_____ u.

______

v.,...all"n______________________

int('rt"ts l r . l Ih

J b i h . I ~

_____

adfi/uaC\' C/.,I,I.jj, l b o d ~ ' imag. and or

~ I f 'ma ' .

_________

3,

MaiD

D"ds

IUId dri

••• ot b.ro:

a) ~ h . n o r . 1 n«tll 01 h ~ r o (•• in .Iory).

-

_.

d y n ~ m l ( "

mft' rrnn' :

----.

b) hgurf'S, ob,«"u.

or

rirc-umst.lIlrN ' HtI(rd:

i m p l ~ l O a : ored for or to:. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_

r ) flgu,f'S.

obJ«ts. or

nrcumst.lnct;. ullrd'

------ ----------- _ .

imp"'in, ntt< lor

or 10:

- -

4. CODceptioo ot eo'f'ironmeol ( world ) as :

5. "areota1 cures

(m

__ 1

__

I u . . . . .n u _______ nd subj«", rnclion ,,__ _

Contemp. 6cvre. (m__ 1_

_) art

I«n as_ ______ nd .ub, ..... ~ a c l l o n 15,___

Junior Acures n l

__

f__

.arC" W"'('n .15

__ ________ ind s . u b J ~ · t " s U'Olction

l'i

6.

SicDilicanl cooflicls :_____

7. Kature ot IUlzieti.s: (/)

01 phrsiul harm .nd/or

r u n i s h m ~ n l

_________ t illnn. or injur)'

01 disapproval 01 dtprivahon______

01 lack or

loss o l l o v ~ 01

bring d ~ v o u r t d

01

bring

d_r l td ______

1

b r i n ~ o n r p o w ~ . .

d and

hdl'l

. .

______

Olhtr__________________________

I.

MaiD

deteoles a,aIn,t

cooflicts

and tean: (,I)

( C ' J ' ~ '

______

( ~ : t l i l J . n · , t ) r m . l t ' n '

_______

. a t t u n . ~ I l . m u n

11ot""u"n

_______

~ ' - - - - _ o n o t < ' ' d rn .. u..

k '¥ " l t ~ -

. .

p r o t c ' ' ' t l \ ~ .Jcnlll...atJl.m .

hcr

------

9. Adequacy t supereeo as manitelled by "puoisbmeol" tor "crime" beioe: (. ' .

,I, . ,1/:)

.appropnatt l O . p p r O p f l ~ . t ' ________________

__ __

.

__

100 ~ ' ~ r ~ (also

n d i ( ~ t f ' d

h o'

I m m n J l ~ { " ~ ' of

punishmf'nt

____

inconslsttnt_________

____

oo I ( ' : ' : j ~ n t

____

al50:_ _ _____________________________________________ __ _

ddaytd tOltial

. .

pon . or p a u ~ ,

___________________________ ____

s t ~ m m f ' r

________ othf'r mdnif"t

.

i o n ~

of

suprtrtgo i n t ~ r f f ' r ( , I 1 C f ' ____________

.

___

.

___

10. lIIte,ratioo ot the e,o, DllUlitestioe i t s ~ f

io: (. '

.',' • • ) ( . ~ ~ also

~ , o

function rat inc . . . on pace 6 t

Blank)

a . d r t q u ~ ( y

of

hero

outcomt h . l p p ~ ·

unh.lJ)J»)"

__________

(f'al.sttC'

________

n('<1llstiC"

__

solution <1dequatt'

________ moldf'quatt _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_

thourht procusn

a.

r ~ \ ' u l C ' d

by

plol brIO, / . , t

• . . •

• )

Itructured

unstru{"fUrtrl

___

t f ' r t ' O t ~

ptd

____

OfI£lnal

_______

lpproprialf'

____

r ~ t l o n ~ 1

bll.1rrt

_____

ompl(''':t'

Incomplttt

noilppropriatf'_ _ _ _ _

loteDie.oce:

(.

) sulXrior_____

b o v ~

....tr.g.---. . . _____ rI01.· av

.

g< ____

<l,f ..

II\·, __ __ _

Analysis Sheet for use with the Bellak TAT B1&nk

(Rtyised)

Figure 4-1 Analysis Sheet for Use with the Bellak T.A.T. Blank

B. Observation-Near

and Observation-Distant

Diagnosis

Psychoanalysis as a form

of

psychotherapy has at times suffered from the fact that

one

analyst might make one type of interpretation and another may make a

divergent one. They might have each been correct but addressing themselves to

different aspects

of

the patient's statement.

I t

is, therefore, at least necessary to



INTERPRETATION OF

THE

T.A.T.

85

specify

the

level of abstraction

one is addressing.

The

patient is angry

would be

an

observation-near diagnosis. To say that some object

representations

are in

conflict with some self-representations would

be

an observation-distant infer

ence. involving structural concepts and internalization (e.g., of

parental

figures

whose images interact conflictually with internalized images of oneself), which

then

produced anger.

The

chances

for

error and disagreements are much higher

with such observation-distant conclusions.

Similar problems

occur

in

T.A.T.

interpretations. t may

hold true that the

relati\'ely less

experienced

a clinician.

the

wilder

the

interpretation may

be.

A major

attempt

to avoid wild

interpretations is made

by way

of the

Blank

(discussed above). This holds true especially

for the breakdown

of

the theme

into

descriptive. illlerpretive. and diagnostic versions. The descriptive theme is the

one

nearest to observatioll. whereas

the

diagnostic and symbolic levels are

quite

obsenatioll-distanl. Keeping these

conrepts

in

mind

should

further

help

avoid

wild interpretations.

The

following slUry

of

a

1 5 - ~ e a r - o l d

boy may serve as

an example:

Story 1

Hl' doesn'l obviollsly walll to pla\' Ihe iolin. He's a lillie mad. because

his

mom [told]

hilllto play the violin, right? But he call't get that note. So he's a lillie mad and frustrated.

So he \'t',lIlts to give

lip.

But I

think hc's going

to

stick

to it.

What wilillu

outcoml'

bl'?

He'll

stick

to

it. (Sings stick

to

it to himself.)

The drsc,-ipti r le\'el of this first story

mighl

be that the boy

does

not want to

pia)'

the

violin because his

mother

told him to,

but

feels

frustrated

that

he

can't

do

it. He

wants

to

give up.

but

also stick

to

it.

and

eventually sticks to

it.

171lrrprrtit'e

Lt'i.'l'l. If

one is

told to

do something

by a

maternal

figure,

one

gets

angry and also

frustrated that one

can't perform

the t a s , ~

Eventually. one sticks

to it.

Diagllustic

Lt'i.,l'i. Reacts with anger to

maternal

figures. There

is

a conflict be

tween disobeying and wishing to be able to do it, and eventually the boy

conforms

and

succeeds.

This

story reveals that

the

~ O l l l 1 g

man telling it has a conflict with

maternal

figures but resolves

the

conHict succeeding in his effort.

The

story tells us

that

this 1 5 - ~ e a r - o l d

is

rebellious against his

mother, but that

his own need for

achievement makes him succeed in his tasks (broadly speaking, his growing up).

Story 2

Three different things to this. Doesn't

look

too good. Three people probably don't

know

each other. This girl goes to

school.

and she's thinking

of

what she might have left at

home. This guy's too busy to know about anything. Because he's trying to hit this horse

. The lady's off nowhere. She doesn't

know

that she's doing

it

either. She's just looking out

yonder.

So

they aU look like they're doing separate things.

This card is

usually

considered to

reflect family relations. In this boy's case,

the

descriptive

level is that three people

do

different things and don't even know



86

CH PTER

4

each other. The girl might have left something

at

home.

The

guy uses business to

stay uninvolved. It's his horse. The female figure

is

off'

and

doesn't know what

she

is

doing, either.

blterpretive Level

f

a family

of

three

is

together, they

remain

utterly uninvolved

with

each other,

though not without conflict.

The

girl things she might have left

something

at

home.

The guv uses overactivity for denial

and

directs his anger at

the horse. The maternaillgure is also ofT nowhere.

iagnostic

Level A family without any contact with each

other,

which the

narra

tor regrets ( She might ha e left something at home ).

The

mother figure

is

described as

off

nowhere:' Her pregnancy is ignored. This

is

obviously a 15

year-old who feeb a great deal of isolation within the familv (which makes him

angry) and wishes it weren't so.

The

above

example demonstrates

the case with which

one

may distill con

siderable

information

by a careful progression from

observation-near

data to

more abstract obsen ation-distant ones.

Aside

from

this desuiptive diagnosis.

it

is importalll to see that these two

stories alone-and the rest of

the

stories not

reported

here and further insight

are a valuable guide to planning psychotherapy. The many fast pictures of

rebelliousness

and

poor performance in school becomes more hopefultherapeu

tically as one sees he

is

frustrated

and

wants to

do

beller and expresses perse

verance.

The second picture

makes quite clear for

a n ~ b o d y

that

he

feels a lack

of

relationship in the family and

that one

will have to deal with

the

lack of

warmth

and relationship in the family, possibly with family therap supplementing the

individual

therapy.

These simple

stories

demonstrate

again that e\'en a superficial study of the

stories-the observation-near data-can be extremely useful for the therapist.

This

young

man was seen in consultation because of learning difficulties. He's so

restless

that he has been dismissed from se\ eral schools and has been arrested

several times

for

minor misdemeanors.

He

lives with his

mother

and

her

boy

friend in comfort but in emotional isolation. At

the

same time,

he appears

manifestly

outgoing.

friendly,

and

dynamic.

He

denies

a n ~

anger

but

is

very

difficult to live with.

Subsequent

responses to the T.A.T. and neuropsychological testing lead to

the diagnosis of attention-deficit disorder .

c.

How to Use the Long

Form

of the T.A.T. Blank*t

The

Bellak T.A.T. Blank consists

of

a six-page folder plus

separate recording

and

analysis sheets, of which one

page

from

the

folder is duplicated. On

the cover of

Published by The Psychological Corporation, 555 Academic Court, San Antonio,

TX

78204.

t Revised, 1973



INTERPRETATION OF

THE

T.A.T.

8

the folder one records the

personal

data of the client and, when the analysis

is

complete,

one

writes a Final Report.

Let us assume

that

the

examiner

wishes to

secure

10 stories

from

a client

and

that he

is going to take

down

these stories

himself

as

the

client tells

them.

The first

story will

be

written

on

page

2

of

the

T.A.T.

Blank; the second story will be

written

on the

back

of

an analysis sheet. Story 3 is

recorded on the

back of

another

analysis sheet,

and

so on, until the 10 stories have been recorded. The

examiner

now has the

10

stories recorded, one 011 the inside cover of

the

blank and nine

on

the back

of

separate analysis sheets. I f these are placed in

order,

printed side up,

and laid on top

of

page 3 in the T.A.T. Blank, the examiner will note that when

each sheet is turned over he has an Analysis Sheet opposite the corresponding

story.

The

Analysis Sheet for story I

is

on the front side of the paper on which

story 2 is written;

the

Analysis Sheet for story 2 is

on the

front side

of the

sheet

on

which story 3 is written,

and

so forth. The analysis

of

story 10

(or the

last s l O r ~ · .

if

more or fewer stories are used) will be made

on

the Analysis Sheet that is

primed

as page of the six-page Blank.

After the stories have been analyzed in this fashion. the

examiner

can write a

summary of each

of the

stories in

the

spa(,-' provided

on

page 4. I f

more

than

10

stories

are

used, more summaries can be written

on

the back

of

page 4.) It is best

to write these summaries after all the stories have been analyzed. because the

summary is one of the stages of formally integrating the content of the analysis of

each separate story. When the sUlllmary sheet has been completed on

page

to one

is

prepared 0 write 'the Final Report. It will he noted that

by

folding the Blank,

the space for

the

final

report and

the sUlllluary

page

may be

exposed

side

by

side.

When

the

task is done. the loose sheets may be stapled in

the

folder for

safekeeping, and the final report

appears

on the cover for

(onn nielll

reference.

As noted earlier. some examiners prefer

to han

their patients write the

stories themselves. Since

the

patients should not have access to

the

outline

on

the

analysis sheet, they should write

their

stories on plain HI/: br i I paper.

I f

the

stories are so short that there

are

sever.ll on a sheet. they (an he n i l up and either

pasted or

clipped

to the ba(k of the separate ( l n a l ~ s i s shccts so that the final

arrangement

will

be

the same

as

if the examiner himself had written on the ha(k

of

the

analysis sheets. I f a

separate

sheet is used

for ea(h

s t ( ) r ~ · .

the

folder will

naturally be a little

bulkier

unless a typist

is

available

10

( ( ) p ~

rhe stories

onto

the

backs

of

the analysis sheets.

For some items

on the

analysis sheet. appropriate inforlllarion from the

story must

be

written in, using whatever short phrase or key word

will

most

facilitate the analytic process.

For

others, indicated on the Blank by j), a system

of

checks is suggested. A single check j ) may be used to indicate the mere

presence of-a given attitude, conflict,

or

the like. A double check j j )

or

triple

check j j ) may be used to indicate increasing le\ els

of

importance to be as

signed to

the

given item in summarizing {he story. It is

hoped

that this

approach

to quantification will

further

research studies

of interexaminer

reliability

of

interpretation

in

addition

to increasing the flexibility

of

the analysis form. Blank

spaces are

provided for

adding categories or ideas not given in the outline.

Despite

the

increasing use

of

the

more

recent Short

Form

of the Blank, the Long

Form is still highly useful, especially for training and research.



88 CHAPTER 4

D. Scoring Categories (Ten Variables)

The following suggestions for the use and interpretation of the individual scoring

categories of the T.A.T. Blank may be helpful.

I.

The

Main Theme

The main theme

is

best underst()(xf as an attempt to restate the gist of the story. (It

must be

remembered

that one T.A.T.

storr

may actually have more than

one

basic theme.) Since beginners in the lise of the test go off on a tangent most often

in an interpretation

of

the main theme, a breakdown of the main

theme

into five

levels is recommended.* This breakdown

of the

main theme is an imlJortallt

teaching

device.

In

essence,

the

student is guided to make sOlmd in/e1 l'U(I'S in the

transition from

prima1)1

data

to

diagnostic formulatio1l

In that process.

one

automati

cally proceeds from observation-near inferences to the more amhitious, hm also

more risky. observation-distant conclusions. This procedure should protect one

against wild interpretations.

Thc

five Icwls an :

I The

descriptive level: On this level thc theme should be a plain restatcmelH of

the summarized meaning of thc story. a finding of the common

trend

restated in an abbreviated form and simple words.

2.

The

interpretive

level.

3. The diagllostic level.

4.

The

symbolic level.

5.

The

elaborative

level.

The example of the following story may help (6Inf):

This is

a young successful

engineer.

He

is

tht., onl\" son in his family; his

father

is

dead, and his mother is very close to him. Hc is in lhe oil busincss and hc has becn offered a

contract

to

go

everseas to

the

East Indies.

He

las sigm'd Ihe

( ()Ill ran

and is

auout 10

leavc.

He

obtains

her farewell and they

pan

heartbroken. ; \ f l n 1 whilt' ~ h c

ft.-ds

\"cry

IOlll SOIllC

and decides to follow her son to the Easl I n d i t ' ~ , II is W'lrt illl(' .1Ilt somehow she ohlains

passage on a ship to the island on which her son

is.

All (."1)('111\'

suhmarine

sinks

her

ship and

she perishes. Her son had not heard about her inl('llIions hIli had independently planned

to visit her as a surprise. He decides to

return

hOIllt'

1'01

a surprise, The ship on which

he

had

obtained passage

is

taking the same roule hi lIIollln h.ul l'lken.

AI

Ihe exaCl spot

where his mother perishes,

another

enem), slIblllarin(' <t1l.llb

alJ(l

he perishes 'Iiso.

The

theme on a descriptive level could be briefly restated as: A son lives alone

with his beloved

mother

and leaves her-when they both try to rejoin each other

they

die on

the same spot. On

an

interpretive level

one

may go a step further

and

put

the

meaning in a generalized form. assuming a meaning beyond

the sLOry:

* For the beginner it is mosl helpful to force oneself to go Ihrough all fin le\'e s. Howe,-er, il m a ~ ' nol

be necessary to

put

them all down in wriling. The descriplive Ien l. in panicular,

is

a crulch; il may

suffice just to state the theme at this level in one's mind. The inlerprelive level might ~ _ . T ~ = o r d e d on

each analysis sheet,

and the

diagnostic,

or

higher, level may be Ihe basis for Ihe summary statement.

These levels

are

primarily a learning device. Once one

is

experienced, the interpretive and diagnostic

levels should be enough,just using the blanks for summaries_



INTERPRETATION O

THE

T A T 9

The

patient believes that

if

one* permits oneself (incestual) fantasies. such as

living with the

mother, then

both parties die.

On

a

di gnostic

level

one

transforms

these impressions into a definitive statements:

This man

has incestuous problems

and oedipal conflicts that cause him severe guilt feelings.

On

a

symbolic

level

one

may choose

to

interpret

symbols according to psychoanalytic hypotheses; ex

treme parsimony

and

caution must

be

strongly

recommended

since this level

takes

one

relatively farthest away from

hard

facts.

In our

example

one

might. for

instance. possibly wam 0 interpret the torpedoes as paternal phallic

~ m b o l s

that

endanger

and

destroy both

mother

and son for their illicit attempted get

together.

On an

el bor tive level one must get the subject's elaborations and free

associations to such specific data as: East Indies. engineer. to any

proper

names or dates. and any

other

associations he can give.

2

The

Main

Herot

The

main

hero

of the story

is

the one who

is

most spoken of. whose feelings and

subjective notions

are

most discussed.

and.

in general.

the

figure with whom the

narralOr seems to identify himself. In case of doubt. the figure resembling the

patient most closely in age. sex.

and

Olhercharacteristics should be considered the

main hero. At times a man may identify himself with a female main hero ; if this

occurs repeatedly. it

might

be considered a sign of latent

h o m o s e x u a l i t ~ ·

(depend

ing on the total picture). While

p r a c t i c a l l ~

all young men identify in picture 2 with

the young girl in

the

foreground. ollly some (there

is

disagreement regarding the

percentage) consider

the

figure in picture 3BM a female. Vocation. interest.

traits. abilities.

and

adequacy as

well as

body image

of the

main

hero

frequently

depict qualities

or

desired qualities

of

the patient.

By ldeqllac), of the hero we

mean his ability to carry

through

tasks

under

external and internal difficulties in a socially. moraUy. iiltellectually..and emo

tionally acceptable manner. The adequacy of the hero frequently conforms to a

pattern

throughout

the slOries

and

is often in a direct relationship lO the ego

slrength of the patient.

I t should also be mentioned here that at times (here may be more than

one

hero in a story. The patient may use a second flgure with whom to identify

himself. aside from

the

clearly recognizable hero. This

happens

rather rarely;

usually

it

involves a figure introduced but not present in

the

picture itself.

and

concerns drives

and

sentiments which

are

even

more

objectionable

lO

the patient

than the ones pertaining to the main hero.

(Other

devices

for

emphatically trying

• The interpretive level can nearly always be stated

as

a generalized conditional clause introduced

by

If one

t Some of the following variables were used b\ me

ill

an earlier mimeographed scoring blank 1

. designed while at the Harvard Psychological Clinic in 1940-42. Thus a great and not easily specified

extent

of

information

and

stimulation concerning these variables

WdS

received from Dr. H.

A

Murray. Dr.R.,W. White.

and

indirectly from Dr. R N Sanford who. with Dr. White. had written a

mimeographed guide to the T.A.T. which served

as

the major stimulus for systematic attempts of

interpretation. I wish to express my gratitude to these and

other

members of the staffof the Harvard

Psychological Clinic.



90 CHAPTER 4

to dissociate oneself from a story are to place it far away geographically and/or

temporally (e.g., placing a story in Russia in

the

Middle Ages.)

The

bod.

imagr concept was originally created by Schilder (1925), who

stated:

The

image of the human body means the picture of our own body which

we

form in

our

mind

he

way in which

the

body

appears

to

ourselves.

This

concept reveals itself particularly clearly in

the

violin picture

(picture

I). but also

in 3BM and in

the

rope picture (17BM). In picture

lone

may learn

about

the

su4ject's conception of his own body

either

in the discussion of

the boy

or often in

the

treatment

of the ,·iolin. This instrument seems

to

become identified with the

hero,

and

may be described as hroken

or

empty.

and

dead and l ~ l l l i n apart.

Particularly in this lal ler case the reference transcends

the

hody image and really

becomes a matter of self-image-illcluding the emotionalwne and the su4jeu's

conception

of

his role in

the

world. (Sometimes

the

iolin is identified with the

female body, the how constitllting Ihe male.) Similarly, mM

and

17HM lend

themselves to the characterization of the ( onception

of

body and self alld

the

social role.

3.

Main Needs and Drives

of

the Hero

Experience in teaching the T.A. has shown that the ilHluiry concerning the

hero's needs produces three types of data that are frequently confused to the

deH iment

of

the accuracy of the ohsen·ations.

ehavioral

Needs The behavioral needs

of the

hero constitute

the

rock bottom

data: f the

hero

is extremely aggressi e in the story.

allarking

and

hurting

a

number of people as

the theme

unfolds, it is worth ren>r<ling. It is of

{ (Hlrse

useful to remember that the heh;l\·joralneeds of the hero

mal

he.. the heha\ ioral

needs of

the

subject. but prima facie t h e ~ are only the f a n t a s ~ needs

of

the

u l ~ j e c l .

The problem of the rclatit,)pship of /all 1I1

1/lwl.\

in the T:\.T.

to

overt

behavior

is an important one.

The

interpreter

ofT.A.T.

stories often must deride

whether a need expressed pertains striLth to the fantasy I(,H I or reality; for

example. the

need

for aggression

or

for achievement. The ps),rhologist should

have available a

maximum

ofdinical

and

hiographical data ahollt

the

patient. The

clinical situation

is

not

one

concerned

with t(,sting the validil'

of

the

instrument.

Problems of the \'alidity of the T.AT.

are

dealt with in expcrinH'nls and must he

decided there. f

one

has sufliril.'nt information about Ihe patient. then the

T.A.T. stories must be seen as Lomplementary to the bcha, ioral data obtained.

For instance. if the subject is shy and retiring

and

the stories are full

of

aggression

and guilt feelings

about the

figures.

the

implications are obvious.

On the

other

hand, there are

certain indications from intratest situations

that

permit us to

make

assumptions

about the

manifest or latent

needs expressed

in

the T.A.T.

For

example,

in stories

of achie ement it

is extremely important to llotiLe

whether

they follow

the

deus ex

macililla

mechanism (simple wish fulfillment) or are actually

accomplished piece by piece

and

suggest

much

more

that

they

correspond

to a

behavioral need for achievement.

It

was R. N. Sanford (1943) who pointed out some

important

rules concern-

ing the relationship between fantasy needs and behavioral needs. He suggested



INTERPRETATION OF THE T A T 91

that there are certain needs that

are

usually high in fantasy

and

low in behavior

namely, those needs that

are

usually prohibited and inhibited by cultural pressure

from overt manifestation. These

are

mainly the

needs

for acquisition. aggression,

autonomy,

and

sexual activity, the wish to be taken

care

of.

and

the need for harm

avoidance. However, some needs may find lillie manifest expression in fantasy

but may find much expression in manifest behavior because of reality demands

for example, the needs for

order.

for avoiding social blame. for learning. Again,

there is a class of needs Ihal

may

be high both in fantasy and in behavior.

indicating that. while these needs are permitted

and

encouraged socially, they

may yet be sufficiently frustrated 10 require particular gratification on the f ~ m t a s y

level (especially needs for achievement. friendship, and

dominance .

f)) llamic

ill/neuCf.

f a subject (hero) is frequemly very

nurluranl

and support

i,:e

0

a

number

of

other

figures.

one

may have reason

to

suspect Ihal Ihese figures

are secondary or tertiary idenlifiration figures for the

s u l ~ j e c t , and

thaI Ihe

nunurance showll is indicative

ofa

r o f o l l n d l ~ ' succoram. demanding altitude on

Ihe

part

of the hero.

an

altitude Ihat he wards ofl in this way. Or one may ha\ e

indications Ihatlhe slIbje(( who <I\ oids all rt ference to aggressioll cloes so ber<luse

ofa great deal

of

aggression. which he has to keep

under

cOll[rol by dcnying all

of

il (an inference permitted only if there is supportive evidence).

Figures, O b j e c L ~ ,

01

Circum.\/llllfl J

/lI/n)(iuCl d. . \

s u ~ j e c t

who imrod U((:s weapons

of

one sort

or

,mother in a number of slPries (even without using them in Ihe

context)

or

who has f()od as all illlegral parI (even without

eating

it) may be

t e n t a t i v e l ~ ' judged

on such evidcnce as having a

need for

aggression

or

oral

gratificalion respectively. Similarly. the illlroduction of such figures as punisher.

pursuer. benefactor, and the like. or such circulllslances as injustice, deprivation,

and

so on, may be interpreted wilh due regard 10 lhe rest of the reford. r

0.;

Figures.

O b j e c L ~ . o r C i C l l m ~ / a l l c e J Omilled. f

a subject omits reference to the gun in

3BM

and to the riHe in

88M, or

does nOl see the

one

woman in 18GF choking

Ihe

other.

one may infer a need

10

repress aggressioll-or a need

to

repress

sexual slimuli if

the semi-nude in the background of

picture

4 is ignored,

or

if 13MF

is

seen as entirely devoid

of

sexual references. The inference can only

be tentative until we have a large

enough

sample to achieve a statistical basis

for what the expectations are when a certain object is introduced

or

omitted,

so as to be reasonably accurate in judging when a subject deviates from the

norm.

4. The Conception of the Environment (World)

This concept

is

a complex mixture

of

unconscious self-perception and apper

ceptive distort ion

of

stimuli by memory images

of

the

past.

The

more

consistent a

picture of the environment appears in the T.A.T. stories, the more reason we

have to consider it an important constituent of our subject S personality and a

useful clue to his reactions in everyday life. Usually, descriptive terms will suffice,

such as succorant, hostile,

exploiting,/riendly,

dangerous, and so forth.



92 CHAPTER 4

5.

Figures

Seen as • •

The T.A.T. is primarily

an

instrument that permits a study of

the

apperceptive

distortions

of

the

social relationships

and

the

dynamic factors basic to them.

Therefore

an

exhaustive study ofthe hero's attitudes to parental

contemporary

and younger or

inferior

persons

is

an inLegral part

of

Ollr scheme.

This method

permits recording these apperceptions

and

the subject's reactions

to

his percep

tion, that is each picture allows the subject to create a situation that can best be

understood as a problem ( Tell me what

is

going on ) which he then has to

proceed to solve ( And tell me what the outcome will be ),

thus

baring his ability

to come to compromise formations with his own needs, in other words, to show us

his defenses. For instance, if a s u ~ j e t chooses to perceive female figures in the

T.A.T. as aggressive, then it is worthwhile fl)r us to

determine

how he proceeds to

react

to

these creatures

of

his fancy, whether with withdrawal, counteraggression,

imellectualization, or other forms of behavior.

6. Significant Conflicts

When we study

the

significant conflicts

of

an individual,

we

not only ,allt to know

the nature of

the

conflict but also

the

defenses which the s l l ~ j e c t uses against it. t

is

important

in designating which drive or force

is

in conflict wi1l1 the superego

to specify in a word or ( \ ; 0 the resultant behavior: e.g., if the conflict

is

between

superego and

aggression,

it

may be tint the subject reacts with

shYIe u

Here we

have an excellent o p p o r t u l l i t ~ · for a study of the character structure and the

prognosis of the patient. Sometimes the conflict may not be between the

superego

and such drives as aggression, acquisition,

or

sexual desires, but between two

drives such as achievement and pleasure

or

autonomy and compliance.

7. Nature of Anxieties

The importance of determining the main anxieties hardly needs emphasizing.

Again, it will be valuable to note the defenses in this context, whether the\' take

the

form

of

passivity, flight, aggression. orality,

or

those

mentioned

below:

8. Main Defenses

against

Conflicts and Fears

The

T.A.T.

should not be studied exclusively for drive content, but should, in

addition, be examined for the defenses against these drives. Such a study of

defenses will often offer more information in that the drives may

appear

less

dearly

than the defenses against them: on the

other hand the

defensive

structure

may be more closely related to manifest behavior.

By

studying drives and de

fenses the T.A.T. often permits a clear-cut appraisal

of

the character structure of

the subject. t is also valuable to study the molar aspects of the stories. For

instance, some subjects choose obsessive defenses against a disturbing picture

content; they may produce four or five themes, each very short

and

descriptive,

manifestly

different

but dynamically identical. Sometimes a succession of themes

to

one and

the same picture shows the subject'S

attempts

to deal with a disturbing



INTERPRETATION

OF

THE T A T 9

conflict; successive stories may become

more and

more innocuous, showing an

increase in

the

defenses. On the

other hand,

each successive

theme

may

permit

more expression

of the

forbidden drive.

9. Adequacy

of

Superego as Manifested by Punishment

for

Crime

The relationship

of

the nature

of

the punishment to the severity of the offense

gives us an excellent insight into the severity

of

the su

perego;

a psychopath's hero

may consistently receive

no

punishment

in

stories

of murder.

with

no

more

than

a

slight suggestion that he may have learned a lesson

for

later life. while a neurotic

may have stories in which the

hero is

accidentally

or

intentionally killed

or

mangled

or

dies

of

iIlness following the slightest infraction

or

expression

of

aggression. On

the

other hand. a

nonintegrated superego.

sometimes too severe

and sometimes too lenient.

is

also frequently met in neurotics.

10.

Integration

of

the

Ego

This is, of course. an important \'ariable to le'lI n about; it tells us Iww well able ..

subject is to function. It tells liS

to

\\'hatexlelll he is able lO compromise between

his drives

and the demands of

reality on

the one hand. and the

n>ll1Jllands

of

his

superego on the other. The d e q u a c ~ of

the

hero

in dealing with

the

problems he

is confronted

with in

the

piclllres.

and

his own

apperception of

it. tells us what we

want to know in this

r e s p ~ c t .

Here \\'e arc interested in some formal chan:teristirs: Is the subject ahle to

tell appropriate stories which constilllte a certain

..

mount of cognizance

of

the

adaptive aspects of the stimulus. or dOt'S he le;l\ e the stimulus c O l l 1 p l e t e l ~ and tell

a story with no m

.

nifest relation

10

the picture because he

is

110t

\ e11

enough

to

perceive reality

or too preo(:cupied with his own problems to keep them out.

whether pertinent or

not? Does he lind

result' and

sal\"ation from the anxiety

pertaining to

the

test

by

giving

\ e r ~ slcn'ot\ved

responses.

or is

he

well enough

and

intelligent enough to be creative

alld gi\ e more or

less original stories?

Having produced a plot. can he a lain a solution of the o>llllicts in the story

and

within himself which

is

adequate. wlJlplt'tt'

and

realistic.

or

do

his

thought

processes become unstructured or e\Tn hizane.' LInder the impact of the problem?

These

observations permit an appraisal

of

what really constitutes ego

strength, often contribut ing a great (kal to f;J('ilitating possible classification

of

the patient in one of the nosological categories, in addition to the dynamic

diagnosis which

the content

variables supply as

the

main contribution

of

the

T A T

Here too

belong

such considerations as ile distance o

h

subject from

his

story;

for instance. if

the

setting

of the

story

is

far awa\' or long ago,

or

if

the

hero

is

merely

an

onlooker,

or

if it

is

reported as a

s(.'ene

from a movie, or if emotional

situations

are

told in a sarcastic tone

and

embellished with

wtlo voce

remarks. all

these factors usually imply an attempt to isolate oneself from the emotional

content of

the

story as a defense mechanism. On the

other

hand, if a subject

immediately involves himself personally in the story and says, That is just what

happened to me

," it may mean a loss

of

distance

and

implies a very

narcissistic preoccupation with the

'Self.



94

CHAPTER 4

From a formal standpoint. it

is

useful

to

consider that telling stories about

the pictures is a task which the subject must perform. We may judge his adequacy,

ego strength, and

other

yariables from

the

standpoint of his ability

and

way

of

meeting the task.

Clinical interest in 'Ko [,, (I;o1lS has steadily increased. Therefore. a specific

ego

function

assessment scale is

provided

on page 6 of the T.A.T. Blank. This

scale is predicated upon detailed definitions and extensive

research

reported

elsewhere (Arnold.

19:')

I).

When

ego functiolls were

studied

by interview,

psychological tests.

and

laboratory methods.

il

turned out somewhat surprisingly

that ratings derived from the T.A.T.

by

several raters correlated

more

highly

than

those for the Rorschach. WAIS. Figure Drawings.

and

the

Bender

(;estalt

Test

(Arnold. 1951. p. I). Ego functions may be assessed from

the T.A.T.

stories themselves

and enlered

on the rating scale. I f desired. highesl may he

drawn to

connect

the ratings

(see

the

figure

bdow).

One

m a ~

also wish

10

assess

ego functions

from

the test behavior. It

is

slIgge-;ted Ihal this he i efordcd and

reported separately in the space

beneath

the scale on page tl.

The

12

ego functions lila\ he hrief defincd as follows:

I

Realif) Testing

The ability to d i f f e r e n t i ; ~ t e between

inncr and

ollier stimuli invoh'es

cominuous

selective scanning and matching cOlllemporan percepts againsl past percepts

- -I '= I>I> _>I.= :

- - I j> >

level. of functIoning:

ChatlCter;stte

Highest: ...................

lowest: - -



INTERPRETATION O

THE

T A T

9

and ideas. Social contexts and norms will always be relevant in assessing reality

testing.

Inner-reality testing is included in this scale. It is reflected

here

in the degree

to which the person is in touch with his inner self. Stated

another

way. this implies

"psychological-mindedness" or "reflective awareness" (e.g • of the implications of

the T A T stories).

II.

Judgmmt

Ratings for judgment are based on data indicating comprehension and appraisals

of hypothetical

and

real situations.

and

the subject's evaluations of the conse

quences of action or

other

behavior related to these situations. as the subject

creates them here.

Il l

Sense ofReality

of

he World and

of

the

Self

This scale assesses disturbances in the sense

of

ones' self. as

it

relates

to

the outside

world.

It

also asays

the

sense of reality or unreality

of

the world. For

inSl<lIlCl:

some T.A.T. stories include talk about ghostly creatures

and

unreal half-worlds

W

Regulation

and

Control ofDrit es, Affects,

and

Impulses

This l:Unction refers to the extent

to

which delaying and col1lrolling mechanisms

allow dri\'e derivatives to be expressed in a modulated

and

adaptive way. char.lC

terizt. d.

optimally.

by neither

under-

nor

overcontrol.

V

Object Relations

Optimal relationships

are

relati\Tly free

or

maladaptive clements suggesting

patterns of illleraction that were more appropriate to childhood situations th'lI lto

the present ones. The most pathological extreme would he essclllially an absence

of relationships with any people: next would be present rclations based on early

fixations. unresolved conflicts. and vcry hostile s'ldomasochistic relationships.

Optimal relations would be the most rnamre. relatively free of distortions. and

gratifying to adult libidinai. aggressive, and ego needs. For picture I of the

T A T

. a story in which a violinist plays with pleasure before an empty Carnegie

Hall. suggests a great deal

of

narcissism.

VI. Thought Processes

Disturbances in formal characteristics of logical thinking. as well as the illlerfer

ence

of

primary process material need to be rated.

VII.

ARISE

Adaptive regression in the service of the ego (ARISE) refers to the ability of the

ego to initiate a partial, temporary. and controlled lowering of its own function')

(keep in mind

here the

component factors

of

the eleven ego functions) in the

furtherance

of

its interests (i.e • promoting adaptation). Such regressions result in

a relatively free.

but

controlled, play

of

the primary process.

This egofunction

can

be

particularly well observed from

the

way

in which the subject

is

able

to

deal

with the T A T as a creative task.

VIII. Defensive Functioning

Defenses protect preconscious

and

conscious organizations from

the

intrusions

of

id derivatives, unconscious ego, and superego tendencies. They aid adaptation

by



96 CHAPTER

controlling

the emergence

of anxiety-arousing. or other dysphoric psychic con

tent, such as ego-alien instinctual wishes and affects (including depression). which

conflict with reality

demands.

Excessive defensiveness

is of course

also maladap

tive. A

notation-whether

excessive

or defective-is

llseful.

IX. Stimulus

arner

Both

thresholds and

responses to stimuli

contribute to adaptation

by

the

organ

ism s potential for

responding

to

high, average.

or

low sensory

input.

so that

optimal homeostasis (as well as

adaptation) is

maintained. Stimulus

barrier

deter

mines. in

part.

how resilient a

person is or

how

he readapts after the

stress

and

impingements are no longer

present. A story of a

mother

who can t

stand

thc

yelling

of her

child and how it affccts her would be vel y informati\ c hcre.

X

Autonomous Functioning

Intrusion of

conflict. ideation. affecl.

and/or

impulsc

UPOIl

functioning

is it m < ~ j o r

criterion

for

determining impainm ll

of either Ihe primary or the

secondary

autonomy.

The

basic apparalllses and functions of

primary

autollomy are:

perception

memory

language

intentionality

hearing

producti\ ity

concentration

vision

motor

de\ e1opmelll

attention

speech

and expression

XI

Synthetic Integrative Functioning

This ego function fulfills one of

the

< ~ j o r tasks

of

the

ego

as

defined

by

Freud.

in

terms

of

reconciling the

often

conHicting

demands of

the id.

superego,

and

outside world, as well as

the

incongruities within the ego. We focus

on

the

reconciling

of

areas that

are

in conflict

and

also

on the extent of

relating

together

areas

that are

not in conHict.

XII. Mastery Competence

Raters

must

score

competence and

sense

of competence

separately, since a num

ber

of

different

relationships between

the

two

are

possihle:

(I) t h e ~ Illay

be

congruent;

(2) actual performance m a ~ exceed

the

sense

of

compett lH e:

and

(3) sense

of competence

may ex( eed

l 1 l a s t e r ~ - c o m p e t e n c e .

E.

The Summary and Final Report

After all

the

stories have been analyzed.

the

main data

obtained from

each should

be

noted

down in the

appropriate

space on page 4.

When the summary page

is

studied after the analysis of all the stories has been

completed,

a repetitive

pattern

in

the

subject s responses ordinarily becomes quite clear.*

The

final

report

can be written in full view

of

the

summary

page. It

is

suggested

that

the form

of

the

final

report

follow

the

sequence

of

the

10 catego-

• Experienced T.A.T. workers. having become familiar with our method. may wish to use only the

T.A. T. Blank. using the middle page for a guide to record relevant data on the summary sheet rather

than actually filling in the details on 10 analysis sheets.



INTERPRETATION

OF

THE

T A T 9

ries on the analysis sheet. The main themes. the second and third variables,

permit a description of the unconscious stmcture and

Ilteds

of the subject, while the

fourth and fifth variables show us his co uption of he

world

and of s;guijicmlt figures

around him. Categories six. seven. eight. nine.

and

ten may actually be used as

headings for statements concerning the respective dimensions

of

personality.

The form

of

the final report will depend. of course. to a great extent

on

the

person for whom it is intended. It is. however. strongly advised that empty

phrases and erroneous inferences be avoided by the following procedure: The

first

half of

the report may consist

of

general abstract statements concerning the

subject. following the outline above; a second part of the report should then

consist of specific. concrete documentation by excerpts from stories or by specific

references to stories from which the main abstract statements have been derived.

This

arrangement is particularly useful in instances in which the psycholo

gist reports as part

of

a team to psychiatrists and to social workers who may not

ha\'e the time or the experience to read the stories themselves. and for whom a

purely abstract statement will not be sufficiently meaningful.

I

f

a diagnosis must be offered. or if one wishes to state one, I suggest that the

following formula be used: The data represented in the T.A.T. are consistent

with

the

diagnosis of.

This

expresses my belief that the T.:\.T.

is

not

primarily a diagnostic test (diagnostic in the sense

of

labeling

nosologically-of

course

it is

diagnostic

of

dynamic

and

structural variables)

and

also that, prefera

bly. no diagnosis should ever be made

Oil

the basis of a single tcst,

or

belleI'. never

on test evidence alone without additional infonnation provided

br

a clinical

interview.

F. The Short

Form of the

Bellak T.A.T. and C.A.T. Blankt

The

short form of the original Blank has been f ~ } u l i s h e d mainly for clinical

convenience. While it uses practially the same variables

as

the earlier Blank,

it

consists only of a three-page form which folds into a single

8Y

by I I sheet. with

the sUlllmarized facts on the front. When the Blank is unfolded, each of the

\'ariablcs can be recorded in the appropriate boxes for all 10 stories and summa

rized consecutively

under the

same headings at the

extreme

right.

The

writing

of

the final report can be simplified by having the summary sheet opened out in full

view.

It

should

be noted that

the

10

major variables or categories are used

primClrily

as a frame of reference; not all aspects

will

be relevant to e\'ery story

and, occasionally, details not included in the Blank

will

occur

and

have to be

recorded.

The principal function of

the

Blank is to further facilitate the transition

froin concrete primary data to the inferential summary and final diagnosis by

having

aU

three pages unfolded in front of one. Also the Short Form is easier to

handle.

In

its new revised version, it shows a shift

to

more interest in ego

• I am indebted to

S.

Sorel Bellak for sugestions and constructive criticism of the revision of this

T.A.T, Blank and Manual.

t Published by C.P.S. Inc., P. O. Box 83, Larchmont, New York, For an example of the use of the

Shon Form. see Case 3, the analysis

of

Somerset Maugham's short stories (Chapter

8 ,

and Chap

ter II.



9

CH PTER

4

psychology in

that

the

revised form lists

12 ego

functions.

These are to be

gauged-as

many

of them and

as well as

possible-as

a

further

indication

of

adaptive

capacity. A

detailed

account

of

these

ego

functions can

be

found in

Bellak

and

Loeb's

The Schiz.ophrenic S.'mdrome

(1969), in

Ego Frmctions ; Schiz.o-

phrmics,

Neurotics,

and Normals,

and

in a

paper

called A Systematic

Study

of

Ego

Functions (BeHak,

Hurvich, & Gediman,

19i3).

Briefly. they can be described as follows:*

Rt ality Testillg. The major factors are (a) the distinction between inner and outer

stimuli; (b) accuracy of perception (includes

orientation

to time and place

and

.

interpretation of external

events);

c)

accuracy

of inner

reality testing (psycho

logical mindedness

and

awareness of

inner

states).

judb 1lle1lt.

a) Awareness of likely consequences of intended behavior (anticipat

ing

probable

dangers.

legal culpabilities. social

censure,

disapproval,

or inappro

priateness); (b) extent

to

which manifest bella ior reflects

the

awareness of these

likely consequences.

Seme

o

Rl'alit),

o the

World

(1m/ o

the Sl l[

The

component

factors

are

(a) the

extent

to

which

external

events arc

experienced

as real and as being

embedded

in

a familiar context

(degree of

derealizatioil,

deja

vu; trance-like states): (b) the

extent towhich

the body

(or

parts

of

it) and its functioning and

one s

beha,'ior

are

experienced as familia.·, UilObtrusive, and as belonging to

(or

emanating

fmm)

the

individual; c)

the

degree

to which

the person

has

developed

individuality,

uniqueness,

and

a sense

of

self

and

self-esteem; (d)

the degree

to which

the

person's self-representations

are separated

from his object representations.

Regulatio1l and Control

o Dri1lfs,

Affects, lind Impulses,

(a)

The

directness of im

pulse expression

(ranging

from primitive acting out

through neurotic

acting out

to relatively indirect forms of behavioral expression); (b) the effectiveness of

delay and control, the

degree

of frustration tolerance. and

the

extent to which

drive derivatives are channeled through ideation, affective expression, and mani

fest behavior.

Object

(or Interpersonal) Relations, The components are

(a)

the degree and

kind of

relatedness to others and investment in them (taking

account of

withdrawal

trends,

narcissistic self-concern, narcissistic object choice or mutuality); (b) the

extent to which present relationships are adaptively

or

maladaptively influenced

by or patterned

upon

older ones and serve present,

mature

aims rather than past

immature aims; (c) the degree

to

which the person perceives others as separate

entities rather

than

as extensions of himself; (d) the extent to which he can

maintain object constancy (i.e., sustain relationships

over

long

periods of

time and

tolerate

both the

physical absence

of

the object and

frustration,

anxiety,

and

hostility related to

the

object).

The material from here to Section G is reprinted from Bellak, Hurvich, and Gediman (1973) by

permission.



INTERPRETATION OF

THE T.A.T.

Thought

Processes.

The components

are

(a)

the

adequacy

of

processes which

adaptively

guide

and sustain

thought

(attention. concentration. anticipation. con

cept formation.

memory.

language); (b)

the

relative primary-secondary process

influences

on thought

(extent to which thinking

is

unrealistic. illogical. and/or

loose).

Adapti ve Regression ; the Sf Jiu o

lite

Ego.

(a) First phase

of an

oscillating process:

relaxation

of preceptual

and conceptual acuity (and

other ego

controls) with a

concomitant increase in awareness

of

pre\'iously preconscious and unconscious

contents; (b) second

phase

of

the

oscillating process:

the

induction

of

new

COIl-

figurations which increase adaptive potentials as a result of creative integrations.

Df/msil1f Frl1l(liollillg.

(a) Degree

to

which defensive

components

adaptivel), or

maladaptively affect ideation

and

behavior: (h) extent to which these defenses

have succeeded

or

f ~ l i l e d

(degree

of

emergence

of

anxiety. depression.

and/or

other dysphoric affects. indicating weakness

of

defellsive operations).

Stimulus HarTin.

The componem f ~ l C l O l S are

(a) threshold for. sensitivitv to. or

awareness

of

stimuli illl pinging

upon

variotls sensory modalities (primaril;'

exter-

nal. bm

including

pain); (1))

nature

of response to various levels of sensory

stimulation in

terms of the

extent of disorganization. avoidance. withdrawal,

or

active

coping

mechanisms employed to deal with them.

AutommlOliS FU1lcliollillg. The components

are (a) kgree

of

freedom from illl

painnent

of

apparatuses

of

primary autonolll\, (functional disturbances

of

sight,

hearing,

intention,

language. melllOI \'. learning. or motor function); (b) degree

of or

freedom from

impairment of

seconeJan' aUlOnoJ))\' (disturhances ill habit

patterns. learned complex skills. work roulines. hobbies. and interests).

S) lIthl lic-/lllegml illf FII1Iclioll;1/I[. (a) Degree of reconciliati(l l

or

integration

of

discrepant or

p o t e n t i a l l ~

cOlllraclicton <tlliIUdcs. \',dlles. <tff'ects. behavior. and

self representalions; (b)

degree

of

([rlll t

rei;lling logelher and illlegrating of

psychic

and

behavioral e"ents.

whetehr

fOlltradiuol'\'

or IIOt.

Mll5II 1),-CompetmCf. (a) Comp{'tl'llcc. Ihl' person's

performance

in relation 0 his

existing capacity

to

interact with

and

llIaslt.'" his ell\'irOlllllcllI;

(b)

sense

of COIll-

petence. the person's expectation of succcss. or the subjectire side of actual

performance

(how well

he

belie\'es he

.t11

do ,

G

Case Illustrations

Following

are some

examples

of

analyzed

T.AT. records.t

An

attempt

has been

made to present them

as

l o s e l ~

as possihlc to

the

actual use

of

the

T.A.T.

Blank

Analysis Sheets. Since

the

formal of this book

is

smaller than

the

actual size

of the

In the first two cases, the Long Form

is

used; in the third case. the Short Form

is

used.

t These records are by no means exhawtively analyzed.

as

anyone will recognize. To do so would nol

be

practical here.

Indeed,

a whole monograph could

be

wriuen about each T.A.T. record Different

styles of writing the final report are used to illustrate various possibilities.



1 CH PTER

blank.

these pages must

of necessity be rather

crowded. Another

limitaiton is

that

the running commentary of a classroom is not easily approximated. The clinical

notes are

meant

to take

the

place of classroom remarks-enlarging 011 one aspect

or another which might easily appear arbitrary. For instance. in story I of John

Doe.

blindness

is

scored

both

as a

defense

(namely. a

form

of

denial

of

the

voyeurism which is also

expressed

in

the

s t o r ~ itself by

the

s u l ~ j e c t s failure to

recognize the violin)

and

again as a form

of punishment.

Psychological acts are

overdetermined.

Fear

of blindness. especially ill children. must be regarded

clinically

both

as a wish not to have to see

(for

instance. primal scene e\,ellls).

and

also

as

a

fear

of

being punished

for wanting to look.

Seeing

is

sometimes experi

enced as something acti\'e. (i.e . the

glaring

stare of the hypnotist). or as some

thing passive. by the person illlo whose eyes someone is staring forcefully. The

ere may thus sene either as a male

or

a ft. malt. sexual symbol. Frequently during

psychoanalytic sessions related to the topic of masturbation. pat iellls will ruh their

eyes

and

transitor),

symptoms

of

compulsi\'e eye

ruhhing are

not

uncommon.

This usually constitutes a masturhatory eqllivalent.

The

clinical notes

accompanying each

story are kept to a

lIlinimum and

where

possible primed on the same p ~ l g e as

the

story itself. as

an editorial

convenience. Tilt ), are 1/01 ('.ul'l/lilll pari r

thl'

rii l l;ra/ I aol d,

bill

1If( a/)/u'nt/('(/ hnl

for didartir purposes. Similarly.

1II1der

clinical wnditions. the

desnipti\'e

theme

need not be written out at all; the instructions are to write the inl('11m'lil'(' theme

under

Main

Theme on the Anal\'sis Sheet. and to write the diagnostic le\'el of

the theme on the Summary Page.

illJ1I t l fI . fin didarlir

1 ( (1.1 (11. .\. U'l' arl

rl produrillg

hne thedesrnIJlh e. illlt l prrlit f .llnd

tiiaglloslir

Ih( 11/( below each

t o r ~

to show

how the

final

diagnostic

le\'el is arri\'ed at easy stages from the actual story as given hy

the

subje(·(.

Then. just

to

keep

the record

straight.

we also reproduce the illler-

preti\'e

theme on the

A n a l ~ s i s

Blank and Ihe diagnostic

theme len'

I on the

SUlllmary Page.

where

they belong in the actual clinical

record.

Thus. the scheme

as used

here

will often

he repetiti\'e in

the interests of

greater

d a r i t ~ · .

Case 1

The

first

rase

I

present

is

one of

blind

diagnosis-that

is.

the

'1'.:\.'1'. was

administered

hy

someone

else in a neuropsychiatric hospital and

sent

to

me

as the

protocol of

John Doc. male. age 25. single.* These slOriesare

011 the

whole <Iuite

poor.

thematically

speaking. and

as unsuitable for my type

of

analysis as

could

easily be found; I include them to show how much one can

derive

from the

scheme

even under poor story conditions.

Although at the time of analyzing the material I kill'\\' nothing about this

man except

his

age

and sex. I am now including a

condensed

ersion of the

summary evaluation of

John

Doe

made

by the mental hygiene psychotherapist:

• Courtesy

of

Edwin

S.

Shneidman

et

al.. Thematic

Test

Analysis,

New

York.

Grune & Slranon,

1951.

Since this

T.A.T.

interpretation was part of a research project. there

was

no o ~ j e c t i o n to a blind

diagnosis.




OF

THE T.A.T. 1 1

The

patient

is

a tall. slender young Illan of 5 who gives

the

impression

of

boyish-

ness. He seems suspicious. indecisive. and unable to relax. There seem to be considerable

effcminatc manncrisms in his behavior. Hc

had

nevcr been ablc to makc sccurc objcct

relationships.

Hc

was

ery

fearful and withdrawn from carly childhood. Somc of his guilt

in relation to his scxual drivcs. masturbation.

and

probably also in relation to inccsLUous

feelings toward a scductivc mothcr.

Therc

seems to be

considcrable

guilt in relation to his

own hostility. He has cstablished somc defcnses against this through obscssions. but his

defcnscs

arc

cracking. Thc ~ t i n t seemt.'d obsesscd with thoughts about death. homocidc.

and

suicide. There were depersonalization. lIIany ideas of rl'ft.'rencc.

and

a considerable

amount

of hostile fantasy. II is fl'lt that this patient is a paranoid schizophrenic who is still

able

to

maintain cOlllrol over his hostile and

deslructivc

impulses. although his control is

vcry tenuous. As long as

he

can Ih'e a withdrawn and

shehered

life perhaps he Gill

continue to function outside a hospital; hO\,·('\"er.

in

the face of frustration

he

may become

anh'dy psychotic with homicidal and suicidal illlpuls(:s.

Following

is

a case reproduced as in

the

actual '1'.:\.'1'. Blank. which means

lhal

lhe

final

report appears

011

what would he Ihe first page

of

lhe

hlank. so lhal

whoe\'cr the reporl

is

intcnded f()r

em

read the csst.'llIia s alone glancc. The

reader

is

advised first to go through lhe stories .md then

1

lurn back to lhe final

report.

Further

011

in lhis book. lhis e lSC

is

analyzcd in terms of objecl relatiolls.



102 CHAPTER 4

BELLAK TAT BLANK

For Recrinc

and

AnalJDn,

1Dematic:

Apperception T

. Stone

Name John 1) '1 .

Sex

M

A,e..lS-Date

Educatio I-

_____________

O c c u p e t i o n

Referred by, Analyei. by

FINAL

REPORT

O"n.ral

t

Tb1.

1.

an

.xtremolr dl.turbed .an: h. conc.l••• of hl•••

l t a.

111,

lncapacltat.d,

INtUat.d, t

••

l .

c1epr....d,

t .art \al , and

d.ad

in. ld

•

,

B. 1

••

c

••

dinglr

ambl.al.nt

toward

both tathor and

moth'r

t lgur••

,

bl .

o.dlpal

probl.m'

are

.n t l re l r

unr •ol

••

dt h . ba. a tr.mondou.

attachment to the moth.r, who. h• • • • • a . dang.rou. at the .ame

t l

..

B• • • • • tb. tath .r a.

cold, ho. t l l .

and inad.quat••

Th. pat l .nt ba. tr.mondou. gull t toollng' conc.rning both a.xual

and

agare •• lv.

Impul

•••

(whlch

app.ar

t\a

••d). H.

t r .qu.nt l r

ldentlt1••

wlth

a t

...

.

tlgure.

H.

al.o

ha.

confllct .

conc.mlns

.xblbl t lonl . t lo

and

.0T.url . t lc

tendenclo" po ••

1blr

r .latod to u l ~ t h r a l

dl t t l cu l t l . , .

Bl,

thought

procelse' app.&r

d l . t u r ~ o d

tendlng

toward the

bl&arre.

h.re

are data con. l . t .n t

wlth

COlmlc delu.ion. and halluclnatlon

••

h. total plcture 1.

con.l. t .nt

wlth

a .chlzophr.nlc dl.ordor,

w1tb pot.ntlal paranold and h.bephr.nlc r.olorlng. Sulcldal r l .k 1.

oon.lderabl.. Homlcidal

r l .k

.hould be con.ldor.d.

S.xual crlmlnalltr .

including ov.rt bomo.exuallty,

1. a po

•• lb l i l t r .

p.c i f ic

t

I l ln

••• and

mut1latlon appear ln . tor l •• 1, 7BK; al .o

ln

12K,

14,

and 16

(not

r.produc.d hor .) . Dopr

••• lon,

t

••

r ,

and

gullt

are apparont

in

. rr atorr ,

u.ually

related to ••

x,

.uch a. pro.t l tut lon in

7BK,

adult ' r r

in

4, ux ,and

IIIJrGor

In 6BM; l eX

and

dhgult

alia

app.ar In

13MF

r

.urder and

. t .al lng

1n 14 ( t h .

l a . t

two

atorl•• not

reproduced

b. re / . BOIlO..xuaUtr

11 .uggnted bT

t.male

Id.nt1tlCJlltlon.

81lndn

•••

occur,

ln

. tory

I ,

groat

n o t o r l ~ 1

ln

3BM,

. t ag .

acting

in

68K; not looking 1n l)MP and photograpbr

In

14

(th.

l a t ter two are

oot reproduced bero). th • • • th

••

e. ar . conal.t .nt wlth

.or .ur la .

and

.xhlbl lonhm •

• ater

occura

ln

. torr

1, fire ln 4, .11shtly ,uggOlUve t urethral

probleu.

Contl1ct

wIth

par.ntal

t lgure ' appear' 1n . tor r

I ,

th , t .male

t l ~ r

1

. . . . .. dang.rou'

and

uductlv . In

4, mother

.o.n

a t danserou.

In

6HK, fath.r

a . cold

In 78M,

a.

lnad.quat. in 78K

(wa.

al.o .1ck)

and

In 138

(not

r.produc.d). and

11

fousht 'pabol1cally

in

14 (al .o not

reproduc.d b.re) .

bousht

proc

••••• appoar mo.t

clewrlT

to b. dl.turbed and blzarre

in

. tor l•• 1,

68K,

and

16

(not roproduc.d h . r . ) .

Copyr.,hl 11)4-, . \ bfll ... M A. M 0

Ail

fl ,hh

, t M'tu' l l

. ~ . J , t ' IN

U N "unutl

.Ad UI . I

hln:c-.t1ft t.:SA

7J.261AS

Note The above represents one form of writing the final report, the general statements being

separated from the specific concrete references they are based on. The reports for Case 2 and Case 3

show

other

possibilities,



I ~ T E R P R E T T I O N OF THE

T AT

1 3

I: This child is sick in bed. He has been given sheet music to study, but instead of the

music he has come across a novel that interests him more than the music. I t is probably an

adventure story. He evidently does not fear the chance that

his

parents will find him thus

occupied as he seems quite at ease. He set. IUS

to

be quite a studious type and perhaps

regrets missing school, but he seems quite occupied with the adventure

in

the story.

Adventure has something to do

with

ocean or water. He is not too happy. though not too

sad. His eyes are somewhat blank-coincidence

of

reading a book without any eyes

or

knowing what is in the book without reading

it

He disregards the music and falls asleep

reading the book.

Descriptive

theme

A sick child is

told 0

study

music

ignores fiddle) and

prefers adventure

story to studying.

feels not

happy.

not

sad.

unafraid of punish

ment.

reads

without eyes

or knows what

is

in

book without

read

mg.

falls asleep

llrrprelit

l

e

theme

(If one) is

a sick

child

told to work ig

nores

fiddle).

prefers pleasure

reading

(concerning

water)

to studying,

without affect.

uilafraid of punish

ment.

can see without eyes

and

is

omniscient.

~ l l l s

asleep.

CIi li((l/t/otes

D;aglloJlic fllrl

Feels a child, sick.

poor body

image.

Feels

coerced.

Mech

anism of denial-re

Illast urbatioll?

Resists

authority

by

withdraw

. l

imo

fan

tasy; urethral illler

ests, exhibitionism?

Anhedonia? Deper

sonalization?

(Fear of punish

ment).

severe

superego;

denial.

Bizarre

ideas

of

magic; severe

superego. castratioll.

omnipotence.

Withdrawal.

pas

sivity.

The

concept

of the

body image as sick. and

merely

a

child.

emerges here.

supplemented

by

the idea

of

being blind letter in

the

story.

probably

indicating

poor

concept patient

has of himself, and at the same

time probably

indicating

some intrapsychic awareness of mental) illness which one finds in patients who

seem consciously unaware of

being

psychotic.

Ignores fiddle

altogether:

rare in adults, usually signifying

disturbance re

violin playing as sexual symbol, particularly

masturbatory.

I nstead of studying. prefers fantasy: resistant to

parents;

unable to studv,

or

unwilling.

Fantasy concerns water. ocean: since lhis

is an

entirely personal introduc

tion by the subject, wonder if related to

enuresis,

urethral

complex,

and

pre

mature ejaculation as sexual

disturbance,

aside from actual urinary disturbances.

Unafraid of punishment: negation

probably

means

I

wish I were not

afraid

actually

quite

afraid), as

pointed

out by Freud denial).

Not

happy,

not

sad: anhedonia, underlying

depression-mechanism

of

denial.



104 CHAPTER

4

c)

. .

t

... C••

II,_

_Yir.

__

( . . .w ) Lo' = c ; . : : D t I ; . ; ; ; . L r . . . ; : £ ; ; . ; . I t ' - ~ : ' . - L C ( ¥ / .............' 1 1 ~ . - ______________

. . P - W c w -

- -L fL ar.

_ u'M"Fi«- Ce-

and .....

·. reaclion

io

a { ~

ittto .f 4,d-ttStl

c..&e.p.

'cw- _ arc _ u

lecei6J

and ..... «t

•

reaclion ;. ,

J i « cw- _

__

r _ v

and

..... reaclion ••________

Sic 'Sc.t

CpMP iMcC - u tMDI I i : 4,J,i UWnt-el«S«CfIl cct i r i

lv

-t H.

t i r ~ ·

""""'II .._ ~ ¥

7. '''''-'-1

I)

. f p .)'IicaI

~ nd/ r p"niohmn'l..l

.1 i I I _ . r ift;Ury-...:,/'"7_______

. f diM . . . .1 . f d inlio.__ ...M:Z _______

. f ack

r 10•

• 1

10..

of ' iac d..,o .

reel ' -

_________

.1 ...... deaerteel .1 ....... o.crpo_reel ,1_______

o ~ , - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

10. . . . . . . . . . . . . . tM __

i t e e l f i a : / . / I . / I / )

. . .

oquaq of

' ro

a I outc

~ P P 7

________ w....,.--""7"---

roaliotic

unrealiocic_

..

e _ _ __

IOlution:

d_l

inad-._I _____

tJ.o.chl p r o c _ u ,. ee1ee1

..

,,101 loci. . .

/ . / I . / I / )

_ed UnlltVclUreel,( .... eotn>M_,,-

__

riri ..1 ..... opria l ..___

ioNI

blaane

..c

com .

et.

7'

ioocom,let.

....

.

ro rial._.

__

_1 ( / ) IUpehor___ A.bo,

• • • 1 , - - - -

• ,.,

........

/'--_ _ ..1 _

...........

___

. . . . . . . .

____

, . . . ; l e . l . d

Note: A slightly revised version of variables 9 and 10 ofthe above blank. lo be published

as

before by

The

Psychological Corporation.

is

in process. The changes are idenlical wilh lhose appearing in lhe

revised Short Form.



INTERPRETATION

OF THE T A T

1 5

Reading without eyes: bizarre statement; being blind

is often punishment

for voyeurism (related to exhibitionism)

and often

consistent with very great

masturbatory guilt.

Knows what

is

in book without reading it: bizarre statement; implies tele-

pathic notions,

superhuman

power. possibly related to cosmic delusions. ,

Falling asleep: resolves conflict situation (disobeying parents)

by

with

drawal.

Story is far removed from stimulus. poorly

structured,

bizarre, consistent

with severe

thought

disturbance; flat mood consistent with schizophrenia.

38M: This is a

girl

in a cell and she has been jailed because she was found guihy of

proslitlrtion.

She

is in this position in

the

picture because she is \ ery

ashamed.

not because

of being

arrested. because she is quite familiar with tht- police. but because of the faci thaI

her picture and a

ntwspaper

wrile-up

was

bt. ing sensalionally spread across Ihe coum rr.

She knew Ihat

her

siSler. who was a

nun.

would

suffer

from il.

and

il

made

her

feel very

b a d l ~ because she.

alone

time. had a chance and an opportUllilY 10 follow her elder sisler s

example

bUI it

was

100

late now. She grabs a cOll(:ealed knife from

under

her blouse and

Slab:; herself.

D f , ~ r r i p t i l l ( th mf

A girl is jailed for pros

titution;

is

ashamed not for ar

rest (because she is

quite familiar with po

lice) but because of

newspaper publicity

which would

hurt her

sister, a

nun. Once

she

could have followed

her

sister s example but it

is

too late now.

Kills herself with knife.

l1ltrrprrtit

l

t l'ml'

If a girl

is

guilty

of

prostitutiun

she is jailed;

is

ashamed of

the

publicity

and

the

hurting

of

sister

whom she should

emulate in being

a nUll.

and

kills herself.

CiillicallloteJ

Diagllostir Inlel

Great guilt O\ er sex;

feminine identifi

cation.

Severe

superego

concerning also ex·

hibitionism

and

am

bivalence to sibling

seen as pure.

Intra-aggression.

Subject apparently considers sex as dirty. in speaking of prostitution here. Appar-

ently feels like

an

habitual criminal. since he says he

is

quite accustomed to jail. His

fear of the introduced

theme

of publicity

is

quite consistent as

the

exhibilionistic

counterpart of

the

voyeurism in story I.

.

Hero

identifies with female in this story.

This

by itself

is

so frequent in this

picture that it can only be considered a most tentative datum. However. this

is

such a vivid identification

and

sounds so convincing that it

appears to portray

something significant.



106 CHAPTER 4

Name Story No.

2 , (TAT

Pich".

No.

38M

)

I.

Mala

1 -1

(:r;.tcrmi&'e).(II .,..)3irl.

is

u ; ' t l cf

& / t f d ; i O 1 1

i r 4 i ' ~ , ·

i l GS j ,4 ' 01' ~ pf4/JIICitj

c . ,4 -tk,

-nXrt"/j. ~ S ISt<r ~ o " , p , ~ . r ~ { J .

' h J , / 4 t - ~ ;

hei' ,j. cL n u n ~

4 tci.

Kills

~ ~ " ' J " ( ' / ; '

II

imply;nl

need

fo, 0 '

,0:iilu bitiDIlJ im

Aft Rmhi t f l laK

tP

,ci6/i ij

Gi mot&r)

IIVlt

cI

~ ~ « & ~ ~ ; . " , ~ " ; ; c , ; e o ' ; j : 1

~ f

' : 1 : : 1 f l n t : t r : ; t r f . : / 4 i r , . ' f ~

iata c&

imply;nl need

for

or

lo:_______________

. : ~ _ : : . . . . . : ~

___________

I.

,

........ qw..

(m

__

1

) .re

Men

.I_ _ _ _ _ _ _ nd eubjecl'.

reaclion

i l - - . , . . . , . - - r - - - - -

c - t

. . . . . . . . . . - . 121

.re . u n ••

OIJCL

and

eubjecl'.

,e.clion i .

4mbi .c ,Unce.

, . . . . ' . . . . (m

__

__

.re

leen ••

.nd ...

bjecl'.

,.aelion i.'_________

•. S i p i 6 c u I ~ . ;-u;lt concern;1/-

SM

7. N ..... el auietMel (I)

.1

",y, ,"1 h.rm

.nd/ . r

p"ni"'menl_________ .1 iIIne. .

or

i j .

___________

of diaappr.val

.c of depriyalion

____________

. f lack or 10. .

01

lov. 7

01

beinl deyo,,'cd___________

., beinl d

...

ted

01 beinl oye..,owe ed

.nd

helr-f_'--_____

.Ihe.

_____________________________________________________

t.

Maie

4.,_

.......

coefticta and , .....

( /)

KPf'(' Uton rCac1.ton-{onnauon rat.onalu-at.KH1 _______ is()lat.on ___ _ _ _

on,rot«tk'

J r n i a ~

u ~ g

. ' J ' b m n ~ - - -

______ _

p r o ; r . . " , ~

aimcdi.:m.",

_ _ _

..____

___ - . M ~ ~ t . . W i . J . d ~ i 1 M , . c d # J 1 -

with, 41f j r r . fJ f lL -

___

- -

t.

s..eriIy

el

. . . . . . . . . . '..ced

br:

(I I

. , . .ni" '_nl '0. ··crim ..

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ mmediale

y j•••- -

_____

oo

t e y e . e & - ~ . c : . _ __

_

del.y...

""j"01

100 I.nienlol__

inhibit;:lnc'-

______ t.mmer__________ d.l.yed

inili.1

.ecponte

0 ' pa"teLa

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_

10. . . .opalit-el .............. PtialiUelf . . (/ . II. I I / /

.4......,. ., I.e.. Q L 0,,1__ : happy

________________

n h a p p y _ J L : . . . . J : I ~ . . . J C .....___

r.liolic

un,.liolic:

__

r_____

oolutioft: adeq .. . in.d

. . . . .

.:__:..ooJ, Z -__

I - ' h l oc_ •. ,.yo.led

by pl.1

kinl : </. II. / I /

. .

utlIlNCf",ed . . . . . . yped__

--oririnal------.ppropri.t.,--..,..-

,.tio....

.. .

compl...

Z

i ~ m p l . l .

inappr.priall

•

_/ -_

. . . . . . . . . .

(/) ...

..;.r

_ _ _ _ _ ....bo. . . . . . . . .

.

.....

••

.. ow .v ••

••

_____cfelecliy ..___

C ,, ltil ............

.,

...... n. .. . . . . . . . . . c ~



INTERPRETATION

OF

THE T A T

1 7

4: The

girl in the picture is half-caste. She is in love with the man who is going

to

leave her and return to his wife. They have spent quite some time

together

in intimacy. She

is

pleading with him to stay with her or help figure some way to plan for the coming

of

the

child she

is

going to bear. She

is

in poor circlIlllstances financially. and he tells

her

she

should make

arrangements

to conclude the birth and thus everything would iron Ollt

because he is definitely determined to leave as the affair in his mind

is

at an end. She is \ e r ~ '

broken up by it. She pleads for him to spend one more night, which he agrees to, and in the

middle of

the

night she sets fire to the house. thus solving

the

problems

of

all concerned.

Desrriplitle theme /nlrrprl lil e theme iagllostic [rllrl

half-caste girl h ~ (If one) commits

Sexual

guilt; social

had a

love

affair aduhery. Oile is prejudice; punish-

with a

man

who has half-caste (in fe- ment is

r ~ j e c t i o l 1

impregnated her

rior):

will bc

rc-

pO\ crty.

and

now plans to jected. poorly

ofT.

leave hcr to rcturn

to

his wifc.

In

thcir

last

night

together

she sets

a

fire

and

kills them

both.

will kill oneself and

lo\'er

b\

ti re.

C/ill;ralllotes

Has intra-

and

ext

ra-aggressivit

y;

urethral

complex

(identifies with girl

agaill); but Illay also

sa\,; women are bad.

do this

sort

of

thing:

endanger one

(in

secondary

identifi

cation).

The r ~ f e r e n c e to

the

half-caste is intentionally

reworded.

I f one commits adul

tery.

o ne is a half-caste,

making

a causal connection where

there had been

mere

juxtaposition. This

is

consistent

with psychoanalytic practice (e.g in dream inter

pretation concerning

unconscious

modes

of

thought). The theme is a typical

triangular oedipal one; the subject

here

again identifies with a

fcmale

in an

even

more

significant

way,

since

here

he

could

easily

identify

with

a

male

figure.

The introduction of flre again ties in with the urethral asptOus of the

use

of

water in the first story, aside from the fact that it

connotes

un( ()Jltrolled emotion.

The

occurrence

of bizarre and unrealistic

outcomes.

in the presence of structured

plots and

thought

processes.

is probably a diagnostic sign of a latent

psychotic

who can

still address

himself to

a task in an ordinary way even though the

pathology underneath

is extreme.



108

CHAPTER

4

. . . . .

So..,. No. ~

(TAT

Pictw.

No.

i

I - . - .

( r l t t . r , ~ t r , )

(ro/ . , )

~ _ . , ' t . r

« / ~ . , . ~ ci · 1 , ~ I I · c •

.rr,

(i I. ':'rJ; I4Jllt

H r ' J f t t ~ ~ pHrfJ lin ; : s ~ ( 1 tile I Nr

6.1-1,;.«.

o

C•• CI

. . . . . . ,

• ..w-..t (_wid) eat.. = 6 ~ p d : ~ · / . . l I , ' - - ' ' 1 c i = >..... . . J C . - , f J i ~ L a l L . < : . l J ~ P I -_____________

I .

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

~ ,

__ . r .

_...

••

.

.n ...

bj..,

..

r••ction •

~

lew- (II\....£.....

f__

.r.

_ ' . .

aj'«f.tg and

...

~ . . , : .

r e a c , ~

± ; { ( ; . k p a I ~ K ~ n :

J- . ---

-- . __

. r .

. . . . .

. . and

... 01 .... • fCk,

..

n •.______

.,-I6

.

c ·njl _

..

..

l J ~ ' L s - I W _ ~

. . SIc 'fir

.t...tfida,

SgtHCt ~ M i I t ;

ilrfrC

. . . K l r c . : I I J 1 ' ( . y i , . i ~ f i

flretly l ,R d

7....... , ....... ( / )

.. pIlyeical ha ,. .n /or puni.t.men ..

. . . J % ; ~______

' iIIneH or injuI'Y

__ :-

_ _ _

.. oliaapproy.l _ of .. epri .. io . - _ - - - ' . . . . ~ ________

of lock or 1_ . f 10Ye of beinl

dnourcd__________

. f

oci

..

. - .1M

y " of beinl

overpower.d

an

h.lple

. -____

~ l _____________________________________________

_

. . M.. U_ . . . . . . _ I i c t I

.....

,. . . .

( / )

V:. ~ a c U o n · f o n n a t i o n

__________ .(ion.aliz.ation uolation_____ __

r<pnsion

introj«tion

dnuaJ

____ undoing .plining

_____

idcntiliauion ._odl<t'

prPJ C.tiOfL.

__ ....

________ _____

___ _

. . Snri7. ,

. . . . . . .

ea . . . . . . . . . .

(J)

..... n , 'or crimc .___________ ' ......... i . l .

juo«'-

_______

oo

. . fl

.._ IC . .

. . . . .

__

. . .

o,cd

.n j . . . 00 ..ni

.....__

iMiW'ion ..________ ; :lomm.r

_______ .

eIo,.ed initial r o .po_

or pou,

.. ____________

Ceprr ipl .H' .

&..peW .....

. . ......

. . .

. l r . . . .



INTERPRETATION OF

THE T.AT.

1 9

6BM: This

is

a scene

in

a play.

The

two characters are on the stage; one

is

a famous

elderly actress, who has a son about the age of the young man appearing opposite her. The

dialogue

in

the play has suddenly taken on a

new

meaning for her. She sees now that the

play, which was written by her son, has an entirely different meaning in this scene in the

picture.

The

boy

is

telling the mother that he has just committed a murder. She under-

stands now that this was her son's way of o n v e ~ i n g to her the terrifying fact th.1t that

is

actually what had happened. I n the play, as her son had written it the climax comes when

the mother calls the police. But the famous actress decides to put her own climax into

action after the play is over. She calls her son and sars, The climax of your play will have to

be

changed. She says. I think the audience will prefer this one, so here she draws a

rc\ 'oher and shoots him. Wlwl kil/ / f m u r d l r u l ( l . ~ ln Oh. a girl. Motive primarily to do

with

sexual. She had been unfaithful.

Dt saiptillt (hnlle

I n a play written by

her son an elderly

act ress

suddenly

understands

that

he

has killed a girl

for being unfaithful

to him.

Thereupon

she kills

him.

illterprt lii. t ,ht mt

If

a

man kills

a

girl

because she has

been

u l l f ~ l i t h f l J l t o

him

and mother finds

Ollt in a

p l a ~

s\'lllbolicall\

the

mother

will

kill

him.

Cliu;mlllo/t s

Diag1lostir 11 111 1

Aggression fused with

sex. Exhibitionism and

snllbolism.

Triangular oedipal sit-

uatioll-feels rt:iected

by girl.

Mother seen as phallic.

aggressive, dangerous.

The

value of

the

theme cOJlstrunioll is particularly

obvious

in this story.

though

dUllered

with

confusing

descriptive detail.

The

aggressi\'e sexual wishes

of the

s l l l ~ e c t toward the maternal

figure and

the

tear

of

coullleraggression by

the

mother figure

become

crystal

dear. The sudden

understanding

is

a typical

experience in schizophrenics with paranoid tendencie.'i, as so well described by

Sullivan (1940).

The

patient is in a panic because of many different impulses

and

apperceptive distortions, finds a new configuration which gives him a measure of

stability and a channeling of his fears and

aggression-the

paranoid constella-

tion.

The

fact, too,

that

the

information

is

conveyed

symbolically is highly sug-

gesti\ e

of

a schizophrenic process.

The actor is probably

another identification figure for

the

subject, who

attempts

at first to keep

some

distance between

himself

and the mother in having

someone

else play

opposite her.



110

CHAPTER 4

Nam·L____________________

ory No.--o+___ TAT Picrur. No. 'Bft1

)

I .

Maia

. . . . . . (r t lrer(tc' t .#l) ( r l ..

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eI n. ,

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) Ii ,r , o jec, • or circum.'ancH

;lIftoduud:.M.I

...

MT_ UI 'IIUUIIJ -=ifi'

' I ~ , . . _ . 0 7 I

.....

.....CIU ......

irnpl inr nucl for or ,o:pdmirb ,,,,t & ~ ' l ~ t ' / t iit/';'«-t. «q{)(UI '· nN;

1M:

«<Lwlti6,.t,4D/Snt. r fY

r ~ It> •

_ _

c)

Ii ,r , objec'

. or

circuau'ance.

omilt..J:,...La

... 'tV.IooIa;;

impl ;.r

nHcI for or ' 0 :_______________________________

4.

c-. ,U-

eI

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. f

....

...

al Ioarm anel/or

p u n i " " m c n ' : . . . . . ~ _ , _ - - - - - - - . f

i I I _ or

iftj.ry,_ .......

......

. f eliaoppronl - of clcpriYa'ioft ....

___________

. f lad . r . . . . . .e 2 . f beinr ele.ourocl___

_ : _ - - - - - - -

. f beiar eI.... teci

of

Iocinr .vcf1><O_rocl . . . . Ioelpl,.

________

_____ __________________________________ _

. .

Maiot

elJ

__

..

ituc

-a ide Mel fMl l:

( I )

'p , kln

H'anton·lc.lOnal'on ralionahzauon_____

L\olacion _____________

;:;;,:::n o f t c . b s , " = - inlruj< < oon

______

,lIhn D ' ' ; ~ j o i i _ ~ - - = - - - = _ ~ ~ - ~ n J o . n ~ - = = - - - = _ - = - ~ ~ - - : ~ - : B = __

t. So..ne,.

eI

. . . . . . . . .

_ifootocl (I)

. /

pun..,. ....

f.r

··crirnc'·__________ mrneeli.'e.,.. j ... ...______ _ . . . .u ______

elel. eeI .... j.. ..

._ a.. __

W,ibi'oon' ..

________

' .mmn'

______

lela eeI initial rflPO . . . . . peu, .___________

10.

. . . . -e l lM . . .

__

i b e l f

. . f/.II.I/1> . /

/

. . . . f Mro a

I

outcorn.: ~ . p p , , _________ . . . .

PP,

__- ' : :tr,-:;,.-....,r-

__

r.lietic

... ..J

......c ---'2L.1Z..... e<-

..

IioII: .cleq<aa,e

i

. . . . . . . .

...

______

..... f

p r o e _

. . . . . . . . . eI

.. plot

Mi r: (/./1./11>

oCnocIWocI.,t.c

unrtructvreel ... otn>ed

_ _ _ _ _ ......

:: -_____. . . . . .

pcia .. L----

nt...... IM ...n .

U

ce........

i _ p l e c .

_ propNI

.

e

_

_

. . . . . . .

_

cn

- p c r

. .

____

...

. . . . . . . .

...

___

. . . . . . . .

______

. . . .•••

U.,.

UodiYO

___

e..,.....

' ' ' ' .

- ' .....

n

t

c

« 'C

__. . .



INTERPRETATION OF THE T.A.T. III

7BM: This would be a man and his son. The son is very depressed over his health.

The father is telling him that as a young man he too had the same illness. and that

it

can be

cured if the son has the will to cure it

The

father tells the young man that he himself alone

can cure it The son believes that there

is

no hope. but replies that he will go away for a little

while

and think

it

over.

The

father replies. You are not doing a favor to

me

by

saying that.

I

am thinking about your getting well for the simple reason that you have a wife and

children to support. and

in

the event

of

your being bedridden. the responsibility for your

family

will

be put entirely upon your mother and me. The young man finally concludes

that he

will

take his wife and family with him and try to make things go better in a healthier

climate. (What kind of l l ~ s s did h havtn T.B. (Did I

gl l

btll t)

No

I

don't think he does.

After a

few

years he dies and the children are old enough to support mother or perhaps he

left insurance. Never contacted father again. No correspondence. After not having heard

from each other for a long time. the old man dies and lea\'es the children a large estate.

Thisis his

way of

having repented.

Descriptit1e theme

A

young man

suf-

fers from T.B

•

and

father

tells him

he used to h3\'e it

too

.and

that

the son will

h ~ l \ e to cure himself

so that

his

wife an,d

children will not

burden

father.

Son remo\ es him

self. angry at father.

Both

die.

father

lea\ ing moner to

children.

blierprl livl tileml

If

one

is

sick with

T.B.

and

father had the

same illness.

father selfishly re-

jeets

one.

One is a n g r ~ at fa-

t

her.

One dies. and

father dies too. re

penting too late.

Wants fat her t feels

sorn

about

not hav

ing been nicer t

him.

Cli1ll((l/1IotI J

Diag1lostic level

Feels sick.

T.B.

is

castration.

Father

also seen as

previously sick. cas-

trated.

Feels rejected by f a-

ther. Father seen as

cold. narcissistic.

Aggression toward

father.

Oral wishes

toward

father

In several years of clinical work with tuhnculars. I found that the fantasies of

having T.B. are most frequently either those of being

invaded

(phallicalh') by the

T.B. germs. particularly in an

impregnation

fantasy. and ha\ ing holes made in

one (i.e., being

castrated.

particularly in connection \\'ith hemorrhages [Bellak,

1952c]). The fact

that the

father has also had

the

illness

suggests that patient

tended

to think of the father also as castraTed and weak. Since the father was an

identification figure. this may have influenced the subject's emotional growth.

T.B.

may

also

mean \ enereal

disease

here.



112 CHAPTER 4

. . . . . . Sce<y N o . ~ (TAT PicIU,. He. 78,.

I

. . . . . .

: ( r " t ~ r , t . l r t ) (r io",) is , , ' ~ " ~ ; t J , T:6.

..

/ Icthr J tk

SeMI ;11 ,u.

l ' ~ t J , l r

1111&1./.1

r , / ~ t r N'. o , , ~ i r '- '1et ~ f ~ ' r . ( J , , ~

t/l u

. . , ~

;d<u:

~ t#tJ;

r p' t:ti fJ

'1_

( ~ t , .

tJ. ts

I i t ~ ~ r

~ " I n

Sort ./

o . ~ ~ t ~ Y ' I " J

}1 , ' ' ' ~ ~ r

t-o

,, t.

c)

lp

. . ; ee l

. . . «irc

..... . M • omitW:

impl,i",

.«4

fo,

Of

10:

_____________________________

4.

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r

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s. ................. (

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..

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t ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

. .

. . . . . 4 1_ tIC- '

coosaicto .....

f . . , . : ( / )

~ p r c ' U . o n __ rrM-'kKl-(trrm..&tkm ________ atJOn.llUalk..,.,

u.oLllton

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t.

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critac

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p . - ~ - , r 7 7 - : - - - - - -

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10. . . . . . . . . . " . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iI.ev.: ( / . / / . / / / )

. . . . . . . . .

c, .1

Ioc,.

a r . u l e _ . Ioapp, " " " , p p , ~ " " " '___

roaliotic

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........ «c....- '.('

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...... proc_ •• y . ed ' plot be. , : ( / . / / . /1/) /

1b-.4./

.......... .

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____ elo••

e' . '«

____ .clocli .

~ I . ' . ' - - '



INTERPRETATION

OF THE

T A T

3

Summary

Record t ~ nd

summ liu

other

siguifica71 data for rach s 0 7 ~ · .

I. Feels a child, sick,

poor

body image. Feels coerced by parents. Mechanism of

denial-re:

masturbation? Resists authority

by

withdrawal

into

fantasy;

urethral

interests, exhibitionism (?), anhedonia (?). Delusional

omnipotence

(knowing what is in book without

reading

it)-severe thought

disturbance

and flat

mood

consistent with schizophrenia.

2. Great guilt over sex; feminine identification. Severe superego

concerning

also exhibitionism and ambivalence to sibling

(or

mother) seen as pure.

Intra-aggression. Self-image: outcast, criminal.

3. Sexual guilt; social prejudice; punishme11l is rejection. poverty. Intra- and

extra-aggressivity. Urethral complex. Idel1lifies with girl again. butl11ay also

say: women

are

bad. do this sort of thing. endanger

one

(in secondary

identification). Possibility of suicidal and homicidal impulses. L:llconscious

fear of impregnation.

4. Aggression fused with sex. Triangular oedipal situation-ft.'els rejected by

girl. Mother seen as phallic. aggressi\'e. dangerous. Sudden understand

ing consistel1l with paranoid schizophrenic process.

5. Feels ill and helpless with 'r.B.-full of

o l e s ~ or

syphilis? Father also seen as

previollsly sick (castrated). Feels rtjeeled b\ father.

Falher

seen as cold,

- narcissistic. Aggl:essioll toward father. Oral wishes IOwaI'd f ~ l t h e r Sees self

as fatally

ill

disturbed body image.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.



114

CHAPTER 4

E,o

function assessment from TAT data:

-

=

-

>

:;

:;

:;

><

><

><

.r

.f

j

I

1

oj

1

i

,;

0

£

a:

.c 5

:>

S

i

a:I

...

I

0

'0

a:

·1

;

I

t

'"

5

;

J

...

I

CI)

1

J:

i

f

l

c

I

:

<

13

12

1

iJ

I

I

8

a:I

I

.I:

7

•

(;

8

f

I

5

Jl

J) "0

4

. .

j

3

f

. i

2

2

:.

1

Ego function

from BeUak.

HuI"¥'l{h.

6:

Gedim..a4.

f,o /",.'''OllJ It I C h ' t o p h ' ~ J . I I I I O/;ct , .,.4 . O ~ . J I . Cop .

ri h.

0

19H.

by

C

P S In :

~ r p < . D ' c d

by

pclIlI OD of

Joh.

' u ~ y

Son., Inc.)

Ego functions observed during test administration:

M

i

a:I

I



INTERPRETATION OF THE

TA T

5

Case 2

Following

are

stories given

y

a young man in his middle twenties.* e have

chosen a few

for

illustration. At the time

of

the

administration

of

the

T A T

he

was in a prison hospital.

He had gone

A

WOL from

the

armed

forces because

he

found

it impossible to urinate in the presence

of

others. and

others w r

always

present in

the

latrines. When

he

was picked up y M.P. s he made

an inadequate

gcslllre at aggression and was thereupon shot in

the

abdomen These few data

may suffice to highlight the dynamic material revealed with regard to homosex-

lIal problems. problems of royeurism and exhibitionism, and the handling of the

problem of aggression; the subject was just aggressive enough to invite almost

suicidal coullteraggression on the pan of the

armed

military police.

He

was

intelligent and industrious

and

came from immigralll stock.

The

T A T

was not administered

by

the writer.

and

unfortunately

story I.

the boy with the violin. was not included.

I am indebted to the late Dr. Blaise Pasquarelli for this material.



116

CHAPTER-1

BELLAK TAT BLANK

Few RecorCq.ancI Anal,.Dn, T bematic Apperceptioa TNt

Storiea

~ ~ e ________________________________

S e ~ . __ a l ~ l L - ~ ~ ~ t e

_________

__

Educ .lion_--'h i::.lgh ' '-...:s:;.;;c;..;.h;..;;o;..:o;..:l'--

________

c c u . , . l i o n ~ _ _ _ : : A . ; . : n a y : . . . : : . I ~ p ; . ; r . : ; l ; . . : V I . ; : ; . . : t . : ;

Refencd

by________________________

ADalyei. by

______________________

_

ANAL

REPORT

Choo.lng

Ju.t

I

r.w

or the . tor l

•

or the

.ubj .c t ,

on

• • • • • hl .

p.MlliT.

r

••

11ng or inld.qulc1

or h1. r u r

or

being

onrpo

Nd

NMlnS tbrough nur11

I I I

the

th . . . . . .

H h a . e l t .1th.1' a••

woman

(12,

)BK) or too

.111111

(14) . Wh.n h. hal aure y. 01

ual

d.alr . ,

h. think. or

b1111self

bid,

inld.quate 11) lIP and

l8BK) •

Bl.

n

••

ds

IpP.lr

IS I n

••

d

ror

autonom1 (2,

78K,

14){ achl.Y

nt ,

Ind

In o.d1pIl type

or cOlllp.t1t1v.n

••

1111.d

to

the

pl r t 11 ••zual

cOlllpon.nt.

of

v01.ur1.111 and

.xh1bltlonl•••

Hl.

conc'pt1on

of

the

world

1.

on.

or d.prlvltlon

(2,

)PM,

14

l8BK), or

b.ing

ov.rpow.red Ind b l ~ d (2, 78K),

Ic tul l l1

repr•••

oting

In ll11lg. or hls plr .nt . whOIll b. t r l ••

in

vlln to . tand up to.

Hls

conrl lct .

c.n t . r

around autonomJ

v.r .u . oo.pllano.,

actlvlt1-Pls 'ivlt1,

Ind

Ichl,v.lII.nt-inld.qulc1, and

h•• ow. a

SNi t

d t

Inxl.t1

or belng overpow.r.d and injured.

BlI n der.n

ar

••motlonal

1lolation, proJ.ctlon, and

att.mpt. a t .ubl l

lon b1

ln t . l l .c tu l l i ' l t lon.

Bli .up.r .go 1•• trelll.11

••

v.re,

l ' l d ~

to

in t r l-aUN ••

loD

partlcullr11 concernlng inc.stuou•••xull wl.b•••

' lb. lntegrlUon or the .go 1. inld.quat .

in

th l t the b.ro hlrdl l

.v . r lucc••dl,

1.

ulul111

unhapP1,

and rrequ.nt11 .ulcldal .

' lb

•• b

J.ct Ippear. to

be or

lbov.

IV.

rig. intell lg.nc••

I .pula. control or

aure l l lv . and

lntr l-aggN Y.

drly

'0 poor

th l t on. w . t conald.r b1JD

potent1a1l1

.ulcldal

and

homlcldal,

plrtlcullr11 Ll hOlllOlexual plnlc. ' h.

record

1. con ' l I tent wlth that

or

I

bord.rl ln.

'chl,ophrenlc

wlth

plranold

r .ature

••

( ~ ; / \

, T .

\

. .

<

PunlC .1 J I l l S}..

CopJ'ri,ht

19.7,( ' 19':',

u.opold BrIItIt. I.A . N D

All

u,hu .nrftt-d

l i t 1 : .:0 lhe

'tIC

ma,nul and ulaw -

PublllhcJ t.., THE PSY<..1I0LOGI<..Al

(OlPOlATJO:--:.

N«w Yo,r...

Yo,1I.

lOOn

161AS

Note In

this final report, abstract statements

are

interspersed with

brief

rerferences to relevant stories.

This procedure may be profitably enlarged, giving

the

condensed

theme

or part of the story

as

an

illustration for

the

abstract statement.



INTERPRETATION

OF

THE T.A.T, 117

2: What the hell

could have

happened before in this picture? I don't

know,

, ,

(resistance)

would

say

that

this

here

girl has

just

come

from

school

and

that

she has

something on her mind which she wants to ask her parents. . . , That's her father and

mother

in

the

background-her

father

on the

plow,

and

her

mother

leaning

up

against

the

tree. She

has

been

brought

up

very strictly,

and her parents probably are of

European

stock but

,they

are

immigrants. She

is being

held down and doesn't

live the normal life

that

a

normal

girl

should. She is

very intelligent

and

a

good student. She probably

has

just

graduated and

wants to

ask her parents "

,or

rather wants to talk. " . she wants to go to

college

and she doesn't

feel that her

parenls

will apprO\'e

il. , . Whether or

110t,

she

probclbly has

assumed that

when she

h a ~

finished

high

school thaI

lhal is

as

fa ..

as a girl

should

have

to

go, and

whal

she

is Ihinking now is Ihat she should gel

married

and seule

down on the farm

the way

t h e ~ did Her falher is

a successful

farmer who can afford

to

send

her

( 0 college

but

will refuse

to

do so. This girl is \'ery passiollalt'

emotional,

md unless

she is "lIloWt'<i

to

go 10

rol1egt'

she

will

probably develop

some

physic . I ailment

(snirker)

BUI

I h ~ t

her Lith('\" refuses in I he end 10 st'nd her 10

college \\'hereas

strike

OUI

whereas. "

The\'

find Iwl' a sllilOr

who

I h e ~

Ihink

will

be

suilahk

for

Iwr,

and

pial

[() ha\t' hl' " married Is

Ihis

100

long?

The

falher is willing

to

Ix'slow

a portion of

land and

Ihe

mont'\· ;lncllllal('l"ials

for

a hOllle

which

they Gil l

build

un the land l.ong

pallst'.)

She is

\,en'

unhappy, or

ralher

let's

50ly that (hey

become

married

and she

\ t n unhappy. She rerust's (0 han' any

children

bt'Gluse

doesn't

want

to

hring

(ht ' l l l up inlhis hadward allllosphere, knowing

Ihal

her p . rt'rHS will (J Y 10 hring lip her childn'n as lhe\ hroughl her

lip. Her

hllsb.md is similar

to her falher ill

his

altiurde

IO\\'ards cd\l{"ation

and

how (()

hring lip

a child H(' insisls

that sht'lx'ar

him

a ('hild

and illlinle allt'l1Il>-1S

to

lISt'

physical force to

Ihrow

a fl'ar illlO ht'r

so

lhal sh<.'

will so what he \\'ill ask oj her. Sht' he('omcs hnll'l"iral alld ends

it

all

hv

collllllilling suicide

That's

all . .

J)t'scriptillt' thl'lIll'

A very strictly

broughl

up

girl wallis 10 go 10

colkge,

but

is afraid t h ~

her

parellls will be against il

and

will

1ll.IIT\

her

against

her will. which

makcs hcr sick and

l l l l -

h a p p ~ · .

Whell

her husband,

who resembles

her

fa

ther, uses physical

force to impregnate

her,

she

becomes

hYsteric; 1

and

commits suicide.

/1I/l'r

l'1 ('lii'I,tltnl/l'

(If olle) is

YOUllg,

slrinly

hrought-up

girl ~ l I I d ' ; l I l ts to

Ix.- ,llIlonOIllOllS,

Ih l palTt-lts

al ( '

;J}, ;lillSt it

~ l I l d

forc('

Olle.' illto

i I

,ubIJlissin:

situa

t io l l to

which

one

n-'

pOllds In lIn-

h;1 ppiness, /lIlclllal)

ill t'ss.

Whell threatened

with male sexual

aggression (by pa

ternal figure),

{Jilt

(Oll l l l l l ts

SlIl

cide.

Uinicalllotes

Diagnostic

lrvt'

Feels

strictly

brought up; Ileed

for

autonomy,

achievement.

ParenlS

seell ..s rc

strlctlng, cocrcivc.

Feels ullhappy,

lIIelltally ill. fc,lI ful

of

sexual

aggrcs

SIOI)'

Fear

of

pregnancy,

of male sexual ag

gression. Identifies

men too much with

father.

Suicidal

tell

dencies.

Father and contemporary

males (husband)

are

completely

equated

in this story,

in which

the

subject identifies so vividly with

the

female figure.

There is

some

awareness of mental

disturbance.



lIS CHAPTER 4

Na_ Seol)' No.. I

(TAT

Pic" . .

No. : : t

)

t. Maia '1

( I f ' ~ r , e ~ t i ' v e ) ~

D n ~ , : r 4( )'DI(':/, d'ri'ct 'I. bl bu;l.t IfO

,/ i

r

{ 4fJ.

Ida t-l' M

,a..,,611MIlr,

~ ' P C ~ w t : r t trr / 4 ' ; ' ~ 1 : ' ,'I: OtCd -Iorre ~ 1iJt.D

q .

S,,6 ','Ss'-ve

,slt c1:,; ,

-Ft,

IItJJHch

tine

r u p ~ ~ $ "

0

' h l p l ' i ' n ~ s s

. . , ~ ( h t ~ t - c ( )

d / l 1 ~ r s . i J ~ 1 1 - I : h r ~ d ' M t : I .

1oJ1' ,

m« e tlJl'YSSN/f 0 1 1 ~ eo, ,, J;-r . r / C U C ; ' ~

I .

..... w . 1 . r e J l l : l ~ y o a t i o . ~ f ' . I J t :

. . . . . .

. &dye

.1:10 - mit. 41(ttlUtlit,ll

' ~ i l i l i e % , , ~ ~ ~ , %

.clequacy (/.II .III>..c bocIy i lM,. ..d/o, Mil i m q . t e n L - - - - ~ - li.ii.

7. Natwe

of

. .w.1ia: ( / )

01

phytic.' h.,m .nd/o,

.... ni.hm

..

.....

'<--_______ ,

iIIn. . .

0

injury·

___________

of

di

.pproul of cI.priulion'-

___________

. ' l eck

0

1_ "'0"" of .... • • d....... ed,__

:---:--:-

__

?. . --

., Nin. cI..... ,... of ban. o ..erpowered .nd he 'p '_ Z

olher

r-J:r97

2ol l t4 , f I lo l

hllCl

. . NUn del ._ . .

iMt codlcu.ad

faan:

e l )

t •

. ....ncy of . . . . . . . . . .

. . .ut

..

eI

by:

( / )

./

....niahmcnl for ··crim . __________ ...medi.l. / jUIl-- ,

____

1_ ...yer .. % . ~

doleyed

un;u.' 1_

enien,

...

__

inhiloilioftl'--

_____

M.mmcr______ oleyed initi.al 'eapon ..

or

p ......

_________

10. . . . . . . . . . . . oftloe . . . .

au i I lMf f ia: ( , ' // . /11) ,/

.clfqU8CY

01 hero / ... comc: u p p ,

___ : - r -____

nhappy

_______

r...Jietic

Z u n r e . l i ' l j , ~ c

__ :;-___

,'ulio,,:

.dfqua j".dcqual&.e_

..../c...____

clIou.hl p o u ~ AI ,

. . . . .

eeI by P'OI bei.c: C/. //. 1. /)

Itrvclured L

unl'

N C lured etcrcorn>ed_...,.

__

ri,; .....

_____

pproprialc.c

___

h o MI ' .n . co

.

plet.

7

incomplete in.pproprial-Co

__

~ e/) ...perio'____ . . . . . . . . . . . .

-. .L-. .

.........__ _beIo'W . . . .

..

____ lclectjy.___

~

H . .-,. I

. · .At 'ne

r.ro' ,



INTERPRETATIOi\

O THE

T AT

I I9

3SM: Well.

I

would say that this was a young girl who s in lo\ e with a young

man

And they had

some disagreement,

and in this picture

she

has colllmitted sui-

cide so she is dead (snicker). I would sa\ that the man distrusted her. or believed thaI

she

was

unfaithful

to him Oh yeah :

\ Ou

might

add

in

there

whal happened to her

fiance.

That after

she

committed

suicide thaI

he

was so stricken with

grief

that

he.

inlurn.

committed suicide That

is

a pistol b\ her Oil the floor.

I

would s a ~ Ihal

she

shot

herself through

the head That s

all.

The

awkward position

she

is in would

indicate

that she

would not just be sitting there, or laying there like Ihal. would

say her fiance

committed

suicide

the

same wav. I can l think

of annhing

else 10 sal . . . . I

w ~ u l d say it is a

woman

bCClllse it looks felllinlne a little wide I hrough Ihe h i p ~ he

long hair

he

lal ge bust arge legs That s all.

Dt'srriptil't' tht me

l1lil 1pretille Iheme

Two people

are in love (If

one)

has a love

with each other. have a affair, one cannot

disagreement

because trust

the

faithflll-

the Illall

d istrtlsts

her

ness

of

the

Im ed

faithfulness.

olle.

She

commits suicide,

and (hen he

( olllmits

suicide too.

This leads to dis

agreement and

intra-

and

extra-

aggressIOn.

Ch"ira 1Iolt's

Dialf110stir

It'lIt'

Sexual needs; dis-

tinct triangular oedi

pal

thcme;

.iealousy.

Intra- and extra-

aggression.

Probably both are identificatloll figures for

the

hero, sinre in

the

last few lines

subject

f e e l ~ ,

the

need

to give reasons for

the

feminine idcllIificatioll

of

the

depicted figu reo



120

CHAPTER 4

Namt

.....y : . ; ~ ..z..-- ITA T P .urt No. BAt

I.

Maiath. ,.:

( I " t ~ r e r . ; t . i ~ e ) (XI' , , ~ )

~ u

4

/ o r ~

41'I'air o , , ~ ~ a I I D t tntrl=

rk {4ift,fMtnUI' , f '

e

( o y ~ " one.

-r ;is

1 ~ 4 4 ' S ' ~ tI,S l l/r,eh1t' '1t t i f trC

~ d

tUtn

.

-

« f l r ~ . r . r t O n .

1. Main nH<l. of huo:

a) bthHloral no.d,

of

htlo

(..

n Ilory)

~ 9 _

~ ~ ~ 1 n ~ / Y . . l l l A n ____

_____

_ _ _ _ __

4.

Conception

01 1t."iro"lDen'

(world)

AI: .

~ 1 . i c ~ s ' ( ~ ( ; > C ~

.__ _

<--",dr"st_riV.

S. Partft lalfi . , .h (m __ __ ) .rf' l('('nA -

, ~ : :

.•

ndtublf 'CI . ' f . rhon

. . . - - - - - - ' - . - - - - - - - ; - -'7-----

C_'emp. ' . 1

( m _ ~ _ .

1 .Y. ) ...... ••

9 M ~ u I J . C e .

__ nd lub,tcr'1 rtach n 1 1 " t I 1 « . 1 i . J J 2 n . ~ ' _ ' ' ' - ~ L I l . . ~

Junior

f i ~ , . . . (m ____

f.

_) Uf'n ' _________And . u b J ~ c . ' .

' f ' .chon

It 4JyLJ.J.1m

6. Sipi 'c. , , ' c o n f l i c h : : 8 e ~ e n .

Ot erliJ,r.1Mt

l t f t d . £ L t I L . . ~ J l f f L ~ I ln t ; I ' . I L j / ~ QI . _

i L J 4 d ~ { l L t 1 . . o / - -

-- . -- . .

. .

.

7. Na'ure

of

. . . .;.ti : (o' )

01 ph)'.Jeal

h u m

and/or plo ln l ,hmrn J ___ 0 , l Inru or In,ury ___

._

,. -___ _

01 d i . a p . p o v . l ~ ____ ,____

__ _

______ O. df'pflvahon

_ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _

_

01 I.clt

or 10

...

01 l o , , ~ _ - - V ' _ .

_ _ ._.

___ _ _ _ 01

btln.:

drvourrd ___

of

b ••

tc d

. . . .

.d ______ .._

•.______ 1

beln,

ovrrpow.rtd a d htlpl.II

_ _

othe '

___________________

___

t.

Main ltftlft a.aiDI'

eODftKh

and

fe&rl: ( .. )

r ( ' P r n . ~ i o n

________ t .IC,:t m-torm

.

K ) ~

.

t l t uJ lI . l tk ' l \ __

_1"J.lfIon _

~

InrrUfn:uun t .k:nLol. .________ lllltL'I"l _

'pilltll\ __ _

pn,)tc'l,iv<

Nkntl,h:.ltton

('(;"'oir:T

, . Senri 'y of

oup

..<,o

a •

..... i1 ...

by:

(. )

punnhmf'n. 0 - cnmr

__

_ .mmeod,alf' tI ' ,usl , __

too

'f'Vf f'_..Y' '__

d d a ) ~ d

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ un,utl

___ 1001f'n.rnt___

.____ drlayeod lnlhal , r lpontf ' 0' pau'e&... ____________

10. ...'

. . . .

ion of the <'Co,

, ..

f

utin,

i,..,11 in;

( •. .I. /. )

adeoqua('y of

1\f"O

__ oulcomr happy _ _ __

_

,call

• ."

__

.olutlon . d ~ q u a l ~ _ _ _ _ _

thou.hl

Pf('IC'""f" a t

u'Yf.l . d L,.

plol

t.c.nl

C' •

. _

. .

/ )

. I n a < h ~ d __ ./ ./_

_ un,tr..,chuf'd _ _ _ _ _ _

t r l f 'o ') prd

--r _ _ _

o • nal ______

approp,. llf ' _ _ _ _ _ _

, a hona l _

_ .

__

"',.rrt' ________

c o m p l f ' ~ "

.L.E _

__

.ncumpl lf '

_____

.•

napp,opr ••

lr

AnaJ,aia Shed IOf U ~

with the HU.II TAT

81anll

C 7 ~

IISI . -,..14

........



INTERPRETATION OF

THE

T.A.T.

2

7BM: In this picture I would say that the younger person is a student who is who

is

holding

some

political theories and he is fanatical about them

That

the older person

is

probably. I would say. his father. or professor.

or

teacher. or whatever you want to

call

him. . .

I

would say that it is his father. . His father is telling him to give up his

wild

ideas about the government. but he refuses to give in

The

student

is

in favor

of

radical changes in society due to some ideals he is holding. . . . The son will probably

well here because

of

his political

views

will wind up in prison, or become killed. . .

in

some public forum somewheres where he is trying to arouse the masses more or less

(Long pause.) But anyways. in the end he will learn that he should have listened to his

father , . That s

all

1 would say that he isjust a reformer, that s all 1 would

say

he is against capital. 1 don t know, 1 think this is

silly

myself (snicker).

Descripth e theme bllerprttil e theme Diagnostic level

A

young

student has

I f

one

has aggres- Aggression against au-

radical

ideas

si\ e

ideas against

thority.

particularly

and will

wind up

in

prison

or be killed

for them, repenting

that he did not fol-

low his father s ad

vice lO give up

such

ideas.

It s

all silly.

authority.

male figures.

one is severely

punished

and re-

pentant. Should

comply with fa-

ther figure. Tries

to

laugh

it off.

Clh,;cai

Ioles

Se\ ere superego. Need

for

compliance

with

males. Rationalization,

isolation.

This story

illustrates niceh

that

it is

not merely

psychoanalytic imagination which

considers the gm ernment

as a

parental

figure

or,

in this case, a

paternal one, since

the subject

equates them

easily.

suggesting that

the

source

of

his

political ideas

also

has

a parental origin. Again. the snickering is probably used for defensive

purposes to dispel the

tension.



122

CHAPTER

4

Nam'c.c

____________________ ..:lStory

N o . - - - 3 ~ ___ TAT Picture

No.

78

M

I . Main, ...... ,

( r " t - ~ , . . I ' t " ' f t e ) I f '

on(, ~ / U w r 6 . u i v ~ itlecs

VtlinS't'

411t tDri l f

D " ~

IS

.1'_. r, Iy p l l " , ' s ~ ( ' J

tt iS r'l'elft-4H-t-.

3. Main.....:l. 01 . . . . I f

. ) bell

. .

or.1 n«<lt

01

IIero

u

in OIory)

: . i l J ; . c L S : ~ l ; reyplt "; -tlinst"

ctCtIter

dynamic inf

••

ence ~ t t I

04 t : l r np /

JU:6_ -,_--:--:-.,-

___________ __

b)

Ii,ur

.. objrcll.

or

c i r c u m . l . n c e ~ n t ' o d U C t d : _ : U : I J Q u ~ ~ . c ~ r C l . n 1 4 m r l l J e

...

It=2

....

..

o l f . j j a a . . / · S . t ~ - _ .

implyin,

nml

for or 10: Col1Cern

Aljil

& l ~ . J l ~ e l h r t ' S ~ U d ' ' ' a l . - - - - - - - -

c) ' , rei . ObjKU . or c i r c u m . t . n c ~ . o m i t t ~ d :

implyin, nnd

for

or

10:

____________________________________

4.

CooeeptiOQ

01

aavnnmetll (

. .«lei) aa' O " , e r , P ( I ~ I , - , i t . 3 :

elllfi,f 'bin'l:

kml f lL

/ A A ' . ~ , . / . J . S-A-'t/'-Si,,$. ~ ; " , ' s " i ' J :

I .

Put"taI"""," (II\-.

I-L- .re aten

•• ~ n d

aul),ect ....

lion II r - e A e . l I l I U 1 ; . a ~

C_leta.p. 6CW U (m f

__ are . .

en ••________

nd

aub,ecl'

... clion

i. ~ . D ( e

J .a i« (m __ 1

__

are . . .n

•• .nd

...bj«.- .

reaclion i .a

__________

••

Sip&6c.aa1

e_l id. ,

bet-wan 4Mftmom/A.setl l1li « WrlSl i t lJ rtlmpfL«nce

7. Nature oI . . .aietiet, II) /

of plly.i

..

hum .nd/or

puni.llm.nt_--'....--'----

_______ f

illn

. . . 0 ' injury____________

01 diaapp,ovaJ 01 d.p,ivation______________

of I.ck 0 ' lOll of 10' of bein, de"oured________ ,--___

of b.,in,

dacrled

of bein,

n"erpow.r.d

.Dd II.lpluLI

_ '......

---____

111.,

_______________________________________________________________________________

_ _

••

MaindJ_ ,aiout

conllicb and fean:

( /)

rqarusion

______

ttaction-formation ratiorulwuion______ Uobtion

~ i n " " 1 < ~ o o n

dmW

undoing .p6ning _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

~ = u i ~ ~ q u t ~ i p ~ M ~ , u , ~ / , u · ~ ~ ~ G ~ n n l ~ ~ ~ ~ v ~

_____________ __

9,

Se"enly

oIlU PertCo aa lDUIilealed I.

/ )

puniahmenl for

··crime"

___________

mm . .

i.te . / jU.LI______ oO oevere..JV''--

__

delay.d

_____ nju.1 100 leni.n'-_-_

inilibilionl_______

ramtne.______ d.l.yed

inilial

. . .

pon

. or p.u..

L.

____________

10. Ie'.cr.lion

01

tloe .,-0, _ i f a l i a , l .

in:

(I. II. 1/1)

.dequacy of .e.o tI'tI oulcome:

IIappy

__ -"._____ nilappy

.,//.,/

,eal

• ie

\2' un'Mlialic___ ; - - r -___

aolUlion· ad.quale in.dequ.le ,7

tJ,ou,III

proc . .

,. a. re.e. l .d by

plo'

bein,:

(/,/1.

III)

.lrvclu,ecI

.I'

un.lrvclured .tereolyp.d,_-----,

__

.i,inall

______

pp'opriale____

r.,ional

bizarre

complete'/

incompl t l t

inappropUalf'__

"telli,nc.:

(I) aupe.io"

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

abo"e

a . ' a ' . ~

. . . . .a'.:------

below . ••

,.___ .fecli

..

___

Anal,. ,

She-ct few u.c with the BcI1a.k TAT Blank

C ~ r r i c . 1 I t I •• t...peW JoIIo II 11-' ' n. r. &. , c...,....-




OF THE

T.A.T.

123

13MF:

This

is

a young man who is going to the local university a student.

He is very moralistic hat

is,

very virtuous. . . having a highly developed sense of what

is

right and what

is

wrong. He

is

also very religious. . He has been brought

up

very

strictly and believes that one of the greatest sins that man can commit is to have sexual

intercourse with a woman

out

of

wedlock. .

One

evening, at a party. for some unknown

reason. having taken too many drinks and feeling slightly lightheaded, he became \'ery

intimate with one

of

the girls present. He his animal instincts came to the fore and he

abandoned

all his

ideas

of

virtue, etc.

He

took this woman up to his room and went to bed

with her. The next morning, after becoming sober and having regained his virtuous sense

or whatever you want to call it he looked O\'er and

saw

this woman beside him

in

uucrnakedness. He

was

filled with anger, and wild et's see (murmurs to himself)

and bitter passion at what he had done. A profound hatred swelled up in his chest for this

woman thatla), next to him. He ordered she

by

this time had become awake and

he ordered her to leave his room, She. not understanding what has brought this

attitude of his about, believed that he

was

joking. and refused to leave

in

jocular

manner This man could think of nothing but to clear himself of this sin he had

committed cleanse himself

of

this sin And

as

this wOllwll y there laughing. and

being overcome with his guilt, he seized her hy Ih(' Ihroal and slrangled her. . , ,Rising

from the bed, and pUlling on his clothes. he became he realized his predicament. He

not

n l ~

had committed a sin a moral sin but

he

had committed a grt,,,ter sin

bv

.akillg her life. . He gazed down as she lay there at her statuesque stillness and was

filled with remorse. Remembering a few da\'s earlier hat l few days earlit'r he had

bought a boule of iodine. and which was no in the cabinet of the washroolll. he went there

and gulped down its n>flients (laughs) and mnsequently died. That

was

the end of

that. I just said that he strangled her because shc was l a ~ i n g in bed next 1 him. ;lIld

that was the easiest thing he could have dOlle. by reaching O\'cr and grasping her neck.

Descriptive

the1i/t

Intrrpretive theme Diagnostic level

A

virtuous.

moral

is-

I f

one

is

extremely

Feels

extremely

tic. religious, strictly moralistic. one con- moralistic. Severe

brought

up

student. siders 50eX a great sin superego. Strong

who considers sex- which c.w oul\' be guilt feelings

about

ual intercourse a cOlllmined

under

sex.

Need

for liquor.

great

sin.

takes too

the

influence of

li- Strong

oral

needs.

many drinks and

is

«uor. Rationalizes.

intimate

with a girl.

Later

he is very

an

gry

at

her.

tells

her

to

leave, and

when

she

refuses,

stran

gles her.

Filled with

remorse,

he

kills

himself

by

swallowing poison.

Thereafter one is

angrv

at

the woman.

kills

hn

and oneself, re

morsefully

in

turn,

by

swallowing poi

son.

IWlcal notes

Projects (anger) on

the

woman.

Impulse-ridden

(it

was

the

easiest thing

he could have done).

Strong intra

aggression. Oral

needs.

This story repeats both the orality

and

the fear

of

degeneration,

as well as

the

strict superego. When tendencies recur v e r a l times in a story, such as oral needs

in relation

to

drinking liquor, and again in the method of suicide, it can usually

be

considered an indication of

the

intensity of the problem,



124 CHAPTER 4

N e m ~

510ry :'\').

4 (TAT

l C l u r ~

t\;o.

1111P

I. Mala

11M. . . ( r t ~ r e r d ; t ' e ) "II e m ( ' IS e A ' t r ~ " , ' 1 t n 1 t ' r c / , . s t - ; c ~ en' t-ons,"""'.r

S ~ J f • 1 r ~ a . - t or whiCh ('en ."If t ' O " , m i t t ~ t I . lUl4'er fit' lirllllt'If(,' 6/ t ~ 1 f D r .

fhlr,./t,,.. one is IIMJry ttt

~

lcJo"""" K,1/r

~ e r

~ d o"t'.u"l'. r ~ m . r J e

.putty

,;'

t-Ilrn,

/: .1

SlcJtllfII4Il'n,j ,,,i.ron.

2.

Maift ' - 0 : . I ~ ~ ~ ,t

....

A1L -oJ--__ ocalio

.

. t ~ c I ' ' ' t -

i lerul.j- iL1.

tra.u...l lir'CIIDur a b i t . l i u ~ ~ t : J a z _ , " - - : : , - - : ~ - - : _ _

adequ.cy

(J.,t

•. 1.'.') 0 body . m a , ~

. . .

d/or

Nil i m a l l ~ ' « ' l I

~ u n c r r t e .

t1

3.

Maift MH.

01 hero:

a) b, av.or.1

. . . .

d. 0' ....

(

••

i .

lIory)

.

d r / I 1 J : : ; . / ~ ; It/pm,,,.,' Q tn

ceuj G intnz- t l ~ « J S ' j M .

tr q r r

U

dyr.amK

i . . . . . .

u

- ~ d . s . . , ; . J t - ' . I t ' e , - - r : - e - S ' - f l - " - - ~ - : : : - i l - ~ - ..-

WC'.1I

i

Ph

b)

lilurea. objecl

•. or

cucum.lan

•••

; n o d U C o < l - ' 1 M 1 3 r , , ; ~ ' .I.

'tZ '

....

l.n €o:;...

impIY'''1 ..n d

'or or

10'_

t?t :41_L'e, L-

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

c ) fil rel. ob.e-c:I •. or ( U C U l n ... om'''rd·

---_._------------------

mply.n,

. . . .d

lor

or

.0 ' ____________________________________

4.

Co ceplion

01 . iro ..",

( .GOId) M : - - t . e . ~ t : i n J 1 r - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

5. r . , e , a16pr . .

Im__

I_.

. r ........

. . .d

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_

C_le . . ' e .

1 '

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a n . . . . .

aLU(,Jlai..LlJ.lll:-a . d

...

bjoct', . .

a<llo .

1 I - 0

4

oLL

n

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e

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J_icw

liewe.

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a .

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6. s ; p i f o ~ ... c _ f t i c ~ o : . P 1 i . . w « f 1 - r r . . e ~ . - f " L ~ e x t I A 1 t 1 5 U P U ~ O i e"trg- 12Ma' ,- rrg,.

4 n r ~ ~ n

------------------------

7.

Nalure oI

. . .

_ie'iee:

( I )

01 p ..

y . . .1

ha,,,, .ndior pun hmonl._ 01

ill .... or i ,ury

_____________

0 ' d.llpprov.L _____ _,_

___

_

_______ 1 d.pflvolio

._____________

..

laclt

or

10. . 01' ....

_

___

_ _ ,

______0 '

b ••

n d.vour.d

:: .

~ : . ~ _ ; ~ o ~ ; ; c { J l M ( I . . P r ; , L ~ i , . ; p f . Q . t i m c . 01

b ••

nl overpowmd

a . d

. . .

,,1

. . .

6.

Mai d., . ,

.lai"O' co,,/ticto a

.d furs: I.') . /

rcprnwon

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\Ol.111()n_y/ '__

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, , ' ~

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.

' : l ~ , l o e < C ' I < J ' ' ' ' ' - ' ' ' ' ~ n L L . . . - - - - - - - - - - . - - - - -

_ _ _ _ _ _

_

9.

Se eri,y

01 .up.reIO •• _

.. f ~ o I . d by:

(. )

punlthment

'or

· · ( f . m ~ · · . '. _ • mmrdialf '

/

;u. l oo Hvefe '_L r

d.lay.d

un,u.1 100 I ..

~ n t

tntul

. n.

_

'

.

",mf" ________delayed inlti.1

re 'pon,e

0 '

paulf ' .

10. Ia 'e r ion

.Ilia

• 0 . . . . .

f.oIi l

'IMIf ... :

I ; . . .'• . ) ./'.,1 '1

ad.qu.cy

01 h. 'o

_____ .

____ Oul<om.

...ppy

__________

n .

appy__ . . : . . . . . . . : . . . ___

,t.l.lflC u'ue.l i . t ic ..."..-,.......".-

..

..Ionn, ad,quar. •

. d ~ q u a l c _ . . J . t ' I t - J t 7 - " 7 ~

,1.010,1.1 P ' O < ~ ,.... .d by

plo.

born, 1/. / / . ;, .')

. t r eh

• ,d

-X _____ n.''''(f'Jff d _ _ _ _ _ t e U ' o . y p t d _ ~ - - o r i c 1 n . I - _ - _ - - . p p . o p . i . t e - - - -

' . ' .on ' _ _ _ _ _ _ .. _ ' I . " ~ _______ l ) m p l ~ l ~

Z

Incomplele inapprop •

ate----

'ellilellU: II)

... ,

. ,

-

____

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AnaJ,u. Sheet few Ufe with the

BeUak

TAT Blank

•• .•

l iAS

n . r., ....... cAI c

....

_



INTERPRETATION OF

THE T A T

125

The most ominous

feature of this

storv is

the afterthought that he

strangled

her

because "this was

the

easiest

thing he

could have done." Together with

the

realistic

detail

and

the

obsessiveness.

it

suggests

that

homicidal

impulses

are

not

far from

the

surface

in

this man.

H: Well. I'd say that this takes place in Paris. just for the heck of it. . . . That the

papers have

announced

that there

will be a

would

sav that there will

be here

will

be meteors shooting across the sky on this date. This here person is a man s watching

h ~ l l l

we say astral

d i s p l ~ · s

The

room Ill

is in is his

hedroom

and

he

has put the

ligbt out to make

it

easier for him to Sl'e \\'hat is going on. . Hl'

watches

for about

15

minutes,

doses

the

window, puts the light on,

and

gets undressed and goes to bcd

And

that's the

end of that (resistance)

The

way thl' window opcned up,

I

alwap imagined

that

windows like that were to he seen in Paris

I

would say that

befort, he went to the windows he was laving

on the hed. reading

.1

hook,

until

the

time

( ;UlIe

around

at whirl tillle thl'

newspapers

said

that

nll'tl'ors

would

be

sel'n

shooting

across

the

skv

would

sa\' that

he

is mon' or less

of

an amatl'ur astronomer and that

hl' has;) grca't

interest

in the Ulli\erse and

et's say

l i a ~ b t , l f i i i lIIake sOlllcthing

out

of

this after all ha: he is working on

sOllie

small job which has no fUlllre hat

hl'

has

always bl'l'1l inten'ste<1 in astronomy. hilt

due

to' the fact th;.t his

parents did

Ilot

llit"e the n.'SOlllTl'S with which to send

him

to srhool that hl'

rould

not

further

his education

in th..lt fidel (resistance) He has SOIlll knmvll'( gl'

of

the stars.

and

this clisp\a\'

lasdnau.'s him and only

IllClkes

him yeai'll for thalc:cillcatioll he: lIIight han' helll hal's

aU

J) Jrri/Hil'l' /1i/ wI

:\ young man

in a

bedroom

in

Paris

at

nighl is watching

meteors appearing

according to sched-

ule and feels small

in comparison.

This makes him

vcarn for educalion

which the

parenls

were

too

poor

to

give him.

/1I/nlJrI /I< t' /I 'II/t'

If Ollt.' watchcs hig

things

at

night

ap-

pearing according to

schedule. OIlC feds

slIlall

in comparison

and feels Ihilt par-

Cllls should

have

given

one more

(ed-

ucalion).

Clinical lOies

J)iflKlIoslir lfllt'l

Pilt

ient

has wit-

IH'ssed

primal

s<:enc

f r t < J u e n t l ~ and

has

felt insignificant in

rdalion

10

his

father.

illld hlames his par-

elliS f()I not having

equipped him hetter

genitally. Informa-

tioll

and

education

elrC

gi"ell

phallic

sig-

lIificann' as a

power-

ful tool.

Paris probably means sex,

as in

the minds of so many. The meteors probably

represent a big phallus. The reference to putting

the

light

out

to make it

easier

to

see

may

well relale 10

the

facllhat palielll would watch what was going on between

parents

when it got

dark. The

window

is

probably a

reference 10

the female sexual

organ

and

expresses

the

patient'S

notion

that

such

(sexual)

things

would

only

go

on

in other

dirty places, not

in

the parental

hQme. He already knows

what is going

to

happen from past experience (the newspaper) and

feels

himself but

an

ama-

teur

working in a

small job

(penis)

and that

it

is

his

parents' fault

that

they did not

equip him better.



126

CHAPTER

4

Na

.

.«

S l o r y

N .._

....

--

__

TAT

PlChu.

No f

t (I",ft 'rerftt,.yt)

I I

O N wc-t:cht's bfJ tI,,'n/S 1ft

ni;hr ~ r ; H J .

4 ~ ~ N t I / " . I -to S C } , # 4 I 1 t ~ # o M ~ ~ l s .sAlIlI/ ,." t . " O " ' P V ; S ' I " ' . ~

c " d

I',,/r ~ I l ' t

I'c.rl ts

Thllii Ia'

J

Ir-e

on,

l110re

('a'ut. c.

t-,im).

2. Maia

- " 0 :

aldH"J,k l t

« ' AI

" t I O c a l i o ' _ ~ - t , , , r

I IstrcnDm<,r

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

_

in lcr . I I .U/r i , "

M.c

f tMCc f 1t?1L. lfallL.&.filiD S I ; abil,liel 1 1 . I U 1 ~ LUlt IlA.

_ _

___ -

adeq acy <:.//.1/':) _____

b dy

imal ' and/ol . .

I

una•• .JJ:n.ttl1: .not.....h«¥il'f:l.-fl'ltlH,:/£

3. Main ftftd,

01

'-0:

a) b.h.vlor.1

need. 0

h

. . . .

( . , in .IOr)

. : & 1 L J 4 l . d ~ ; ' ; . : E J 2 . _ t : ' - ~ i : - _ r e . J f . l . ~ < i ~ ~ t I - I : ;M

__

.

_ _ _ _

_

dyn.mic

i f.

ren«

;

O ¥ ' l l r i s m ; « l i l 1 i f Y H f l . ( ~ ~ SUlU.t.,l'9Jl.lt'.§' clL

r

dl r.i

I'rco/J

k l f ,/:i>-_b-e--

b) prea.

objecl

.

or

c cumllanc., ' " ' l o d u < : H I : ' / : l l r i J . . ~ d c r . . s ; f 1 ' U " ~ l l . b ; J " L l M T P ~ r __ t i i i l I i l .

;;;t::.

nnd

'0'

, , o ; , u ~

,,-l1rDJilMn

( ' 1 . . . f i l A 7 i t m = ~ ~ r e n t i . ; I 1 ~ ' i i i i l i i 4 t u ~ ~ . . . n : L

.

e a . . t . U ~ l u U u i L £ m . d ~ l r u ~ _ _

___ .____ ._ .

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

__

__

c) lure • ol>j«' • or cuc\lmllance, om'ttt-d· ___ ._____

------------------

implyinl

n•• d lur

01

10 ___

4.

COIIcep'"'"

of

'yir ........

(world) .. h::,q; I . . . q r c i ~ I ( t - l l 1 . - < t ' p c i Y J i t . J .

__

.

______

_

S.

Par 'taIlilW m./_ LL..) . r ~ . .

. - - - D ~ c i r U g . . - _ a n d ,ubjec' · .

I.achon

It

_ ' 1 ~ . . I n . l n ; , _____

Conl.mp. fiCWC'

(m

__ '-_)

al . l C ~ n ••_________ nd

.ubi.cl·

... Cl>on i .

.IwUoe

' I W n ( ,--.

,

__ . re . .

..

and .ubi« ' · ' r••

clion

..

_____

C. Sipi 'can ' confticta: t h t 4 1 e h L f l . « r I . . . k - - ' l . c l I i . r . l . . J l 1 L l f t o « t l l ' , ~ I L " : I - d w u l t ' J L I l _ ~ J ' . - : - _

7. Nature of uaictiH: I )

of

phy.;c.1

h.rm

.nd/or p u n i t h , ~ t

01 ,lint,. or .njury.

____________

of diMpploval 01 dcpriva on_ _ _____

0' I.ck or

10

.. 0' lovr_____ 01 I>.,nr d.voul.d

_____________

0 '

b.inr d ?

. . .

d,--_y--=.. . :

. ~ , _________ _01 b.;na

uvcrpow.,.d

and 1o.lpl

. . .

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

o t h ~ r

a ~

~ t L O J

~ t l a . . u .

I . Main def .n,a

acain,1

~ o n f l i c h . nd f

. . . .

( / )

K p r n . s ~ - - - - - - r ~ a < 1 i o n - f o r m . . l u o n

V

r

.

o n ~ J l l a I K ) n

~

_____ lllaU(m

__

_ _ _ _ _ __

..,grn.ooon ______ n t r ( ) ~ c t i ( ) n - - - - - d ( n W - - - - - - - .

U n J ( ) l f l ~

____

___

,plitnn,:.

_________

_

projo:<tn-., idmlifiatin .uchc-r

___

______ __

.

__ ..

_. _____ .

t . Su.r i ly of .upe 'Io a, mani'n'' ' ' by:

( . )

; 1 ~ t - " d " e":'

p u n i a h m ~ ~ for ··cnme

_ l m m ~ d l I _____ utL.______ oo t ~ ' V c r e _ _ _

d.lay.d

_ _ _ _

n,,,.,

'ool.nl.nlL___

i n t u ~ i l i o n '

l C . m m ~ ' _

delayed In.lJal

' ~ ' t p o n ' ~

or p.a"II' t._ _ _ _

10.

1n1'lration 0 I elo,

rnanilulinl

il. . 1

in;

(I.

II.

II.:)

.d.quacy or h. ,o_ / oulcom.. Ioappy

_ _ _ _

JI r

_____

nhappy_

, ~ . I I . c i c ___

f_ . -

__ ___ unu: . . . . .c_______

sol t 'on: .dcquacc ___ J I '

________

nadequale. ______

IhOUlh, p'OUOIU

....

vu l . d

by plo,

b ~ i n c ; (o'.

II.

III)

lu \ lclured--L..

___

n.tructu.ed

____

feu·oC) ped

_____ nrt ' fnal

______

•

p r o p ' l a . ~

_ _ _

ra"on.I

___

, , / b u . " e

c o m p l ~ . e " /

' n c o m p l e l ~

______ n . p p ' o p n . ' ~ - - -

AnaJyai. 5 ' -1 for uae wilh lhe &lId TAT Blank

C••Fri••

i tS .

t....-14 10 . . .



INTERPRETATION OF

THE

T.A.T.

127

88M:

This is

a young man

and he

was

formerly

a successful lawyer.

Then due to

his

bad

habits.

. . such as

women and liquor

he began to let's see his talents

began to

degenerate.

Uh

He

is

married

and

his wife

is

beginning to turn against

him.

On

this

particular night

he has

. . .

he

is

in a

barroom

and

has become

quite

intoxicated.

t

is

time for the

business to close

and

the

bartender

is

helping

him

on

with

his coat.

The

man is stupified and doesn't

know what

is happening. The bartender.

not

caring

what

happens to

him. escorts him

to

Ihe door and leads him out to the

street

where

he

drunkenly

walks.

not knowing where is going. and

finally

winds

lip

sprawled out

on

tbe sidewalk

where he is

picked

up

by

the

police

and

spends the night

in

the

cit)'.iail

(snickers). His wife.

knowing lhat he is injail hat

is. having

been informed

that

he is

in

the

city

jail.

but

refuses

to pay

his finc.

or

10

aid him in any way

whatevcr

laughs).

Hc

becomes

melancholy. and when

he is finally let out

of

ail

knowing

that he is

where

are we

et

out ofthejail? knowing that hc

has

been overcome b\'

his niggardly

condition.

he

decides

to

depart o desert his wife

and

the city that he is in.

and

decides

to

go to

another

citr

to

begin

life

anew That's

the end

of

that

DrscrilJtilll theme /lItt'1'prt'tit.(·

th( 11/(

A

formerly

slIccess-

f

one

indulges

in

ful '"Olmg lawyer

de- bad

habits stich as li

generates

because of quor

and

women.

bad habits (\\'omen one

degenerates.

and liquor).

and his wife

turns

against

him. He is

inwxicated

in a

bar.

and an

uncaring

bartender

sends him

out

and

he

is

put

in jail.

His wife refuses

to

aid him, and he

lea\"es the cit," to

start

life anew.

is

rejected by one's

wife and others.

punished,

becomes depressed.

withdraws.

but

starts

anew.

Clinicalllotes

Diagllostic

1t' tI

Feels

himself

a de-

generate

he(:ause of

interest

in

liquor

~ l l d

women.

Feels rtjectcd by

male and female

figures.

Severe superego.

Depression.

with

drawal.

coulllerac

tion. Oral needs.

Bad

habits"

refer most frequently

to

masturbation

and

resultant

guilt. This story

shows

at

least a

spark

of

health,

in

that the

hero

tries to begin life anew,

although

it

is not

told in any convincing detail.



128 CHAPTER-1

N m ______ 510'),:-<

_ ~ _ _ _ r , \

T P ' l ~ •• No If'S,4-f

)

I. M . i a ~ :

(Iat V/'rdi e)

r-l ~ il1t1l1ljes in

b4d 1 I / ) i t S . r ~ e l , f i r 't 0 '44Hi

~ " ' 6 " ,

D I 1 ~

4 ~ J ~ l 1 4 r 4 t t S " , If' r t ' j ~ d , J

~

MeT

.,ile u I ~ o ~ e r S ' ,

,j

1' ,,;11,1'4.

l H e ~ t r N s

t I ~ , r e s s ~ ~ l 4 J i ~ 6 n a 4 J S ,

/wt

stQrt.r

f,'/t'

t f " ~ " "

,_IN,,,

2.

~ " I = : I ~ · ~ ' t , i ; ; t r l r . i l ' ' ' J I ° r C } j ' I < l i l : ° ~ ' ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ l ~ i i ' : J . · : ' ' ' l L J ~ ~ . ' ' ' ' b ' ' ' i - l i l - i . - . - - - - - - - - - - - - -

. ~ y (/.//.

III) - < ~ _ - - - - - b o d y

im., . .

lor

Hlf

i m . ' . ~ ........:-4-_

--------

3.

Me

, . . . . ' J ~ ......

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btl,nio

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of 11.,0

C • i .

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or

circvtnoCaftC

..

n / r o d u c - . l : ~ : p t :& . 1 t H t . " ' ~ L C " . ; : , , · ..

I t.I'.ILo/U'L

......_____

imply;,., . . . d for 0 ' 10:

Ddt

n,,;Zc enlt' .-xC,

SMf C9t1,

d ',,,rn, . j ed . 0 ' .i,c .

moe.ACe.

om;/Itd;_________________________

i m p ~ i l .... '0'

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10:_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

s. , ...... foe-

C ,_'

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a,e Mell

a. .nd ...bjccI'.

, •• UtOn

i . - : - - - - - , , . . . - - TJ . - r - - -

foe- C .. fZ . r .

Men ••

l'tiictittt-.nd

...

b ecl:••••

CI;OIl

i . ~ « t 7 ; ~ ~ : :

. . . . . . . . . . . . . CIII__ __ . re MCfI ••

.nd

...b,eel

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7.

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. , plio '; 'l 111 end/or

....

ni ...mCII'_________

,

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inju'Y

___________

., . . . . .

p

. . .

n l

of

dcprivalioll

____________

. ,

1M

. . . . Ie. . , love Z

of

bti . devo ,.d___________

of loti

... ' . 1 u J t d 0 bti .. ove,pow . . . . . .d . 1 , 1_ ' -_____

. , . . . . fSSff epn to l

I . Naioo o H I _

. . . . . . coelid.

aad ,

..... ( / )

rrpm.sion ________

n · f o r m & t i o n

___LL-_ _ _ _ atiofU.luation _ _ _ _ _ OOlatkHl _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ _

rcgrnsion

_____ ntroi«OOn

______ <nW.-:-_____

ndoing .pbn ing ___

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ide cifiaooo

odon I'tI71 ,A1

----------_._----_.-

, . S

. . . .7.,

.........

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. . . . .yl ( J )

........

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crim.

____________

lllmedi.,.

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___

_

;,.lIibi'io

..

__ ____ . m ' c ' ______

elay.d

inili.1

' o

.oe or

, . uu .

_________

10........... k . . .

_i l " , i lac l f in l CI.I/.J//)

. . . . .-y

of 0

~ o Icom.: .ppy---. ..----- ....

lIapp --------

, I;oetc

£ ....

r

. . oCic_______

..

lI1io.. :

. ~ . C I " ' I . 7

in.d

.....I._______

....... , P O < ~ . r. . . . . td by ,101 loti ,: (I. II. III)

oenoel.. td ~

..

noervcl ,ed . .e'col)'Pccl____

,i.ill.I

_ _ _ _ _ pp'o'rialc . /

••

....... 1

tI'

biurrc

complct

....

_____

ncompl...

i

....

pr.p,;.I.

__

latcl1it_c: ( I ) ... •• IO.

____

IM ••" .

••L-. .,. ,c_____

clow .w...,.___ .fccli ..

___

-17 Slteet

few

Ute with the 8eUak

TAT

81aM

•



INTERPRETATION

O

THE

T A T 29

Summm)

Record

themes

and summarize other significallt

data

for each story

1

Feels strictly

brought

up;

need for

aUlonomy, achievement.

Feminine

iden

tification-feels

helpless.

Fear

of

pregnancy. Suicidal tendencies.

Strong

homosexual fears. Extra- and intra-aggression.

Parents

seen as restrictive,

coercive. Feels

unhappy

physically ill

2. Sexual needs; distinct

triangular

oedipal theme; jealousy. Intra- and extra

aggression. Homosexual interests. Severe superego.

S Aggression against authority, particularly male figures. Severe superego.

4. Feels

extremely moralistic. Severe superego. Strong guilt feelings about

sex. N

eed for

liquor.

Strong

oral needs. Rationalizes. Projects anger)

on

the

woman.

Impulse-ridden

it was the easiest

thing he

could have done).

Strong intra-aggression.

Oral

needs.

, 5. Patient has frequent ly witnessed primal scene and has felt insignificant in

relation

to

his father, and blames his parents for nOI having

equipped

him

better genitally. Information

and

education are given phallic significance as

a

powerful

tool. Voyeurism. ConHicl belween

need

for achievement

and

feeling of inadequacy.

6. Feels him

self

a

degenerate

because

of

interest in

liquor

and

women. Feels

rejected by male

and

female figures. Severe

superego.

Depression, with-

drawal, counteraction. Oral needs. .

7

8

9

10•



130

CHAPTER

4

Ego function assessment from

TAT data:

-

=

-

>

> > >

)

)(

)(

f

I

.:

I

r

1

c

, , ~

,;

,.

i

,.

cS

:

It

c

I

0

~ ' O

a:

·1

.I

,

i

I I I

£

J

Ii

'

1

l ~

8

i i

c

I

:

c

en

c

13

12

10

2

8

A

I

,t

8

as

: -

I

.1<

•

'0

7

tl

S

5

5

i

0

4

-

j

t

3

:

.lo

2

>

1

E90

functions

(from &llIk.

HuntCh.

6: Gcd.maa.. £,0

/.,,,,.0.,

itl ,,6'ro,6rAKI. ",.rOI' I.

.J

IIor ,.J,.

Copy·

ri,hl e 19H.

by

C.

p.

S . II>(.

~ ' P " D t c d by potm'lt,oQ

01

JohD Wil.y Soa•• Inc.)

Ego functions observed

during

test administration:



I ~ T E R P R E T T I O ~

OF

THE T A T

I H

Case 3

E.O.

is a

married man of 25

who

came

with marital difficulties as his

chief

complaint.

He and

his wife were

of

different

religions.

although

this

did

not

enter

into the

problems except

for some diflicuities with the in-laws on

both

sides. Both

families. however. were several thousand miles away. The subject had suffered

from depressive episodes of borderline natllre and also from premature ~ j a C l a -

tion. He had

no

specific complaints against his wife except that she was not a very

good sexual partner. but

he'did

have serious questions

concerning

his preference

for

another

girl.

It became

clear dynamically

that the other

girl was probably a

representation

of a sister two years

older than

he and. in

the

long

Hm. an

image

of

his

mother.

Together with his ambi,· . lence toward his wife went considerable

jealousy

(apparently unfounded) concerning

her feelings toward

other.

usually

older. mel1.

At

times

the

relationship to Ihe wife was a

dearly

compelilive

one.

wilh him equipping her in his blltasy wilh masculine f c ~ : t u r e s . They were b(;th in

the

enlertainment

field.

The patient responded favora >'"

10

a

6-months'

wurse of psydlOlhcrapy.

Final diagnosis: c y d ( ) t h ~ ' m i c personalit\" wilh some tendency IOwards a

horderiine

manic-depressi"e

syndrome.

For Case $ we are

lIsing the

Short

Form (see

.. Iso Chaplers H and II). The

Short

Form.

mentioned.

is

especialh- useful for

the

working clinicians.

They

are

likely

to make

themselves brief notes in

their

personal shorthand. for which

the space

provided will

usualJv suffice.

In

print. for puhlic ("(msllmptioJ1. it is

impossible

to

put all

the

necessary observations

into

Ihe boxes.

Therefore.

the

diagnostic theme also appears below earh ston·. and on'" token

references

to

il

show in the boxes of the Blank.

The same limitations of

printing ersus

personal notes limit the lIIilization

of

the

other spaces in

the

Blank.

For the

didactic purposes

of

this book.

we

,Ire also

reproducing the

individ

ual pages of the Long Form to allow

the

space l 1 e c e s s a r ~ ' for printing sOllie of the

comments

which might otherwise be personal ahbrevialions.

Furthermore.

also

for didactic reasons,

we

chose some stories which by

their

ridllless allow

more

than

an

average

of

observations.

For

those whose personal style

runs counter

to

the

small space

prmided

ill

the Short Form. the Long Form remains the ideal record.

S o / ~ : All

three

final reports have bc(:n kepI lairlv hrief in the inter<:st of conciseness and bC('ause

experience has shown that much longer reports are found objectionable

by

psychiatrists

and 1

hers.

Some

T.A.T.

workers may

prefer

a more rigid organization

of

Ihe final

reporl.

under

the specific

headings referred to

under

summary:' namely. unconscious

struclure

and needs of subject. concep

tion of world

and

of significant figures, significant conflicls. nature of anxielies, main defenses against

conflicts and fears. severity (and integration) of superego. inlegration of ego. diagnostic impression

(this record

is

consistent with. . . .



.

SHORT FORM

BEllAK

T.A.T and C.A.T

BLANK

for

RecordiDc

aDd

ADalTZiaI

Thematic

Apperception

Teet

aDd

0Wdrea .

Apperc.ptioa

Teat

EI

O.

Sew

M

A p

5

Date

Name

High

Sohool

Proteastonal

Athlete

(cirde o.e)

Education

Occupation

,

m.

w .

d.

Referred by

Analyaia

by

After

having obtained

the

Itoriel

analyze

each story by using the variablel

on

the left of Page Z. Not every

story will furnish information regarding

eaCh

variable:

the

variables

are praented

u a

hame

of reference

to

help avoid

overlooking some dimension.

When

all ten Itoriel have been analyzed it

is easy

to

ched.

each varuble

from

left to right or all ten stories

and

record

an integrated lummary on Page •

under

abe appropriate headings.

That way

a final picture

is

obtained

11DOI1

immedutely.

Then, keeping Page'; folded

out,

the Final Report: Diagnostic Impressions and

Recommendations can be

wrillen on Page by reference to Page 4. P4Ige 5 gives available sp4Ice for .lny other notations. The stories then can be

st<lpled inside the bl4lnk against Page 5. For

further

instructions see Manllal

for

T.If. T. Intn putation, Psychological

Corporation, by

uopold

&lIak or Manual/or t h ~ C If T., c .PS Inc., or T h ~ T.If. T. and C.If. T.

in

Clinical U S ~

2nd edition, r u ~ e Strallon, 1971. N. Y. C by

uopold

Belial..;

fINAL REPORT:

I>iqno.tic

ImpreuiODa

and

Rec:ommeadatioaa

The

.. n

proble

• •

of the p.tient

Ir

•• low

••

I f - • •

t .e

•• d in .e . ina hi..

l f

a

•• objact of

d.prlv.tion

and a r e •• ion, a• • • • n in atoriea 2, l'HF. and 181M. He h a l a nead to expra•• hi .

a r a

•• on,

but th . r . i .

a

. t ron ,

conflict

In

th i .

r . , . rd .nd

h. frequ.ntly

turn .

the

accre.aion

a , . in . t

hl

... f Caa

in 181H).

HI. oral

n

• •

d .

are

v.ry

pronounced

•

n i f e . t ~ n , theDa.lv

••

in

a

ne.d

for

acqul . i t lon

of

aoney

and f

... Cl,

2, llHF).

He •••• the p. t . rn . l

f l ,ure

.a a r

•• ve and

d.privinc. Cont

• • porary

..

.

fi ,ur.a . r .

a

••

n

•• competitive,

and

there

fa ron, homo.. .,.al ln t . r • in

the . . Kat.rnal

f l ,u r

• •

• r

• • • •

n with conaid.r .bl ival.nc•• d

, u l l t

over hi.

a r e

•• lv. f .el in,a toward thea, and al .o

with . t r ~

or . l

demand. tow.rd th •• .

HI n conf l ic t . c.nt .r .round .e t ivl ty-p •• ivity, the .xpr

• •

ion of

accre •• ion,

.nd the .x

pression of hie

or . l

d . . .nd.. lie ahow. di . t ine t h . r . of

phy.ic.l

h.r•• d of loa. of lov

••

Hi

n

d.f .n •• a . r . r• •etion for.. lon

<.tori

• • 2. 6IM, llHF, 171H, and 181H) .nd d.nlal

(1 ,

68H•• d llllH). He ha l an

.x t r

. . . l ' • • vere

.upere,o.

Thi

' , .xtre.. n.rci •• i.m

ic

hi ,h l i ih t .d in . toriea 1 and 178H.

HI. only

ra . l ne.d for

people

• • • • • to

be in their c.p.cl ty

•• an

a u d i e n e ~ .

Hi •• hibi t lonl . t ic n••d . thu• • • • •

con.idar

.bly

. t rona.r th.n hi .

hetero••xual

n.ed.

Cthi. h o.r t icul . r ly clea.· in . tory 171H, . r . he . t a t • •

th.t

hi . in t . r

••

i .

not

In

the , i r l .

oar •• but

mer.ly in th. ir admir.tion

of hi . prove•• ) . C.r

t . in ly hi

••

ron, oedipal att .chaant lapair .

hi . h.t . ro

••

xu.l .d ju . t

.. t quite

.ev.r . ly.

[ , 0 atr .n, th I . of

.uch •

n.ture

••

to

enable

hi . to t . l l . t ructur .d, r . t ion.l . to r i

• with, on

the whole, perf .e t ly

adequ.t

•• lutlona. He de . l . ~ l l enouch with re .l i ty probl

• • •

but .aploy. aeny

pathos.nic

d ~ f ~ n . ~

..

h.nl

•••

In order

to

.chi .v. aome equilibriu. , • •

peci . l ly

d.n i . l .

"-

appear. to

be of

.bov.

av .r l l . intel1if.nce w i t h . gre. t

deal

of v.rbal

f .c i l i ty

C.pproachin, the varbo.a).

in.Dir.tion,

.nd con.id.rab •• oarficl . t . f f ec t .

The dynamic

.nd

. 0

paycholoclc.l

pictur.

i . conal.tent

with

an

. f f .c t ive di.ord.r

without

Manlfe.t

P.ycho.ia.

'The

caabin.tlon of

or . l i t

low .e l f -• • eem, and . r • • ion . , a in . t hia.elf .UC,• • •• 81

~ . l i n , . of d.per .on. l iE . t ion,

but

th . , do

not

.ppear aarked .nou,h to con. t i tu t•••

iou••

icidal

probl_

••

Oyn.. ic p.yehotherapy c .n t . r in , on the

problema

hi,hl i ,ht .d .bov

••

ould off . r

v.ry

,ood

ch.nc

••

for con.id .rabl .

i.prov.ment and

aom••

ructur . l chan,•••

Copyriatat

1155

Leopold

kuat.

N.A.,

1i.D.

P u b ~ b f

C.PoS.lnc.

P o IlbxQ

~ N . Y . I C I 5



f

5tor7 No. 1

5tor7 N . I

1. aw. n.-.. (cliapoetic . . . . 1 if d-npcm

and

int.rprflative

I.vel,

a' dnir.d, Ule

•

ecratcII

M

H

. . . . S)

G5,

a:;:)J\Ji; 1-

lAhrits tb

w

h.t.IliA.,

i ' h A ~

~ .

c)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ~ - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

4. C

I

. , . ,

.........._

. . . . .

(-W)

. .

s. .) Pu •

.1

icw-

(IlL--

f

_ _ _

.re

_

..

_________

_

.bject .

r_ t io f t 10 •

ie

-------------------i

b) Coel_p .

6cvr-

(JIL

__

f

___

.r. _ .. ________

. . . . . . jecl·. r_ t io f t

to

b io --:----------------1

c)

JIUIior 6cvr- (

__ f___

are - .. - - - - - - - - - - - i

.ad .bj..:t .

r.actioft

10 c io _________________

••

7. Nabre.,

. . . . . . . .

J)

of .nn _lor

puaiabm_t

of

d.. pN

...

1

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

of

lack

H

Ioee

of

Io

..

e

___

f

i l ln_

or

iIljllry

___________

1

of beinc d_d of d

..

i

...

ioft _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 1

of

belal o ...rpowered . d helpl_ - - - , : r - - - - , , ; . - :__ I

of heine

dey_cd

____ lber

:i\

6. fiU 0<:55

s . . . . . .w- - ............ Mel ' _ _

/) ~

m e ~ f \ . . S

( 1 0

RMC.tuxL-

r ~ p r t s s i o n

frat'lIon'(ormalinn

~ ~ t"'I,a

~ l o l l ~ ' i)ce.rl"\.'t"

to.:ti..ort..

r( gr(Oss inn. / d r n l a l ~ ___. I l ro j rc t lon ____ ___ - ' ~ ~r--. ~

.

L

isol . on undo, J

________ __.

- . _ .J \

I\..A.OJ

rlrionalizar;fln

-' -____

OIhrr ~ ~

u.l(. a.f'<.'

p r o ~ n i v t idt nrifKalion

I p l i l l i nJ : . ___

t.

.4.... .

of

RpCftIO

as .ulfcsee4 by ..,..w.-c

for ..

crt.. 1Ic1ac: ( ) . i ~ = ' ; ' = : : - - - - I - - - - - - -

appropriale

____

naPl'ropriate-:--____________1

100 severe (also indicaled

by

immediacy or punishmenl)/-

_______

inconsislenl 100 Icnienl_______________

1

also:

delayed inilial response

or

pauses

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

1

s l a m ~ r other manifeslalions of superego

inlerferencc--- - - '

________

7 ' : , . . . . . - - - - _ : : : ' 7 ' ' 7 _

10 . . . . . . . .

iMo of the

'10,

~ b a r ibelf

ill: (Y. \ 'y . \

vv)

QXS:tt'Q2./'7.7

Hero: .dequale 0 /77 .

' n ~ d e q u a l e - - - - _

_

....

___ . ~ ~ __

- : / .

outcome: happy _unnappy . - - - ; -

- f

.

realielic________ unreali.lic__ , : : ~ ____

: t : : ~ h : ; ~ : ~ . ~ e a k c i by p J o i - b e i n ~ .

V

VVV) ,/-.

~ h l '

(j"'o<',, »cS ~ k ' l ~ ~

Stereotyped

_

: : ; ; r - _ o r j l i n a l i L ~ - - -

a p p r o p r i a l e - - - - -

In o . ~ t .

o:fg'\oo)f.'4·aJ 6 ...-

complele

_____

n c o m p l e t e

. ona pp r op r l a t e - - -

--

.. -- . . .

~

.

•

yncrcljc___

.

__ oncrctc______ ontaminated_ . ~ - - G-cx:x1.-

I n l e l l i r e n c e _ ~ -.-------- I(')T.{l.,

.

, , ~

\ ~ i Q . K ~ . - . c . c . . . . .

M a l u r a t i o n a l l e v e L _ ~ ~ ' \ L . - ._____ . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . ~



I:\TERPRETATION OF THE T.AT. 133

Story I

I: This young lad

of 10 or I I

,"cars dOt'S not know that he is a genius

of the

music

world

10

come-\'ia his violin. He has been practicing a piece

of

music. This particular

piece does not please him. He isn't tt'lllperallll'llIal-hut he puts down his violin

and

stares

at

the music-it 's emptiness-:iust

a cutt' little Illdody-no feeling-no warmth-no

excitement-:iusl an

empl\'

Illl'loch, :\s he sits then ' -he starts-in his mind-to fix it

up

the

way

he fcds it

should

han' ht't'n wrillen-and the I l l e l ( } d ~ is

going through

his

head.

The way

ht' sees it, it's \ 'en S;I(I, hilt hc.'autilully so, And as he goes further on

different instrumcnts.ioin in-and \cn' soon he has a whole orchestra in the hackground.

with

the

,'iolin en-ing ollt ils sad and Ix'alltillllllll'loch-he isn't e\'en (ollSrious

of

the 1 ~ l C t

that there an'n't ;111\' In III,11

p l a \ i n g ~ j l l s t

tht' llIusic and tIte instnlllll'nts As he grows

older-Ill ' makes a name lor himself inthc

1Il1lSi('lidd-and later on.

he tires of l ~ i n g -

;lIId stCirts rOlllposing

the

J1IlIsic Ihat is ('onst,lIlt", ill his head-he hecolllt's famous hut this

dot'sn', mo\"(' him

part

indarh -h l d(lt'slI't

nt'll

reali/t' t

hOI

ht' is wealth\,-Illusir

is

his lift·,

; \ l Id

ht'

is

happy,

Ix'callse hl'

IS

doin).

what

he

wants, '

/)t srriIJlh t IlIt 1I/(

A IO-\'C:ar-old hO\' is

dissatisficd with his

I11l1Sil' picn:. which

It ds cm}>t y. not

warm. Stops it

(though not tcmper

amelltal).

Fant;lsic.'s

writing

a

hetler

Ollt

(s;,d alld

hcallliflll):

insl ru

lllenlS (not

pcoplc.-)

.I

) I I I I l l .

Bl'(ollles nT" b

l l lolIS.

hapl)\

wil II

Illusic

IIl1iutcH'slnl

III

III ) I I

(

.

/1I1t IJnt lil

1

t IJu l/If

I f a

hm

is dissatis

fied

with his

status

ht.'ciluse life: is

cmpty. cold, 1IlJex

ntlllg,

L t n t a s i c ~

of resound

ill(r

ellcl't (without

1 1 t

'(

I(ial p;lrlicipation).

H t C I ( ~ l l i e \ c s fa mc

;1I1d

lIIom:y,

withollt

(aring

lor thl'

Iauer.

elllllmi Iwlt .1

in l / o J I ir Irl fl

Fcels like a 10-\'ear

old bo\ . Dissatisfied

with his life. Feels

own

shallow

affen

(poor scxual

pc"'rfor

Illance?)

Denies be

ing

temperamental.

Swit cites from act iv

ity

to grandiose fan

tasies of

fame in CI

narcissistic way.

Denies interest in

1 l l 0 I l e ~ and

recog

nition.

It

is

<)lIcstioll;lhl(' \\hl'l Ilc.·r Olll'

is

justificd in

identifying

the self-image with that of

a boy

ill

\'ie\\' 01 Ihe.' fan

thaI the

picture a c t u a l l ~ '

shows

a boy. However, subjects

frequently tell stories

of an

adult

thinking

hack to boyhood,

thus

clearly

thinking

of

themselves

as

adults, and

making

the consideration

of boyish

self-imaging

tentatively

possible.

The

repeated referellce lO elll ptiness suggests subject's feeling

of emptiness,

probably

invol\illg

SOIl\( : depnsIIJlaliz;ttioll.

The

differ ent

instruments

might

well refer

to

t

hc.'

proximit\ of people 11(: needs to

dispel

this feeling, but

at

the

same time the

shallow,

narcissistic

relationship

to

them

(they

exist only

as

need

fulfilling

objects) is

suggested by

the

faClthal

it

turns out that

only

the instruments

themselves, without

people,

are playing.



134 CH.-\PTER 4

Story

2:

This

girl. about 9 years old. would

probably

be named Olga,

of U kranian

parentage and

slOck.

For

generations her family has fanned this piece of

land

usl

barely eking

OUI

an

exislence

on

this

tired

overused

land.

BUI

food

was

plentiful.

pure. and

wholesome.

and

they

wen.' salisiled. all. ulllil

Olga

grew up. She was

Ihe

firsl in

Ihe

family

10 get full

schooling.

At firs the ~ l l n l r thoughl it was useless

0

keep sending Olga 10

school, "ear

after vear-Ihere

was so much work

10

be done. and ;1( 3

she

was allllosl full

g r o w n ~ u l Olga'w<lllled 10 sImi" and learn more. Finalh' Ihe\' ('onn·deci. and

four

years

later it was wilh pride Ihal Ihey w;l ched Iheir Olga graduale from lIie WWIl school II was

indeed

diHicuh

10

allow her

O go 10

school all Ihes('

\ears. Of

(ou rse

she

hd

ped

a fler

school hours, btl Ihat wasn'l enough. And now.

now

Olga wallled W

go

10 Normal SdlOol

10

become a

teacher

This was r i d i c u l o l l s - h u l - f i l l a l l ~ . afler Olga showed Ihem how, in

another

1\\'0 years. she

would

graduale and gel

ajob

earning a hundred dollars a Illolllh as

a leacher. Ihey g;l\'e in again, We see Olga

coming

from lown- : \ ormal School I I is almosl

sunsel-;lIld

as

she

comes across Ihe field.

she

sees

hn

brodler.

slI'ipped O Ihe W<liSI,

lilling

Ihe land.

and

hn 1ll01ht'r. lired and wilh an aching back from st 't 'ding-resling for a

Illomelll-Olga e e s Ihis

and

IlIrIlS

;I\\ 'ay

for a momenl-she hales I() sec hcm sbn'.ju"I

II

eal and sleep Soon. she Ihinks 10 herself. I'll he carning

1l1011l'\'

and we can htl\, a

Ira('(or-wilh alllolllatir

seeder and [here

.Ire Illall\ kinds of farlll eqlliplllelll [hal

could make work

easy, and

do

i[ qllidly; maybt' we'll hu\' Iht'

adjoining

piece of

land and

sIan

making

a li"ing inslcad

of

; nCXiSlellce.

She

walks

over

0 her lIIo[her, lakt's Ihe sccds

from

hcr. and

slarts seeding. .

Her mOl

her,

now

holdillg Olga's hooks, looks

a[

Ii( l

nHlIlg

educated

daughlt'r. who is bt II1 over em'e.-ing Ihe seeds widl lilt' earl II. aud it ligh[

shines in her eyes, as shc Ihinks,

"Good,

she is nol spoikd.

I l l ~ daughlcr

wilh her hooks

SOOIl

she'll finish and all w,ill be wdl"-and lurns

0

go down [ Ihe hOllse O

prepare

Ihl'

cvening

meal

DfScriplio. f

llil'll/l'

A girl of simple Eu

ropean stock wallis

to study and im

prove herself.

Food

important.

: \

fi

rst the fam il

\

objects hut then

concedes

and

watches

her

succeed

wilh pride.

The girl sees

the

family toil, dreams

of

helping

them,

and actually relieves

mother

of

work.

Mother is happy

alx)ut her and

pre

pares

a meal.

nll l

('li(lI'llim/('

I f

a

girl

wants

to

do

better

than

her fam

ily by s l l l d ~ i n g

(th,ough

having

erf<mgh food ?),

the hllllil\' fir'st oh

jects. then concedes.

and is proud of her

success.

One

feels sorry for

the family, fantasies

of

helping

them.

and actually helps

mother.

Clinical not s

Diaglloslic

'Vl'/

Necd for autonomy,

sci r-impron,'lllelll.

Wants to do

heller

thall ElIllily. Oral

needs.

F;llllil\'

seen

as re

striniH',

later Pl'Olld

of olle's success.

Need for success, in

cluding

money.

Wish-fulfillment fan

tasies,

rescue

fanta

sies

re mother. Need

for

nurturance.

Oral

needs.

I t

is frequent

for males

to identify with

the female

figure in this picture, so that

this by

itself

does not permit any particular

inference.

The

need

for success

and



r

-

INTERPRETATION

OF

THE

T.A.T.

35

money

is repeated

here, this time without denial

of

the latter. But denial

appears

in

the

contradiction

of

"eking

out" and

plentiful food. The need for

nurturance

(Bellak, 1950) may simply stand for need for succorance.

This

is

a

rather

verbose, lively story

of

cheerful mood. probably typical

of

the somewhat hypomanic mood the patielll was in (as compared with

the

meager,

constricted, brief.

often

merely descriptive stories

of

obsessive-compulsives, for

instance).

This

story

is

also to a

cenain

extent autobiographical in that

the

patient

did come from ilJlmigram stock

and

helped support his family.

Story

BM

GBM: This is

all old folks' home.

and

tht'

\Ollll/- m.1Il is

visiting his old

mother.

She

W;IS onlv to have sta\'ed for a slum whil(,.

Till he

had Illoved his famil\" to the new

house. : Then, when

he

thought o f b r i n g i n ~ his

mother

to the new

home

his wife

had started talking "Gr.lIldma was spoil ing Ihe kids Sht., kept everyone awake with

her nerve-wracking cough.

and

she

was \'CI"y

umidy, and mad,' so much

extra

cleaning

work around the house." . " . At first. Ihe y o u n ~ Illan

\,'as

shocked 0 he;lr his wife speak

that

way

of his mother "he wouldn't think of k·uing her live in the old folks' home .

while he

had

a new hOllse with plenty of rooms in il. " . but after a

few

weeks he

got used to

hearing

his wife speaking in this manner and he wasll't shocked to

hear

the

words.

but he

was still upset ;lbout his mother Ii\ing in the old folks' hOllle His wife

was stubborn and insistem hel"e wasll't a l l ~ · t h i n g he could say

or

do that would

change

her

mind, well

there

wasn't much

he

could say

nO\-

he

was tired she kept

yelling

and

making scenes So { i n a l l ~

one da\

he weill

10

see his

mother o

tell

her

. " .

the

easiest way he could. that

it

\,'as incoll\cniell for them. " " for her to live with

them

After

nluch

hemming and

hawing he finalh blurted out his case The

mother is very hun, but she sces how difficult

it

for her n and for his sake tries to make

it all sound

"ery trivial and actually she l i k e ~ it at

the

home But the man can see

through

her kind bUI obvious front. And {inalh the "mother starts talking about how

you

bring

children

into

the

world

and no

mailer hm- much they love you

and

no

matter what they try to do for \ ou, you always feel that you

are

unwanted

and yel.

" .

what can an old woman with no income do? The Illall is feeling very bad his little old

mother going

through

all this pain because his wife didn"t

"ant

to

dean an extra

room

He

is disgusted with himself for not being man enough to make his wife take his mother in. " .

and

at

the

same

time he

is

angry with his

mother

for making

it

so difficult for him.

Well. time wore

on.

The grandma would come to the house Sundays play with

the kids enjoy their laughter

and their

tcars. Stay for Sunday dinner,

and

around

about eight

he

son would drive

her

to the home.

About six months after

the

al)(}\c incident" on a Sunday they were having

fish for

diniler

when

suddenly.

" .

one

of the children started coughing

and

splut

tering everyone

started

pounding him on the back" " . the young loother started

getting hysterical

and

the father kept yelling" "He's got a bone stuck in his

throat."

The

child started getting blue in

the

face. . The

grandma

ran into the kitchen

went to

the

bread box . . . took a piece of stale bread back to the choking child, put a

good-sized piece

of

stale bread in his

mouth Old

him

to

chew it a couple

of

times,

and

then swallow no matter how difficult "The child by this time was almost uncon-

scious

but, hearing

its

grandmother's

calm voice it

did

as it was bid

and

the bread

forced the bone down and the child was aU right, 'cept for fright The young

mother

looked at

tl \e man.

. . who was her

husband.

. . and said. . . I f it

weren't for

your mother's old-fashioned remedies we might have lost our son. I could feel what it

was like.

I

know how

she

must feel iving awa\ from you us now

I

think

lean

manage

to

clean

one more room"

. . " So,

the grandma

moved back. .



36

CHAPTER 4

Descriptille themt

There

is a conflict

between hero's

mother

and wife.

Hero

gives

in

to

wife and mother has

to

move to old folks'

home.

Mother

feels

son is

ungrateful.

He

doesn't

dare

stand

up to wife and is an

gry at

mother.

When

mother saves

life of grandchild

when it has a

bone

stuck in its

throat.

wife

and mother

make

peace.

Inte1prl live

theme

f there is

a conflict

in

one's

loyalties

to

mother

and

wife,

one

reluctantly gives

in to wife

and

r ~ j e c t s mother,

who complains

about il.

If there is trouble

with the child (who

has

o l ~ j f c t

stuck in

Ihroat).

mother

helps. I

mother and

wife can

be

recon

ciled, all

is

well.

lillical

notes

Diagnostic Irl el

Has

attachment

to

mother conflicting

with marital ad

justment.

Projects

aggression

toward

mother on wife. ra

tionalizing.

Mother

seen as nag

ging,

poor. Iden

tifies himself wilh

child. Guilt

over

anger

IOwaI'd

mother.

Fearful fantasies

of

aggression (fellatio).

Mother seen as om

nipotent. Can

feci

peaceful only

if

con

flict between allach

ment

to

mother

and

\·:ife

(and

am

bivalence toward

both)

is

resolved.

This

story

is

most illulllinating with

regard

to

the s u ~ j e c t s

chief

complaint of

marital problems. Obviously,

he is

as ambivalent toward his wife as

toward

his

mother and denies

both. His relationship to

the

latter

imerferes

with his relation

ship to

the former.

In his oedipal wishfulness,

the father is out of the

picture.

Probably as a punishment both for his oedipal wishes

and

also because

he

con

ceives

of

the mother as a somewhat phallic woman,

the

phallus gets stuck in his

throat.

Making this happen to his own chiM removes the full impact

from

himself.

The

story

of

the bone

is

not unlike the

apocryphal

story

of

the

origin

of

the

Adam's apple-the

forbidden

(sexual) fruit getting stuck (Bellak, 1942).

t

implies a breast-phallus equation.

The

Kleinian school would speak

of the bad

breast.

The

child

is

a secondary identification figure.

The

solution

of the

conflict

between

the

two women by the

bone

incident, and

the

solution by

the bread, are

somewhat of

the

nature

of

a deus ex

machina

solution.

Story 13MF

13MF:

This scene takes place

in

a small room

ofa

tenament house. Very poor people

.

young-students. The

betterment

of

the mind means

so

much to them. They have

starved

to go to

the university Sometimes working at nights

so

they can

afford

to go to school in the day. They have known each other since childhood, and as they

grew older, married and, having much

in

common, lived happily though precariously,



e

t

d

e

INTERPRETATION OF

THE

T.AT. 137

sometimes not having enough for food, most of the time dressed very poorly. This winter

was very cold he girl's coat was very thin

and

somehow she must have caught a

cold The boy,

her

young husband, finds her in bed shivering "What's the

matter?" he asks. "Guess I caught a bit

of

a chill," she answers. He feels her brow

and

she is

very hot

He

becomes alarmed

and

says, "I'll go get a doctor " 'I'll be all right, don't

bother."

He

sits

by her

side, and talks to her, to keep her company besides, he has

no money

for

a doctor After a while

he

notices that she hasn't said anything for quite some

time he shakes her, but she is unconscious he becomes frantic,

and

runs out to

find some doctor,

but

the doctor down the street is not in his oflice and

he

runs back to

the

room. The girl has pushed the covers partly

off

of her. in

her

fever, and

her

full rOllnd

breasts

are

exposed. . . he leans down to talk to

her.

. . he sees she is not breathing

So quickly life goes he doesn' t know how long he has been sitting

by the

slllall

bed he gets

up

and calls the police Heartbroken he is determined

To

hell with education Mone\'

is

what counts If we had had monev she wouldn't

have died " He leaves school goes into the world m a s s ~ s a fOl'lulle after a

time but, he has not peace

of

mind mont'\" can't buy that

Desoiptive theme lltrrpretillt'

theme

A

poor

starving girl

f

olle is poor,

one

dies because hus- has to let one's wife

band

cannot

afford

die.

a

doctor.

He

calls police.

Heartbroken, he

makes

much

money

without peace

of

mind.

calls

the

police,

makcs much money,

is

disturbed.

Clillica/lIutfJ

ialfllOstir ll'llel

Feels deprived

orally.

~ ~ r e s s i o l l

against wife.

Projection.

llnconsciolls guilt

feelings.

Need for acquisition

(money), for secu

rit\'. Guilt.

Again, the acquisitive needs. denied in

lhe

first story, come out here st rongl)', \'ery

often feelings of material deprivation stand for a feeling of e i n ~ <kpri\'ed of

love.

In

this story

reference to

starvation

dearly

refers to oral depri\'ation.

The unconscious guilt feelings over unconscious aggression .lre demoll

strated by his calling the police.

Story 17BM

17BM: The boy or young man on the rope is a gymnast akes great pride

in his

muscles and ability Today some girls came in to see

the

men working

out

and

this particular boy was doing everything to

appear

the hero and strong man in their eyes

not that he

cared

particularly to meet the girls t'sjust that he wanted them to see

that he

is

the best around. While he

is

doing all this showing off a small. thin chap with

glasses

and

a portfolio joins the girls, and they all

turn

eyes on the muscular voung

man. He smiles to himself and he takes a

running

leap at

the

hanging rope and h i n n i e s up

like

Tarzan, and

starts

doing

all sorts

of

difficult feats, one-arm planches. dislocations, and

so on, for

about

five minutes. and then he looks

at

the group that were watching him, and

sees that they ( the girls) are laughing

at

the little fellow, whQ is trying to lift a huge weight

. . . and

e i n ~

very funny about it. The muscular one comes down the rope, watching as

he descends. 'Why should they choose to look

and

laugh with the skinny. scholarly chap,

when I was being so sensational "



138

CHAPTER

4

escriptive

theme

A young man with great

pride in his muscles and

ability shows off to girls

to

impress

them

as

being

best.

At the same time a thin

scholarly fellow makes

them

laugh,

and

the

muscular one feels the

other

is stealing

the

show.

tllnpretive

Il/nne

I f one shows

off

with great pride

in one's body, it

is

narcissistic

more than het

e r o s e x u a .

The girls may

prefer a funny

scholarly chap.

Cli ica/,IOIt'J

iagllostic

In. el

Great body narcis

sism; exhibitionism.

Little heterosexual

interest.

Homosexual com

petitiveness. Great

stress on being

thought entertain

ing. Feeling

of

inad

equacy.

This story probably reflects a

double

identihcation, in that inquiry revealed that

the subject thinks of himself both as muscular and. on the other hand. as too little.

The other stories, too, show his

need

to be considered scholarly. His actual

appearance was that of a small. inoffensive man. whereas he was a professional

athlete.

This

theme

is also related to competition with a

brother

three years

older

and

has much to

do

with the patient's hOllJosexual competitiveness with

other

men

rather than genuine- heterosexual interest. This man sees people primarily

as

an

audience. His only object cathexis is an anaclitic one.

The

laughter which the

second identification figure arouses was one of the patient's llJost

important

conscious needs (getting

the

laughs).

-Story

8BM

18BM: His wife always said You can' t step on

p e ( ~ p l e s ' t o e s

and nol expect

to

get

hurt you rselfl And he would answer. I f lelling the truth f honeslv is slepping

on peoples' toes. then

damn

well am going

1

step on plenty of o e s ~ "

This afternoon during the lunch hour in the factory I( had a hlllHh of the

workers gathered

round

him and was explaining to them

he W;I\

Ihe economic

system worked. How they the workers were browbeaten how Ih l ' pcople with

money

made more

money

by

making them work like slavcs for

lillk

iliOn.

than

slave money. That

the worker

had no chance for security

in

his old age working

conditions weren't even good Look atlhe way they had accidents. he'tame he power

machines didn t have protection screens

around them

the had lighling. ( te

etc. One ofthe foremen overheard this and went to the boss' office

and

told what

he had heard.

That night, as

he

was walking down the

dark

street that led to his house a car

drove alongside, and some men jumped out something hit him

on

the head he

was dazed by the blow hen he was hustled into the

car

driven out to the country

and beaten up. It was

four

o'clock in the morning

by

the time he got

home

sick

and

sore

in his body

He

knew w h ~ ·

he

was beaten

up

The next day, although it was an effort for him10 go to work. . . he weill . . . his

face all

swollen.

. . his body sore

and

wracked with pain. . . . His fellows started asking

him questions and he said You all know me. have no enemies. think am well

liked , yet last night coming from work was set

upon

by some thugs .

thoroughly beaten and apparently left

for dead.

It

couldn t

have

be-en

thieves .

because they didn t try to take anything from me

and

they kept shouting as they were



t

e

el

LNTERPRETATION OF THE T A T

139

kicking

and

punching me This oughta teach you to keep your

mouth

shut you

lousy communist ' You see, it was for what

I

have been speaking to you about that

I

was

beat up

I

must of said some very true things for them to try

and

shut me up

"

The

workers asked "What are we going to do?" and he answered.

"What they have done to

ME

is not of great importance but WHY they have done it

is So, we must organize a union and force them to our demands "

The workers organized and started making small demands at first. . . until

they forced the bosses into making their shop clean safe

and bener

wages.

This showed the

way and

very soon the other shops followed and at least now. the

workers live like humans. . .

escriptive

theme

A

man

tells workers

they

are being

abused. even

though

his

wife says

this might

lead to

harm to

himsdL

Someone

informs

on him and he is se-

verely

beaten.

Thereupon he l ~ a d s

the men to

organize

a

ulllon.

/lltnprt lh. t ,he1lle

If one is verbally

aggressive

against authority

against

a

fe-

male s advice

one is

sen relv

harmed by

agents

of

the au

thoritv

. blll then leads

men t

sllccess-

ful

modified

coun

teraggress

IOn.

li /

i

II 1/oil S

iagnostic level

Need for verbal aggres

sion. Sees female figure

(mother?) as being

agalllst

aggression

against

authority.

Authority is seen as

de

priving (inviting

ag

gression-masochism ).

Severe guilt

feelings.

o c i a l l ~ ·

acceptable

ag

gression permissible

(..tfter

self-punishment).

The female figure is certainly unexpectedly introduced here.

The

exploiting

authority is probably an image of the parents. The

whole

t o r \ ~ shows

the

u ~ j < : c t s

problem with aggression. his turning it against himself. and his ability to express it

only in a modified

form

after he has been punished.

H. Cross-Cultural T.A.T. Literature

Since Murray s development

of the T.A.T., the consensus

of

working

clinicians

seems

to

have

been

that the cards and

the method of administration constitute

a

wonderful addition to clinical

practice. But

Murray s need-press interpretive

scheme is by no means adequate

to

deal with the

current

diagnostic classifications

in mental health or to be informative in the

ongoing

\,'ork of practical

treatment;

thematic appreciation test

Documents