Abstract

The development of early projective techniques was strongly influenced by the psychoanalytic movement. According to Rabin (1986), clinical psychologists, pre-1930, had few assessment tools (e.g., the Stanford-Binet, and some personality inventories of limited range). Essentially, the clinicians of this era mainly used quantitative indices, IQ tests, percentiles on introversion or dominance scales, and similar pieces of nomothetic information. Rabin suggested the introduction of projective techniques gave clinicians the opportunity to communicate something meaningful to professional colleagues about the personality structure, dynamics, and diagnoses of clients. Results from projective techniques also contributed to the planning of therapeutic processes. According to Rabin, the clinical tradition provided a setting for the development of projective techniques, and today projective techniques remain favored instruments of many clinical psychologists, and common methods of assessing personality.