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“This is a good introduction to the R-PAS, a new interpretive system for the Rorschach Inkblot Test, with good psychometric properties. It contains clinical examples and protocols, which are extremely helpful. The R-PAS is a good addition to a neuropsychological protocol for both children and adults. *****!”

—Doody's Review Service


“An impressive body of research supports the use of R-PAS, one of the most important instruments available to personality assessors. Edited by leading lights in the field, this much-needed volume brings together well-established personality assessment experts to provide rich examples of R-PAS interpretation. There is something for everyone, including chapters on clinical, forensic, school, neuropsychological, pre-employment, and medical assessment contexts.”

—Christopher J. Hopwood, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis


“This book will meet the needs of clinicians just beginning to explore R-PAS as well as more advanced users who have longed for in-depth case studies. The opening chapters clearly explain the philosophy and empirical basis of R-PAS. The clients chosen for the case illustrations come from a wide variety of settings and have very different presenting problems, but all are fascinating. A number of the cases utilize collaborative/therapeutic assessment, illustrating how R-PAS data can be turned into helpful feedback for clients and referring professionals.”

—Stephen E. Finn, PhD, Founder, Center for Therapeutic Assessment, Austin, Texas


“An excellent resource for both novice and experienced assessment psychologists, this volume brilliantly illustrates the use of R-PAS. The international contributors—all experts in different assessment domains—set a high standard for thorough case analysis. It is of particular relevance that a good proportion of the cases concern adolescents and young adults; this is the age period when symptoms of mental disorder often first appear and differential diagnosis is highly challenging. The value of performance-based assessment using R-PAS for answering complex diagnostic questions is lucidly demonstrated throughout this book.”

—Corine de Ruiter, PhD, Professor of Forensic Psychology, Maastricht University, the Netherlands


“A valuable resource for practitioners and researchers alike, this remarkable book should be on every clinician’s shelf. The volume illustrates how R-PAS data can be used to understand patients’ underlying dynamics and expressed behaviors and to enhance clinical and forensic decision making. Authorities in the field cover diverse assessment challenges, from domestic violence and suicidality to pre-employment screening and child custody evaluation. Skillfully blending empirical evidence with clinical wisdom, the chapters make R-PAS data come alive.”

—Robert F. Bornstein, PhD, Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, Adelphi University

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Table of Contents

I. The Basics of R-PAS and Its Interpretation

1. Introduction to R-PAS, Joni L. Mihura & Gregory J. Meyer

2. Principles of R-PAS Interpretation, Joni L. Mihura & Gregory J. Meyer

3. Using R-PAS Norms with an Emphasis on Children and Adolescents, Gregory J. Meyer & Philip Erdberg

II. Using R-PAS in Clinical Settings

4. The Broken Zombie: Using R-PAS in the Assessment of a Bullied Adolescent with Borderline Personality Features, Jan H. Kamphuis, Hilde De Saeger, & Joni L. Mihura

5. When Wolves Fall from the Sky: Using R-PAS in the Early Detection of Psychosis in an Adolescent, James H. Kleiger & Ali Khadivi

6. An Inpatient R-PAS Case with a Recent Suicide Attempt, Ali Khadivi

7. Understanding a Therapeutic Impasse: Using R-PAS in a Multimethod Assessment of Alliance Dynamics and Underlying Developmental Disruption, Anthony Bram

8. Using R-PAS in the Therapeutic Assessment of a University Student with Emotional Disconnection, Francesca Fantini & Justin D. Smith

9. How Individual R-PAS Protocols Illuminate Couples’ Relationships: The Role of a Performance-Based Test in Therapeutic Assessment with Couples, Filippo Aschieri, Alessandra Chinaglia, & Andrea B. Kiss

III. Using R-PAS in Forensic Evaluations

10. Using R-PAS in a Criminal Responsibility Evaluation to Assess Insanity, Marvin W. Acklin

11. Using R-PAS in Violence Risk Assessment, Saara Kaakinen, Emiliano Muzio, & Hannu Säävälä

12. Using R-PAS in the Assessment of Possible Psychosis and Trauma Intrusions in a Psychopathic Female, Peder Chr. B. Nørbech, Ellen J. Hartmann, & James H. Kleiger

13. Using R-PAS in Family Law Cases, S. Margaret Lee

14. Using R-PAS in the Assessment of Psychological Variables in Domestic Violence, Nancy Kaser-Boyd & Reneau Kennedy

IV. Using R-PAS in Pre-Employment, Neuropsychological, and Educational Evaluations

15. Using R-PAS in the Pre-Employment Evaluation of a Candidate for a Roman Catholic Seminary, Philip Keddy

16. Using R-PAS in a Neuropsychological Evaluation of a High-Functioning Adult Patient with Depression, Anxiety, and a Relational Trauma History, Nicolae Dumitrascu

17. Using R-PAS in the Neuropsychological Assessment of an 8-Year-Old Boy, Jessica Lipkind & Jack Fahy

18. Being in Pain: Using R-PAS to Understand the (Non-)Dialogue of Body and Mind, Ety Berant

19. Using R-PAS in the Evaluation of an Emotional Disturbance in the School Context, Tammy L. Hughes, Kate Piselli, & Cassandra Berbary

Index

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About the Editors

Joni L. Mihura, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at the University of Toledo, where she teaches personality assessment, advanced assessment, and psychodynamic/integrative psychotherapy. She received early career awards from the American Psychoanalytic Association and the Society for Personality Assessment (SPA), as well as the Walter G. Klopfer Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Literature from SPA, and is a Fellow and past board member of SPA. Dr. Mihura serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Personality Assessment and Rorschachiana, has published many articles and chapters on psychological assessment, and is coeditor of the Handbook of Gender and Sexuality in Psychological Assessment. She is a codeveloper of R-PAS (www.r-pas.org) and presents invited lectures and trainings internationally.

Gregory J. Meyer, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at the University of Toledo. His research focuses on psychological assessment, with an emphasis on the integration of assessment methods. He is a four-time recipient of the Walter G. Klopfer Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Literature from the Society for Personality Assessment (SPA). Dr. Meyer also received the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Assessment Psychology from Section IX (Assessment Psychology) of the Society of Clinical Psychology, Division 12 of the American Psychological Association (APA), and is a Fellow of Division 5 (Quantitative and Qualitative Methods) of APA, as well as of SPA. With more than 75 peer-reviewed publications, he is a past editor of the Journal of Personality Assessment. He is a codeveloper of R-PAS (www.r-pas.org) and presents invited lectures and trainings internationally.

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Contributors

Marvin W. Acklin, PhD, ABAP, ABPP, Department of Psychiatry, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii



Filippo Aschieri, PhD, European Center for Therapeutic Assessment, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy



Ety Berant, PhD, Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology, Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, Israel



Cassandra Berbary, PhD, College of Health Sciences and Technology, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York



Anthony Bram, PhD, ABAP, Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Newton Centre, Massachusetts; Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and private practice, Lexington, Massachusetts



Alessandra Chinaglia, MS, Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy



Hilde De Saeger, MA, De Viersprong, Halsteren, The Netherlands



Nicolae Dumitrascu, PhD, Danielsen Institute at Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts



Philip Erdberg, PhD, ABPP, Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, Greenbrae, California, and private practice, Corte Madera, California



Jack Fahy, PhD, Masonic Center for Youth and Families, San Francisco, California



Francesca Fantini, PhD, European Center for Therapeutic Assessment and EDUCatt (Ente per il Diritto allo studio dell’Università Cattolica), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy



Ellen J. Hartmann, CandPsychol, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway



Tammy L. Hughes, PhD, Department of Counseling, Psychology, and Special Education, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania



Saara Kaakinen, MA, Department of Psychiatry, Unit of Forensic Psychiatry, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland



Jan H. Kamphuis, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands



Nancy Kaser-Boyd, PhD, ABAP, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Los Angeles, California



Philip Keddy, PhD, private practice, Oakland, California, and Wright Institute, Berkeley, California



Reneau Kennedy, EdD, Clinical and Forensic Psychology, Honolulu, Hawaii



Ali Khadivi, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center, and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York



Andrea B. Kiss, MS, Department of Psychology, University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio



James H. Kleiger, PsyD, ABPP, ABAP, private practice, Bethesda, Maryland



S. Margaret Lee, PhD, private practice, Mill Valley, California



Jessica Lipkind, PsyD, WestCoast Children’s Clinic, and private practice, Oakland, California



Gregory J. Meyer, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio



Joni L. Mihura, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio



Emiliano Muzio, PhD, private practice, Helsinki, Finland



Peder Chr. B. Nørbech, MS, CandPsychol, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway



Kate Piselli, PhD, Department of Counseling, Psychology, and Special Education, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania



Hannu Säävälä, MD, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, Unit of Forensic Psychiatry, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland



Justin D. Smith, PhD, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois

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Audience

Clinical and forensic psychologists, neuropsychologists, and other evaluators in clinical, forensic, and educational settings.

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Course Use

May serve as a supplemental text in graduate-level courses.