ABSTRACT
The Rorschach Inkblot Method (RIM) is a relatively unstructured, performance-based personality assessment instrument. When properly administered and interpreted, the RIM provides dependable information about how people attend to and perceive their surroundings, how they form concepts and ideas, how they experience and express affect, how they manage stress, and how they view themselves and other people. Rorschach findings can thereby facilitate decision making whenever conclusions and recommendations concerning people are based at least in part on these personality characteristics. The contexts in which personality-based decisions are made include differential diagnosis, treatment planning, and outcome evaluation in clinical work and criminal, personal injury, and child custody determinations in forensic settings. The present chapter elaborates these clinical and forensic applications of Rorschach assessment, preceded by an introductory review of Rorschach procedures, the development of the instrument, and research findings bearing on its psychometric properties.
