ABSTRACT
Psychological research findings and developmental theories outline the grave consequences of childhood stress and trauma (Barahal, Waterman, & Martin, 1981; Emery 1982; Long, Slater, Forehand, & Falber, 1988; Rutter, 1983; Wallerstein, 1991). Only recently have we begun to study the ways in which children survive and even thrive in the most inhospitable of environments (Garmezy, 1974, 1983; Murphy & Moriarty, 1976; Rutter, 1979a, 1979b). This work has stimulated a gradual shift in some child research from vulnerability and pathology to coping and resiliency. Nonetheless, psychological resiliency, particularly at the individual level, is poorly understood. In addition, research has not focused on the ways in which resilient responses in children are manifested on the Rorschach. For example, we are just beginning to learn that a well-adapted child, undergoing a stressor but effecting a resilient response, may produce contradictory and confusing data, which may induce us to overdiagnose psychopathology (Viglione, 1990).
