Projective psychology. G

1. Subject and origins of projective psychology.

2. The theory of personality underlying projective psychology.

3. Assessment of projective psychology.

4. Classification of projective methods.

5. Assessing the capabilities of projective techniques.

6. Advantages and disadvantages of projective methods.

Projective psychology is a branch of psychological science that deals with the development of special methods for studying and diagnosing personality.

It arose as a protest against behaviorism. Its main goal was a holistic consideration of the individual. The behavior of an individual is considered dynamic, i.e. active and focused. Active, because the individual strives to develop a relationship with the world of mental and social reality; and purposeful, because an individual's behavior is directed towards achieving a goal.

Projective psychology examines the role of all psychological functions and processes operating in the context of the individual as a whole. The projective results of individuals are therefore considered as parts of a whole. This means that to assess and diagnose personality it is necessary to combine different methods, both projective and non-projective.

The origins of projective psychology are psychoanalysis and Gestalt psychology. Both of these theories contain provisions that are valuable for projective psychology.

1. Complete unanimity of the two theories regarding the structure and development of personality.

2. Affirmation of the integrity of the organism and the priority of the whole over parts in Gestalt psychology. Here the body is a self-regulating system.

3. Psychoanalysis postulates the relationship of psychological mechanisms and dynamisms functioning in the individual, as well as the connection of the individual with the sociocultural environment in which he lives.

4. Both theories use many models to explain and describe personality. The behavior of an individual is observed in a wide context of various situations, and these data are brought under a general theory.

5. Common to both theories is a belief in psychological determinism, as well as in the uniformity and integrity of the mental essence. Both theoretical directions argue that all psychological phenomena have a cause and meaning, as well as a practical function.

Thus, it is necessary to distinguish between projective psychology as a branch of psychology and projective techniques as a tool for studying personality.

The first techniques arose in the laboratories of experimental psychology, then clinicians adopted them and made a significant contribution to their development, so DOS since most of the techniques are more suitable for the clinic, and to apply them to healthy people you need to be careful with interpretation.

Basic to projective psychology is the concept of projection. For Z. Freud, projection is a defense mechanism, attributing one’s negative qualities to others. Subsequently, the term was modified and in projective psychology began to be considered as the transfer of one’s own needs and inclinations to stimulus material in an experimental situation. Moreover, this projection occurs when the material is ambiguous.

The following types of projection are distinguished.

1. The reverse - from “I love him” to “he hates me”, and not just “does not love”, because It's a threat to self-esteem.

2. Simple - “twisting” yourself against some person before talking to him, and then a negative perception of this person.

3. Sensitization – increased sensitivity to certain factors that have already occurred or, conversely, are now relevant. For example, a hungry person is more likely to notice food, or someone who is afraid of the boss’s anger sees the slightest signs of the approach of this anger.

4. Externalization - the subject explains some situation, maybe thinks out some details, and then, remembering, realizes that he was talking about himself.

Since the basis for the development of any diagnostic method is personality theory, one of the theorists of projective psychology, Abt, formulated a number of postulates regarding the essence of personality, which most projective psychologists rely on when interpreting data.

A. Personality is a system that functions in the individual as an organization between stimulus and response, which it seeks to connect together. The stimuli to which a person can learn to respond depend on the specific and individual needs and values ​​of that person. One of the functions of the individual is to select from among countless stimuli those that correspond to the satisfaction of needs. The selection of stimuli is based on the selectivity of attention.

B. The individual as an organization is dynamic and motivational in nature. Its ability to select and interpret stimuli, on the one hand, and to control and record reactions, on the other, determine its integrity and unity as a functioning system. The personality, as a dynamic organization located between stimulus and response, is responsible for the psychological homeostasis that occurs in behavior. Behavior is disrupted if the individual cannot correlate stimulus and response. A person is forced to use new and often inadequate reactions, but at the same time this is the basis for learning. I learned - integrity was preserved, but no - it was violated, neurosis arose.

B. Personality is a configuration consisting of many psychological functions and processes. Personality formation follows the laws of Gestalt psychology.

D. Personal growth and development are based on both differentiation and integration.

D. A person’s growth and development is largely influenced by environmental factors. Cultural factors are of paramount importance among environmental factors.

Projective psychology as a science continues to develop in the West. There are the following significant directions in the development of the conceptual framework of projective psychology.

1) Personality is increasingly viewed as a process, which means that the data of projective methods are situational. To avoid this, it is necessary to create a personality theory that takes this process into account.

2) Personality, studied by projective methods, is considered a process that is constantly influenced by the individual's interactions with his own physical and social environments, on the one hand, and the state and strength of his needs, on the other. Thus, the influence of culture and the connection of the individual with culture are again emphasized, which means that it is necessary to develop methods that take into account this influence and this connection.

3) There is an increasing tendency to rely on field theory, which takes into account the influence of all variables currently acting on a person.

4) There is a noticeable tendency towards the approval of two classes of judgments about personality: dynamic and genetic.

5) There is growing interest in creating a picture of the “person as a whole”, i.e. personality is not reduced to the Big Five or anything else, but is the totality of everything that is in a person.

6) The tendency to construct a conceptual framework against which adequate formulations of different personalities can be made for clinical purposes.

7) The desire to create a theory of personality that explains, on the basis of today's data, a person's past and predicts his future.

The advantages of projective techniques are:

Projective methods strive for a holistic description of personality;

They provide a lot of room for thought for the psychologist himself, who can interpret the results based on his scientific views and experience.

However, they have many more disadvantages:

a) they are not amenable to reliability and validity procedures;

b) require a lot of experience from a psychologist working with these techniques;

c) these methods were originally aimed at people with mental illness, so the interpretations are replete with clinical terms. When working outside the clinic, these interpretations turn out to be false;

d) many techniques are based on psychoanalysis, and this is not a universal theory;

e) there is great subjectivity in interpretation, i.e. influence of personality, views of the psychologist;

f) the interpretation of most methods is also influenced by the sociocultural context in which the method was created. Many of them were created more than 50 years ago, and during this time norms, traditions, and style of relationships have changed. Sometimes the subject does not understand the stimulus material, because I have never encountered such a situation. Finally, there are cross-cultural differences, e.g. People in different countries have different problems.

Thus, the projective test is a very sophisticated and at the same time very difficult technique to operate, requiring careful familiarization and perfect mastery of its techniques. The use of methods of this type in practice should be very careful, justified and supported by other, more reliable and reliable procedures.

Security questions

The main distinctive feature of projective techniques is the unstructured task for the subject, allowing for an unlimited variety of possible answers. In order for the subject’s imagination to run wild, only brief, general instructions are given. The main hypothesis of the creators of projective techniques is that test materials serve as a kind of screen onto which respondents project their characteristic thought processes, needs, anxieties and conflicts.

In typical cases, projective tools are disguised techniques, because the subject is rarely aware of the type of psychological interpretation that will be given to his answers. These methods are further characterized by a global approach to personality assessment, because do not measure individual traits. And finally, adherents of these techniques consider them effective for identifying hidden, latent or unconscious aspects of personality. Moreover, it is argued that the less structured the test, the more sensitive it is to hidden material, because will not cause defensive reactions.

The first classification of projective techniques was proposed in the West by Frank. This classification is based on taking into account various aspects of projective experience.

Frank identified the following categories.

1. Constructive. Techniques included in this category are characterized by a situation in which the subject is required to create some kind of structure from unstructured material. This is modeling from plasticine, finger painting, unfinished drawing. In essence, this includes the Rorschach test, but Frank believed that it depended on how many images the subject was willing to see in the spots. If there are 1-2, the technique does not belong to this group, if there are many, it does.

2. Constructive. When the task is clearly defined, what needs to be drawn, sculpted, constructed. For example, “Drawing of a person”, “Drawing of a family”.

3. Interpretive - here the subject attributes his own meaning to the stimulus situation. For example, TAT, word association tests.

4. Cathartic - the emphasis shifts from process to result, for example, gaming techniques.

5. Refractive or expressive, for example, graphology.

Proshansky did not agree with Frank’s classification and proposed his own. He noted that projective techniques are predominantly visual in nature, because involve verbal interpretation of visual material. Visual techniques are divided according to the nature of detail of their stimulus material. They can be arranged on a straight line from well-structured (TAT) to amorphous (lines, spots). A separate category consists of techniques based on verbal stimulation (“Sentence Completion”). Thus, this classification can be depicted as follows:

Visual (with varying degrees of detail);

Verbal.

Proshansky made the second version of his classification based on the presented stimuli. Then the following types of techniques were obtained:

Verbal;

Visual;

Specific;

Kinesthetic;

Other modalities.

Following those considered, a classification appeared based on the required answers:

a) impressive – the subject’s report about his experience, about his impressions, mainly in the form of unambiguous answers;

b) expressive - a person does what he wants (sculpts, draws, puts together a mosaic);

c) associative - a person identifies himself with a picture, situation (Ronzweig test);

d) techniques in which the subject is required to express something, select, rank stimuli (Luscher’s technique);

e) techniques that can be placed on the line “creativity” - reproduction.”

And finally, the most common classification based on the purpose of diagnosis:

1) techniques for describing personality (Rosenzweig);

2) personality diagnostic techniques (Rorschach, TAT);

3) techniques for personality therapy (games).

When projective techniques were created, they, as often happens, were perceived as universal. But then scientists wanted to find out the limits of projective methods. The development of projective methods is based on three principles:

1) they consist of standard sets of stimulus material, with the help of which it is easy to determine and compare typical features of thinking, speech and perception. Thanks to standardization, nuances of behavior that are easily missed in a less defined situation become easily noticeable;

2) they allow you to collect information that cannot be obtained in any other way. Faced with ambiguous material, the subject chooses his own form of self-expression and expresses himself through this;

3) psychological determinism, which claims that there is nothing random in a person’s reactions and words.

As a result, projective methods reveal how an individual solves new problems and learns new experiences, reveals the structural aspects of the subject’s language and speech, which is very informative, according to Western psychologists; they study the subjects’ fantasies, attitudes, aspirations, and concerns. Comparison of testing results using projective techniques and clinical examinations and diagnostics using other techniques showed their correlation, i.e. diagnostic validity.

Korner and his colleagues tried to find out whether projective tests are suitable for predicting actual behavior. They studied the relationship between the manifestations of hostile fantasies in play situations and the actual hostile behavior of children. The children showed hostility in the game, but not in real life. Other researchers obtained similar results. And when using other techniques, it often turned out that when people speak on behalf of characters or do something, they do not necessarily act that way in real life.

Thus, projective tests do not predict behavior.

Attempts to use projective tests to determine professional aptitude have failed. It was then stated that prediction is not the goal of projective techniques. But the question remains. Why do projective tests have no predictive validity? The theorists of projective psychology themselves believe that this is not due to shortcomings of the methods, but due to the lack of development of personality psychology. After all, a psychologist makes assumptions about an individual’s behavior based on his own theoretical views, and there is still no 100% theory of personality. To create it, it is necessary to solve two problems: to find all the countless circumstances that influence the process of adaptation of an individual, and their interaction; and reveal the secrets of Ego-synthesis, i.e. Ego formation. At the same time, they are unlikely to not realize that this is still impossible, and psychoanalysis is interested in Ego-synthesis, and besides it, there are other areas of psychology in which other problems can be posed.

But since the individual's behavior does not correspond to his fantasies or pathology, what good are these techniques? But the authors believe that the methods reveal hidden pathology, which can become actualized in unfavorable circumstances (without indicating which ones). True, all these studies relate to Rorschach and TAT tests. At the same time, these techniques cannot be denied; you just need to change your attitude towards them.

Another way to increase predictive validity is proposed by Lazarus. He believes that one should not present only vague stimuli. They are suitable in situations where some needs are so strong and expressed that they are reflected verbally and appear in fantasies. But in situations where needs are so hidden from perception that they lead to avoidance and distortion, the least ambiguous incentives are needed. Here it is necessary to present emotionally rich material and observe the subject. Such a study was carried out using the “Sentence Completion” technique, which included indefinite and definite sentences. The first type is “He really wanted...”, the second type is “He hated...”. Some subjects in the second case clearly indicated whom they hated, others constructed complex sentences, for example, “he hated getting caught in the rain if he didn’t have an umbrella.” Lazarus believes that in the latter case there is a desire to hide aggression, i.e. defense mechanism.

Thus, the stimuli can be both highly structured and highly uncertain in nature, but in this way more information about the subjects can be collected. When presented with vague stimulus material, cases of significant needs and fantasies can easily be detected. If, when unambiguous stimuli are presented, responses corresponding to them are rare, repression or another protective mechanism takes place.

The most objective assessment of projective techniques is given by A. Anastasi.

1. Projective techniques differ markedly from each other both in content and in level of study.

2. Most techniques are effective in establishing rapport during the first contacts between clinician and client. Their tasks are interesting, fun, distracting, and stress-relieving.

3. Projective techniques allow for simulation to a lesser extent than questionnaires, because their purpose is usually disguised, and their interpretation is so varied that even a subject familiar with them cannot say with certainty how they will be used. In addition, the subject is immersed in the task and has less opportunity to think about the degree of falsification. At the same time, there is data that proves this possibility.

4. Projective techniques are not sufficiently standardized. The slightest change in instructions changes the results. The tester’s manner and his perception by the test taker also changes the results.

5. The disadvantage is the lack of objectivity in the procedures for calculating and interpreting indicators. The final interpretation of the responses of a projective test may speak more about the theoretical orientation, favorite hypotheses and personal characteristics of the tester than about the driving forces of the personality of the test taker. It is sometimes said that these tests are projective for the tester.

6. There are no normative data in projective methods. The only norm is the experience of the tester. If this is the experience of a clinician, then it is also limited to a certain contingent - patients. He transfers these data to healthy people. There are no group, educational, status, or gender norms. All people are divided into sick and healthy, and these groups are not homogeneous.

7. There is no data on the reliability of the methods. Internal consistency coefficients are very low. Test-retest reliability cannot be proven. When repeated, subjects often simply remember previous answers.

8. The vast majority of published work on the validation of projective techniques does not allow us to draw clear conclusions, either due to poor controllability of experimental conditions, or due to inadequate statistical analysis, or both. There are several reasons for the apparent validity:

a) “contamination” of criterion or test data - occurs when test data and information received in a conversation suddenly coincide, but this is not objective data, and therefore not objective validity. They are trying to introduce “blind” control, i.e. assessment of the results by an outside psychologist who does not know the person being interviewed, but these are isolated studies, not mass ones;

b) lack of cross-validation - validity was obtained in some groups, but in others it was not confirmed, i.e. validity is contingent;

c) the correctness of the stereotype - some data apply to most people, regardless of whether they are normal or borderline, or what age. Correlating them with some criterion, they get validity, but there is none;

d) “illusory validation” - people’s susceptibility to everyday stereotypes. Studies have shown that, for example, many people associate eyes in drawings with fears, depictions of gender with sexual problems, and these stereotypes are practically impossible to retrain. And because Everyone has them, which results in validity. People remain true to their priors even when faced with contradictory observations.

9. The basic projective hypothesis that an individual’s responses reflect significant and relatively stable personality traits is not always confirmed.

10. Many projective techniques are not tests in the strict scientific sense, because do not meet the test requirements, so they are often called "technicians".

11.Projective techniques are, rather, clinical tools that are an additional qualitative means of interviewing clients and patients. But they work in the hands of an experienced clinician. And since these are qualitative methods, it is simply impossible to evaluate them quantitatively.

12. The nature of the data obtained through the same projective technique may vary from one respondent to another, i.e. Using the same technique, one tendency can be identified in one person and not the others, while another can be identified in another. For example, with help. TAT can reveal aggressiveness in one person, and creativity in another, because not all scales always appear.

13. There is no single correct way to apply and interpret projective techniques.

The development of projective methods continues. All approaches can be divided into three groups.

I. Various word-associative techniques, techniques for unfinished sentences, techniques for inventing stories.

II. Attempts to create auditory projective techniques containing conversations, noises and music. For example, there was an attempt to create an auditory TAT, where pictures were described to a person; a technique where musical excerpts of different styles were accompanied by the instruction: “I want you to tell me a story that would fit this music.” Bean developed a test of Sound Apperception, where subjects need to recognize real sounds (a dog howling, a canary singing) slowed down 8 times. These techniques, especially auditory TAT, are useful for working with the blind. There are attempts to create a tactile (kinesthetic) Rorschach test.

III. Projective techniques aimed at simplifying material by minimizing specific, narrow cultural elements. For example, a hand test, which must be used only with other methods, because in itself it is uninformative. Use stick figures as projective stimuli. With the help of these tests, they try to diagnose needs, criminal tendencies, level of adaptation, and sometimes leadership qualities. But again, few people care about the standardization and validation of these methods. This also includes techniques that depict not a clear drawing, but contours, silhouettes, considering which you need to come up with a story; “Free drawing”, when a person draws what he wants, or on a general topic, and comments on the process.

In general, there are many “primitive” techniques, many of them interesting, but, unfortunately, all of them have practically not passed statistical testing. But projective psychology is developing, and there is a tendency to combine different techniques, attempts to harmonize interpretations, although the Rorschach and TAT tests are usually taken as the basis with which everything is compared.

Security questions

1. General characteristics of projective psychology as a branch of psychological science.

2. Assessment of projective psychology.

3. Various approaches to the classification of projective methods.

4. Validation of projective techniques.

5. The main disadvantages of projective techniques and prospects for the development of projective psychology.

The contents of consciousness and subconscious are one way or another a reflection of the external world. It is the reaction to external stimuli that triggers mental processes. However, the interaction of the brain with the reality lying beyond it is not limited to this. Our thoughts, feelings, desires, impulses are projected outward, reflected in our behavior, products of activity, and attitude towards people.

This phenomenon of projection has become the basis of the projective approach in psychodiagnostics and many different methods and tests that allow us to study the psychological characteristics and states of the individual.

Imagine that you come to a psychologist, and instead of forms with questions, he gives you a blank sheet of paper and invites you to draw some fantastic animal or just a tree. You are perplexed and confused - why does a psychologist need this, and besides, you don’t know how to draw. Or, let’s say, you are asked to tell what you see in the pictures, but in your opinion, there is nothing there except abstract multi-colored spots. These are examples of projective techniques that seem at least strange to inexperienced visitors to a psychologist’s office.

We are surrounded by a diverse and dynamic world, and we perceive it through the prism of desires, drives, emotions, etc. Some people see fluffy bunnies in the clouds floating across the sky, some see bloodthirsty monsters, and some just a cluster of water drops of a certain type. density. By the way, the dependence of the surrounding world on the internal state of a person is called apperception, and it is also studied by psychology. But we are interested not so much in the phenomenon of apperception as in a person’s ability to associative thinking.

Associations are connections that spontaneously arise in a person’s brain between new information and what is stored in his memory. Often a sound, the chaos of sunspots on a wall, the face of a stranger flashing in the crowd draws association images from our memory. They are closely related to a person's previous experiences. And since everyone’s experience is different, the associations are also different. And for a psychologist, these spontaneously arising images and thoughts are important because they carry information about the mental state of a person, about old, almost forgotten mental states.

The first projective techniques, developed by one of Freud's students, C. Jung, were based on the study of people's associations when they looked at different pictures. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, tests appeared that used cards with abstract multi-colored or monochrome spots. They turned out to be so effective that the Rorschich inkblot test, which appeared in the 20s of the 20th century, is still considered one of the most popular and sought-after projective techniques.

General characteristics of projective techniques

Initially, the concept of “projection” in psychology was introduced by S. Freud and was used to designate one of the types. A person, protecting himself from the destructive power of his own asocial desires and unseemly, forbidden thoughts, transfers them (projects them) onto other people.

In psychodiagnostics, the concept of projection is considered more broadly - as a person’s ability to reflect his inner world (experience, desires, emotions, etc.) in his behavior, views on the environment and products of activity.

Projective techniques differ from other psychodiagnostic tests in a number of features:

• they allow you to study and give a detailed description of the whole, and not of its individual qualities and properties;
• these techniques are based on associative thinking and human experience;
• in the process of completing the task, the subject is given complete freedom to choose an answer;
• techniques are often associated with the subject solving creative problems;
• These are unformalized methods, so they do not provide accurate assessments of personality traits, for example, in points; the psychologist interprets the results obtained based on his knowledge and experience.

Therefore, a number of psychologists refuse these methods, the results of which seem too vague. And at the same time, this feature of projective tests attracts not very experienced psychodiagnosticians to them due to their apparent simplicity. Unfortunately, often when interpreting the data obtained, these “sub-psychologists” turn out to be far from the truth. Without mastery of technology, experience and a sufficient amount of high-quality knowledge, they harm their client and cause skepticism about the possibility of using these techniques as a diagnosis of a person’s mental states.

But in fact, projective techniques are very informative; their validity (the ability to assess the characteristics of the human psyche) has been tested over many years of research. And so, since the beginning of the 20th century, many different tests have been developed that use the principle of projection.

Classification of projective techniques

There have been many attempts to at least somehow classify various projective diagnostic techniques. The problem is not only in the number of tests, but also in their diversity: from analysis of performance results to the M. Luscher color test. Among the numerous classifications, the one compiled by L. Frankl can be considered the most understandable. It includes 8 types of techniques:

1. Expressive, based on the manifestation of emotions in activity (expression). This type includes drawing techniques, when a person makes an image on a given topic, for example, the “Non-existent animal” test.
2. Impressive techniques involve selecting an object from stimulus material (cards or pictures of different content). The nature of the choice indicates a particular mental state. An example is M. Luscher's color personality test, based on choosing a color from several proposed ones.
3. Constitutive techniques in which subjects are asked to assign meaning to abstract images. For example, the Rorschach blot test.
4. Interpretative - a variety of tests based on the fact that the test taker interprets (explains) certain situations depicted in the pictures.
5. Constructive - these are original construction sets, sets of parts and figures, from which subjects create meaningful scenes, and then talk about them. Most often, this type of technique is used when working with children.
6. Cathartic, designed to induce a state of catharsis in the person being diagnosed, which allows one to reveal his internal mental characteristics. The uniqueness of these methods also lies in the fact that the person himself, going through the psychodiagnostic procedure, begins to realize his problems and ways to overcome them. An example is the psychodrama method.
7. Refractive. An assessment of the characteristics and condition of an individual is made by a psychologist on the basis of involuntary slips of the tongue, typos, writing errors or incorrectly constructed speech structures. For example, their essays are often used to analyze the psychological problems of adolescents.
8. Addictive techniques. Addiction is a person’s dependence on some activity or type of behavior. The most famous are smoking, drug addiction, alcoholism. This concept includes simple habits (for example, biting the lower lip) and obsessive needs. Almost all people have manifestations of addictive behavior, and they can tell a psychologist a lot about us.

Such a variety of methods provides psychologists with a large choice and almost unlimited possibilities for studying human personality. True, projective methods also have their pitfalls, and the main one is the complexity of interpretation and the inevitable subjectivity of conclusions.

Examples of projective methods

Rorschach technique (Ink Blot Test)

This technique was created by the Swiss psychiatrist G. Rorschach in 1921 and is currently generally recognized as the most popular projective test. It consists of 10 cards with spots similar to those that are obtained if ink is dropped onto a sheet of paper and then folded so that the spot is imprinted symmetrically. Hence the other name for this technique.

The person undergoing the examination is asked to look at these spots and say what they look like. Compared, for example, with questionnaire tests with a hundred questions, this seems simple to the point of banality. But in order to interpret the result, a psychologist will have to work hard and use all his knowledge and experience. After all, not only the answer itself is taken into account, but also the position in which the person being diagnosed held the sheet, what details he paid attention to, etc.

In accordance with the classic Rorschach technique, each answer, even a monosyllabic one, is assessed by a psychologist according to 5 criteria:

1. Popularity or originality - how often do subjects have a similar interpretation of the picture. So, if 9 out of 10 diagnosed people associate a spot with a butterfly, and one with a skull, then his answer is clearly original.
2. Content. This criterion is associated with the category to which the object seen in the spot belongs: people, animals, birds, plants, fantastic creatures, etc.
3. Localization. Determination of the area that the subject looked at on the card - the entire spot or some of its details.
4. Determinants. What plays a key role in choosing an object of similarity - shape, color or all together.
5. The shape level is an assessment of the degree of similarity of the spot to the object named by the subject.

Having identified these criteria, the psychologist moves on to the most difficult part - interpreting the results. It is based on a deep knowledge of the human psyche and the connection of responses with processes occurring in the inner world.

Sondi test

The material with which the subject works consists of 6 series of photographs, 8 portraits each. The portraits show faces of people suffering from various mental illnesses (sadism, hysteria, schizophrenia, depression, etc.). The client is invited to choose the two most and least attractive images in each series.

L. Szondi and his supporters believe that if the person being diagnosed has chosen 4 or more portraits with the same disease, then he has a tendency to this mental disorder. It doesn’t matter whether the choice is positive or negative.

Russian psychologist O. N. Kuznetsov, based on the Szondi test, created a technique that allows one to determine the tendency of people to a certain type.

Drawing test “Non-existent animal”

This test is often administered to teenagers and high school students, and despite its comparative simplicity, it is very informative. The subject is given a standard sheet of A4 paper, a pencil, and asked to draw some non-existent (fantastic) animal. You just need to not take cartoon or fairy tale characters as a model, but come up with your own image. When the drawing is completed, the subject must name the animal and give it a name.

When interpreting a drawing, literally everything is taken into account - from the location on the sheet and the nature of the lines, to the smallest details (hair, feathers, tails, spines, scales, etc.).

For example, the nature of the lines indicates the emotional state of the subject and his energy level. Bold lines with strong pressure are evidence of an energetic nature, often with an increased level of excitement. And when a person is angry, his pencil even tears the paper. Weak, broken lines speak of weakness of will, and trembling lines speak of timidity and.

The size of the head in relation to the body is an indicator of the degree of rationality. The larger the head of the drawn animal, the greater the role that reasonable regulation of its behavior plays in a person’s life. Small head - a person lives not with his mind, but with his bodily desires and drives, does not like to think about actions and engage in planning.

Legs are a support, and if the drawn creature has weak legs or does not have them at all, fluttering with wings, then the author of this creature is far from pragmatism, down-to-earthness and likes to soar in his dreams.

In a similar way, every detail of the drawing is comprehended and interpreted, including its name. Agree, the people who gave their creations the names “Crokozyablik” and “Bloodzor” are clearly different from each other in character.

Despite the apparent frivolity, this projective technique has been tested many times and its effectiveness has been confirmed. Moreover, the interpretation process is strictly regulated by detailed instructions for the test, and is not done “out of the blue,” as the psychologist wants.

Projective techniques are capable of measuring various aspects of a personality: emotional, intellectual, volitional, etc. It is this type of psychodiagnostic tools that makes it possible to identify hidden people, those problems that even a person does not admit to himself. After all, unlike questionnaires, in projective methods a person cannot cheat and try to deceive the psychologist.

Projective psychology

Its main provisions are:

1 ) the integrity of the personality as a single “organism”, the interconnectedness of its individual functions, their determination by the “personal context”;

2 ) the unity of the individual and the social environment, their inseparability and constant interaction;

3 ) the subject of projective research is not the objective relations of the individual and the environment, but the subjective conceptualization of these relations by the individual:

4 ) personality is a self-regulating system, the purpose of which is to organize subjective experience according to adaptive tasks;

5 ) personality is a unique system of cognitive processes, needs, traits and methods of adaptation that form its individual style.

Dictionary of a practical psychologist. - M.: AST, Harvest. S. Yu. Golovin. 1998.

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Books

• Projective psychology,. This is a unique manual in which an attempt is made to combine the most interesting information on projective psychological techniques. It provides not only a summary of famous and...

Projective methods occupy an important place in modern psychodiagnostics. Various projective techniques (Rorschach inkblot test, thematic apperception test (TAT), Sachs-Levy unfinished sentence technique, various drawing tests, etc.) are widely used by psychologists both in scientific research and for solving problems in psychological practice. Their most heuristic application is in the field of psychodiagnostics of personal characteristics. However, as already mentioned, projective methods and techniques are in demand not only in personality psychology, they have proven themselves well in socio-psychological, political, sociological, and marketing research and are used to study deep patterns of people’s attitudes towards certain social objects, their ideas about various areas of reality, features of social attitudes and many others. etc. It should be noted that in such studies only a number of methodological techniques characteristic of the projective approach are used. The “projective hypothesis,” which in psychodiagnostics presupposes the ability to “read” a person’s personal characteristics in a person’s speech and visual production, in social research is transformed into a hypothesis about the projection of emotional patterns of attitude towards certain social objects into metaphorical stories, collages, drawings; the personal component of projection is “bracketed” here. The formation and development of projective methods is associated with a number of theoretical directions, each of which has influenced the understanding of the projective process and the interpretation of data. In fact, a special area of ​​psychological research has emerged that goes beyond the scope of psychodiagnostics and has general psychological significance - projective psychology(Burlachuk, 1997; Sokolova, 1980; Projective psychology, 2000). Currently, it represents a very specific approach, based on a whole series of methodological assumptions (the theoretical justification of the projective method will be discussed below).

E. T. Sokolova (1980) defines projective techniques as a special technique for clinical and experimental research of those personality traits that are least accessible to direct observation or questioning. According to L.F. Burlachuk (1997), projective techniques are techniques for indirectly studying personality by creating a specific plastic (weakly structured) stimulus situation that actualizes tendencies, attitudes, attitudes and other personal characteristics in perception.

Currently, it is customary to talk about several distinctive features of projective techniques:

• 1) the use of weakly structured stimulus material that creates a situation of uncertainty;
• 2) neutral, indirect orientation of tasks in relation to the individual;
• 3) a special friendly-neutral attitude of the psychologist towards the subject;
• 4) study not of individual mental functions (as in traditional psychometric procedures), but of a kind of “modus of personality in its relations with the social environment” (E. T. Sokolova).

As a rule, projective techniques involve working with qualitative data, although in some cases standardized psychometric indicators are also used. In the process of collecting data, the psychologist gives the subject fairly general instructions, inviting him to make this or that drawing, complete sentences, compose a story based on the picture, etc. In the case of a drawing, after its completion, it is proposed to answer a number of questions about the meaning of what is depicted. All data is carefully recorded, the psychologist observes the reaction, bodily manifestations, and the very progress of the task. The interpretation process in projective research is characterized by the fact that the psychologist’s attention is directed not to individual indicators, but to their combination (for example, in drawings, what matters is not the presence, absence or severity of any indicator, but how it is related to other indicators; exactly Also, in TAT stories, what is important for interpretation is not a single detail, but how it fits into the general semantic field). As a rule, normative scales are not assumed in projective methods; great importance is attached to the overall impression of the entire work. The psychologist’s conclusions are the result of a movement from a general “grasping” of the semantic tone of drawings, stories, etc. to an analysis of the combination of a number of indicators described in manuals for methods, and then again to a general vision, adjusted through the analysis of indicators.

As you can see, interpretation in projective techniques is often intuitive. The ambiguity of interpretation of indicators and a large degree of freedom of interpretation have always been the subject of criticism expressed by supporters of a strict psychometric approach. There have been attempts to standardize projective techniques. Based on methodological techniques aimed at “broad” psychodiagnostics of personality, more “narrow” tools for diagnosing individual mental qualities and functions were proposed. An example is the X. Heckhousen test for assessing achievement motivation, which is a special modification of the thematic apperception test (TAT) (Sobchik, 2003). Such standardized versions of projective test methods are popular, but it cannot be said that they have replaced classical projective methods, which are distinguished by their breadth of personality coverage. Standardization certainly improves the reliability of data and conclusions, but it also robs data of its richness. Acting in any situation (including in a research situation using a more or less standardized projective technique), a person brings into it a subjective attitude, interpretations, attitudes, and motives. It follows that “the traditional requirement of objectivity in relation to diagnostic techniques loses its meaning... why formally unify the stimulus material and the situation of implementation, if they still have different meanings for different subjects? On the contrary, subjects should be given the opportunity to explicate their inherent cognitive structures, thinking styles, response patterns, as well as motives, evaluations, etc. - everything that really participates in the interaction of the individual with the situation” (Leontyev, 2000, p. 43). Perhaps the call for the use of projective techniques in a freer style, as was customary before standardization, is a kind of backward movement and goes against the more powerful tendency towards objectification of the method throughout the 20th century. However, such a movement allows us to re-think the possibilities of psychological work that were lost during the general desire for standardization. In the context of the challenges facing a modern psychologist, it is necessary to preserve and develop different styles of data collection and analysis, to combine both a strict psychometric approach, using average normative indicators and guaranteeing the accuracy of the results, and a qualitative clinical one, aimed at an in-depth study of unique personal qualities.

A psychological matrix of actions performed, in the structure of which common personality traits are indirectly revealed, including those deeply hidden in the unconscious, every behavioral act of a person, every movement, every thought is a reflection of his personality. By working with personality manifestations through active activity, you can not only obtain valuable clinical material, but also indirectly change a person’s behavioral patterns, which, using therapeutic language, doom the client to a feeling of “suffering.” In fact, all psychotherapy works with the client’s mental reality indirectly, through its phenomenological manifestations aimed at a specific object. One way or another, personality is so firmly integrated into activity that the reality of each person's interaction is unique and inseparable from behavior.

So, we come to the conclusion: all psychology is projective, because each object is perceived not in its pure form, but through mental mediation. After all, there is always a projection, even when psychology timidly hides itself in standardized and validated methods, meticulously collecting anamnesis with familiar tools and guaranteeing that the conclusions drawn, for example, by the MMPI are indisputable. Of course, each method must be reliable. A psychologist must know current theories, methods of influence, tested in different conditions - both in the system of projective methods and in psychological work, in principle. But all this does not exclude flexibility, and flexibility implies active subjectivity combined with experience and wisdom.

In any case, in order to understand what Projective Psychology is, you must first decide: what is projection?

For clarity, I will take the four most relevant definitions of projection (Latin projectio - throwing forward):

• Projection in geometry: image of a three-dimensional figure on the so-called picture (projection) plane in a way that represents a geometric idealization of optical mechanisms. In psychological reflection, the phrase takes the form: this is a modeling of the image of a person (as a figure) on an alternative plane;
• In Gestalt psychology projection is the process of involuntary attribution of the subjective processes of one person to others;
• In psychoanalysis- a defense mechanism, which consists in unconsciously attributing to another properties, qualities, motives, thoughts and feelings that are unacceptable to oneself (this is precisely the difference - in Z. Freud these motives are already unacceptable, repressed). At the same time, we note that Freud also drew attention to the fact that projection can be not only a defense mechanism.

In the book “Totem and Taboo” he wrote: “However, projection is not created specifically for the purpose of protection; it also takes part in conflict-free existence. The projection of internal perceptions outward is a primitive mechanism that, for example, also affects our perception of sensory experience, and therefore, as a rule, takes a very active part in the formation of our external world. Under still insufficiently defined circumstances, even internal perceptions of mental and emotional processes are projected outward, like perceptions of sensations...” and further: “What we, like primitive people, project into external reality can hardly be anything other than recognition a state in which a given phenomenon takes place for the senses and consciousness, next to which there is another state where it is hidden, but can appear again, that is, the coexistence of perception and memory, or, to generalize, the existence of an unconscious mental process next to the conscious one.” This Freudian thought, not further refined or systematically expressed elsewhere, contains everything necessary for a coherent theory of projection and general perception.

In psychodiagnostics (L. Frank) - the process and result of the subject’s interaction with objectively neutral unstructured material, during which identification and projection itself are carried out, that is, the endowment of one’s own thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

In the school of projective psychology, we combine the first and last definitions, as well as the little-known definition of S. Freud, approaching the above-described vision of projection by D. Rapoport, that is:

Projection- any manifestation of the mental reality of an individual in his activity, and projective psychology, accordingly, is a direction for working with a client in the context of interaction with the images he creates that have the largest number of indirect indirect connections with his personality.

The term itself is most widely used in the context of projective psychological tests. However, in modern articles, books, as well as in practical psychology and psychotherapy, one can see that this term is used somewhat more widely.

In our practice, we turn to such areas as psychodrama, metaphorical associative maps, fairy tale therapy, sand therapy.

What might all these trends have in common? All of them are in one way or another focused on working with structures or motivators hidden from consciousness. The degree of orientation towards the unconscious part of the personality is different, different methods, language, tools, but one way or another there is an initial attitude that there are many hidden, uncontrollable layers in a person, and you can find ways and language to address these structures and even make changes at this level .

If we turn to the history of psychology, the first who drew the attention of the world community to the existence of the unconscious was Sigmund Freud. Thus, each of the schools listed above originates from Freud’s theory of the unconscious.

Let's briefly talk about Freud's concept of the unconscious. Speaking about the topographic model, it must be said that Freud identified several stages of the psyche, depending on how accessible they are to human awareness.

Freud's concept of personality is most conveniently viewed in the form of a stepped topographical model. The lower level is the unconscious, material inaccessible to awareness, and at the same time the foundation of the entire psyche, the true aspirations and motives of a person. The middle level is the preconscious, the material that can be translated into consciousness. And the highest level is consciousness, a structure that provides a person with contact with the outside world.

Freud later expanded his understanding of the structure of the psyche, clarifying the functional tasks of individual components. Here we are talking about the well-known construction of Id - Ego - Superego, where Id is the basic needs of the individual (libidinal and aggressive), Superego is a reflection of external norms, prohibitions and dogmas, and Ego is a structure that ensures a person’s ability to redirect his initial urges in such a way as to be adequate to the outside world.

If we combine the two structures proposed by Freud, we get the following diagram:

Figure 1. The unconscious according to S. Freud

Thus, only part of the psyche related to the structure of the Ego and part of the structure of the Superego fall into the sphere of consciousness. Most of the processes of these structures belong to the “preconscious” area. The id completely falls into the inaccessible unconscious, informing about itself through changes in processes in the ego.

S. Freud considered his main scientific goal to be the study of the possibilities of bringing unconscious tendencies into consciousness, since, in his opinion, this is precisely the only therapeutic possibility of harmonizing the personality.

At the moment, some therapeutic schools have abandoned the task of conducting therapy precisely through bringing into consciousness all possible motives. The work is carried out at the level of the preconscious and even the unconscious.

S. Freud's student and opponent, C. G. Jung (1916) supplemented the understanding of the unconscious with the term “collective unconscious” and the doctrine of archetypes. The collective unconscious is understood as the repository of all the main knowledge of humanity, which is inherited by a person regardless of his individual characteristics. The key figures of the collective unconscious are archetypes; structures that embody the leading universal ideas, needs, and roles common to all.

Figure 2. The unconscious according to K.G. Jung

The process of therapy according to Jung is to release the signals of the suppressed unconscious to some extent, and to equalize the balance between consciousness and the unconscious. Accordingly, according to Jung, releasing the unconscious is therapeutic in itself. This goes closer to the ideas on which art therapy and some other projective methods of psychology are based.

A detailed model of the unconscious was proposed by Roberto Assagioli in 1958. Assagioli tried to bring together the heterogeneous, at first glance, even contradictory manifestations of the unconscious.

The proposed scheme identifies the following areas.

1. Lower unconscious. It includes: - elementary mental activity that controls the life of the body; - basic instincts and primitive aspirations; - a large number of various emotionally charged complexes; - dreams and fantasies of a lower nature; - various pathological manifestations, such as phobias, obsessions, compulsive desires, paranoid hallucinations.

2. Middle unconscious. It is formed by elements of the psyche that resemble the elements of the awakening consciousness and are easily accessible to it. In this inner region, a variety of experiences are collected, and here ordinary mental and imaginary actions are nurtured and matured before they finally take shape and appear in the light of consciousness.

3. Higher unconscious, or superconscious. This is the area from which we receive insights and inspirations of the highest nature - artistic, philosophical, scientific. This is where the “demands” of morality come to us; here the need to perform humane and heroic actions is born. This is the source of such higher feelings as altruistic love, the source of spirituality, states of enlightenment, insight and spiritual ecstasy. Here, in a hidden form, higher mental functions and spiritual energy lurk.

4. Area of ​​consciousness. This term refers to that part of our personality that we are directly aware of. This includes a continuous flow of sensations, images, thoughts, feelings, desires and impulses that are available to our observation, analysis and evaluation.

5. Conscious “I”. “I” is the stable center of our personality. "I", the point of pure self-awareness.

6. Higher Self. The “Higher Self,” located somewhere beyond or above our “I.” It is a kind of divine prototype of our personality and helps to maintain the stability of the conscious “I”, as if there were a model with which the personality is correlated.

7. Collective unconscious. The process of “psychological exchange” constantly occurs both between individuals and in the broader psychological environment, which generally corresponds to what C. Jung called the “collective unconscious.”

This theory is not the most popular model in the discussion of experts about the unconscious, but it resolves many contradictions in the understanding of the unconscious and unconscious in different schools. In addition, it allows us to navigate the material that we receive in the process of working with projective technologies.

Figure 3. The unconscious according to R. Assogioli

Based on R. Assogioli’s model of personality, we can highlight the areas of action of different psychological methods.

Figure 4. Mental levels and correction methods

The next necessary “stop” on the way to discussing the conceptual field of projective psychology will be a conversation on the topic of projective methods of psychodiagnostics.

One of the first projective tests that has not lost its practical value is still the “Rorschach Blot” test.

The test was developed by Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach (1921). Rorschach discovered that those subjects who see a regular symmetrical figure in a shapeless ink blot usually have a good understanding of the real situation and are capable of self-criticism and self-control. So the specificity of perception indicates the personality characteristics of a given individual.

Studying self-control, generally understood as mastery over emotions, Rorschach used ink blots of different colors (red, pastel shades) and varying degrees of gray and black to introduce factors that have an emotional impact. The interaction of intellectual control and emerging emotion determines what the subject sees in the inkblot. Rorschach discovered that individuals whose different emotional states were known from clinical observation did indeed respond differently to colors and shades. It turned out that ink blots can reveal deeply hidden desires or fears underlying long-term, unresolved personal conflicts. Significant information about the needs of the individual, about what makes a person happy or sad, what excites him, and what he is forced to suppress and translate into the form of subconscious fantasies, can be extracted from the content or “plot” of associations caused by inkblots.

The test was further developed both in theory and in practice. The validity, adequacy and effectiveness of the Rorschach test have not yet been definitively established. However, it helps the psychologist and psychiatrist to obtain important data for the diagnosis of personality and its disorders, which can be clinically tested.

Projective techniques and the approach, in general, are characterized by the creation of an experimental situation that allows for a multiplicity of possible interpretations as it is perceived by the subjects. The most significant feature of projective techniques is the use of vague stimuli, which the subject must himself supplement, interpret, develop, etc. Thus, subjects are asked to interpret the content of plot pictures, complete unfinished sentences, interpret vague outlines, etc.

Let us briefly introduce the general classification of projective methods.

Methods of Projective Psychology

Methods can be structured using the Frank-Noss classification. OK. Frank introduced the term itself - the projective method and created their first classification, I.N. Noss is a Doctor of Psychology, Associate Professor, specializing in the study of problems of professional and acmeological diagnostics. He supplemented and, in our opinion, significantly improved the original classification.

Many of the techniques mentioned below are used in the School of Projective Psychology as diagnostic and therapeutic tools. We can read more about the experience of using these methods in the School group: http://vk.com/proektpsy.

So, projective methods can be structured as follows.

• Constitutive. The client works with unstructured materials, creating a certain form from it, giving it a certain meaning. Accordingly (Wartegg test, Rorschach test, finger drawing test)

• Constructive. Creating an image according to instructions. Typically, constructive methods refer to free drawing tests. (Tree test, House-Tree-Man test, Non-existent Animal test)

• Interpretive. Interpretive methods are based on attributing one's own meaning to stimulus situations. (TAT, test of unfinished sentences, word associations, hand test)

• Semantic. Identification of emotional reactions to various stimuli as a reflection of mental state (Kelly Repertory Grids, Nonverbal Semantic Differential)

• Refractive. The test battery got its name from G. Allport. It contains descriptive methods for diagnosing a person based on signs present in his everyday life (graphology, the study of behavior, clothing, interaction with people).

There are very few handwriting researchers in Russia now. All modern Russian books provide only some methods of analysis in this direction. At the same time, in Germany, for example, or in the USA, the price for handwriting analysis is quite high (up to 1,500 euros!) In Israel, there is an entire institute of graphoanalysis, and this area is now actively developing. In St. Petersburg, our School of Projective Psychology provides classes in graphology and consultations with a graphologist with a qualitative analysis of handwriting (the specialist studied graphology in Germany and already has extensive experience in this area).

Cathartic methods are most widely represented in the School of Projective Psychology.

Cathartic methods are a set of projective methods that are used not as tests, but as a way of working with the ego image through an act of activity. As we have already indicated above, in our School we pay the greatest attention to such areas as sand therapy, psychodrama, fairy tale therapy, and metaphorical cards. Let us describe these methods in more detail.

1. The Rorschach test is conceptually the progenitor of such a therapeutic method as working with metaphorical associative cards (MAC). MACs harken back to abstract inkblots; they then underwent a series of transformations into drawings and photographs, which were first used as a diagnostic tool in psychology, later as a tool in projective therapy, and as stimuli for the creation of metaphorical stories. At the moment, MAC is already dozens of decks of cards, mostly pictures with realistic or abstract content, some decks use word cards. In symbolic form they depict a variety of situations, objects and environments, both traumatic and resource content.

Cards are stimulus material that helps the client, together with the therapist, gain access to different layers of the client's experiences with minimal resistance. The client chooses and works with those cards that evoke the greatest response in him. With their help, you can “pull to the surface” unconscious aspects of the self-concept, update both recent and deeper experiences and traumas, enable the client to come up with a positive outcome for a problem situation, work with both therapeutic and correctional, and even coaching requests.

The next therapeutic method studied at our School is fairy tale therapy. The fairytale therapist creates conditions in which the client, working with a fairy tale (reading, inventing, acting out, continuing), finds solutions to his life difficulties and problems. Simultaneously with this leading task, with the help of a fairy tale, a system of rules and norms can be identified or formed, since by listening and perceiving fairy tales, a person integrates them into his life scenario and values.

Fairytale therapy is a wonderful development tool. In the process of listening, inventing and discussing fairy tales, the child develops the imagination and creativity necessary for effective existence. He learns the basic mechanisms of search and decision-making. These same mechanisms also work in adults, which is why many trainers and coaches use fairy tales in their work to help clients find a more effective way to solve life problems.

The fairytale therapist touches on several levels in his work. On the one hand, in a fairy tale, the client shows his archetypes and social attitudes, they are clearly displayed and can have a key influence on the plot, on the other hand, the fairy tale touches on early childhood experiences and in the plot one can trace the genesis of the client’s personality, thirdly, the client fills the fairy tale with his own current content. And then the fairytale therapist decides which layer to pay attention to during the session, depending on what will be most useful to the client now.

Let's move on to talking about sand therapy. Classic sand therapy uses a wooden tray, sand, water and a collection of miniature figurines. The collection includes all possible objects that can only be found in the surrounding world. The figures used are real and mythological, created by man and nature, attractive and terrible. The use of natural materials allows you to feel a connection with nature, and hand-made miniatures allow you to accept what already exists.

This process differs from other forms of art therapy by the possibility of inventing new forms and the short-term existence of the created images. The possibility of destroying the sand composition, its reconstruction, as well as the repeated creation of new subjects, gives the work a certain kind of ritual. The creation of successive sand compositions reflects the cyclical nature of mental life, the dynamics of mental changes. Due to the fact that the client uses ready-made figures, it is easier for him to overcome embarrassment and doubt about his creative capabilities at the beginning. Miniature figures, natural materials, and the ability to create three-dimensional compositions give the image additional properties, reflect different levels of mental content, and help establish access to preverbal levels of the psyche. When working in psychotherapy on disorders originating from early childhood, when the child could not yet speak, the visual image is very important.

The modern development of sand therapy also suggests abandoning the sandbox and figurines in favor of innovative “living sand”. The therapy emphasizes bodily interaction with sand and immerses the client in the level of the earliest childhood experiences that relate to the deepest levels of the unconscious.

Psychodrama stands somewhat apart from other areas we study. This method does not use any special stimulus material, and conceptually has a broader ideological basis.

Psychodrama is a method of psychotherapy and psychological counseling created by Jacob Moreno. Classical psychodrama is a therapeutic group process that uses the tool of dramatic improvisation to explore a person's inner world. This is done to develop a person’s creative potential and expand the possibilities of adequate behavior and interaction with people.

Psychodrama is the world's first method of group psychotherapy (in fact, the term “group psychotherapy” itself was introduced into psychology by Moreno). Moreno proceeded from the fact that since any person is a social being, a group can solve his problems more effectively than one person.

Moreno developed his ideas in polemics with Freud; he did not like the passive role of the patient and the fact that the psychotherapeutic process took place “one on one.” At his school he introduced two new directions into psychotherapy. Allowed the client to be active and act in the therapy process, and offered him the group space as most similar to real life and therefore an effective context for therapy.

The meaning of the psychodramatic session is as follows. The “protagonist” is a client of a group action, with the help of group members he dramatically plays out a situation that worries him. First, the protagonist chooses from among the group members the one who will play himself in those cases when he himself will be in a different role. Then, participants are selected to play the roles of characters important to his life situation (these can be either real people or his fantasies, thoughts and feelings). Forms of enactment range from literal reenactments of real events to staging of symbolic scenes that never took place in reality. The action stage ends when the contract made with the protagonist is fulfilled, that is, a solution to the problem situation is found or the protagonist feels that he has received enough information about the situation.

What does this technique have in common with other areas? Mainly, it is an appeal to the client’s creative potential and the use of unconscious internal dominants. The client, becoming the protagonist, surrenders to the will of his unconscious, as well as the total unconscious of the group, which can also be a reduced model of the collective unconscious. No matter how controlled and understandable his actions may be for him, the abundance of uncontrollable factors when used in the production of other people makes this work projective, and the number of projections is significantly higher than when working with stimulus material.

This article can be summarized in the words of Carl Gustav Jung: “Fantasy is the mother of all possibilities, where, like all opposites, the inner and outer worlds come together.” All of the methods listed above use fantasy as the leading structure of personality. With the help of fantasy and creativity, earlier, possibly traumatic experiences are brought into the field of therapy. With the help of imagination and creativity, a person replenishes himself with new emotions, creates new associative connections, generates new resources and constructs prospects. Whatever technological solution we choose, the main “accomplice” of both the therapist and the client will be creativity.

Working with creative tasks and manipulating with multi-valued flexible stimulus material returns to childhood and contributes to the activation of the “child archetype”, lifting suppressed childhood experiences from the bottom. And in this aspect, the therapist receives the broadest freedom to build a therapeutic path, using all the wealth of both theoretical and practical psychology.

Stepanova Ekaterina– psychologist, psychology teacher, coach, specialist in psychodrama, sand therapy, fairy tale therapy, working with metaphorical associative cards, head of the School of Projective Psychology. Master class by the author of the article - in the program