The Exner Rorschach: an analysis of its clinical validity

Data from Exner's 1985 and 1989 normative samples on nonpatient adults and comparison samples of patients with schizophrenia, depression, and character problems were reanalyzed using a standard of clinical significance appropriate for N = 1. The 1989 norms, which exclude Rorschach protocols with less than 14 responses, alter not only the number of significant variables, but also alter the ability of most variables that relate to form quality to differentiate among the patient comparison groups. The Exner Rorschach is judged to be a valid test for schizophrenia, but to have demonstrated little differential utility for depression and character disorders. It is recommended that the scoring of nonsignificant variables be abandoned.