ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the Rorschach assessment of psychotic phenomena in children and adolescents is necessary yet daunting task. It is necessary both because children and adolescents suffer from early-onset psychoses with disordered thinking and because the Rorschach plays an important role in the assessment of this population. The chapter explains the importance and relevance of good diagnostic work, assessing thought disorder and other psychotic phenomena in youth presents a number of challenges. The TDI has also been used to study adolescent-onset schizophrenia and major depression with psychotic features. Studies using the CS to explore psychotic phenomena and disordered thinking in children have been quite limited. Normal developmental processes may muddy the waters when assessing psychotic phenomena in children. Without considering the role of cognitive and language development, one might confuse developmental immaturity with psychopathology. In addition to frequency of comorbidity, a broad range of childhood problems may either masquerade as psychoses or, conversely, mask the presence of underlying psychotic phenomena.
