Projective Techniques in the Counseling Process - DID and Early Recollections

Written by Arthur J. Clark

Early Recollections

Requesting a client to provide several early memories lends relation- ship-building continuity to the human figure drawings, as most people respond positively to recalling at least three memories from their early childhood. Individuals often are intrigued and challenged by the counselor's request

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(Watkins, 1985), and the procedure promotes a nonthreatening, empathic relationship (Allers, White, Hornbuckle, 1990). Although there are variations on directions for the early recollections, simplicity and clarity are important features: "I would like you to think back to a long time ago, when you were little. Try to recall one of your earliest memories, one of the first things that you can remember." The memory should be visualized, described as a specific single event, and have occurred before the person was 8 years of age (Mosak, 1958).

No definitive volume exists for interpreting early recollections; an edited edition (O!son, 1979) covers a variety of topics, and a more current publication (Brahn, 1990) relates to clinical practice. Various attempts have been made to develop a scoring system for early memories, but none have been widely accepted (Bruhn, 1985; Lungs, Rothenberg, Fishman, Reiser, 1960; Last Bruhn, 1983; Levy, 1965; Manaster Perryman, 1974; Mayman, 1968). A recently published manual, The Early Memories Procedure (Bruhn, 1989), includes a comprehensive scoring system. The high number of potential variables, possible scoring categories, and differences in theoretical orientations has resulted in methodological difficulties in developing coding procedures (Bruhn Schiffman, 1982a). Specific findings for early recollections are of particular interest to counselors for lifestyle (Ansbacher Ansbacher, 1956; Kopp Dinkmeyer, 1975; Sweeney, 1990), self-disclosure and interpersonal style (Barrett, 1983), locus of control (Bruhn Schiffman, 1982b), depression (Acklin, Sauer, Alexander, Dugoni, 1989; Allers, White, Hornbuckle, 1990), suicide (Monahun, 1983), delinquency (Davidow Bruhn, 1990), and career counseling (Holmes Watson, 1965; Manaster Perryman, 1974; McKelvie, 1979).

Certain psychological variables are discernible in early recollections that serve to generate hypotheses about the dynamics of an individual' s personality (Clark, 1994; Sweeney, 1990; Watkins, 1985). For example, in a series of memories, the activity or passivity of a client suggests how the person responds to life experiences. A client who passively accepts unfavorable circumstances, in memories, rather than acts to improve conditions, likely responds in the same way to actual life situations. The psychological variables are expressed as questions about a person's .functioning in memories, as adapted from Sweeney (1990):

Active or passive?

Giving or taking?

Participant or observer?

Alone or with others?

Inferior or superior in relationship to others?

Existence or absence of significant others?

Themes, details, and colors?

Feeling tone attached to the event and outcome?

The psychological variables may be applied to clarify goals and plans for counseling. A hypothesis, for example, about a client's qualitative involvement in counseling may be derived from a combination of the psychological variables of active/passive, participant/observer, and inferior/superior in relationship to others. Further clarification may be added by considering a client's self-disclosure and interpersonal style (Barrett, 1983), and locus of control (Bruhn Schiffman, 1982b). Goals in counseling for understanding the client may be linked to the lifestyle (Kopp Dinkmeyer, 1975) based on the uniqueness and idiosyncratic quality of the early memories (Adler, 1931/1980).

Sentence Completion

Incomplete sentences provide a concrete task for a person and an opportunity for the counselor to observe the client in a writing effort. Interaction between the client and the counselor occur once again with this projective method, and individuals respond with varying degrees of interest. Koppitz (1982) viewed the incomplete sentence technique as a useful "icebreaker" with reluctant and unspontaneous adolescents. Directions for completing sentences usually require the client to "complete each sentence by giving your real feelings." The sentence stems include a variety of personally referenced topics, such as, "I like . . ., ""People are . . ., "and, "My father.... "

The Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank (Rotter Rafferty, 1950) is the most well known of the interpretive systems for the sentence completion, with forms for high school, college, and adult populations. The Forer Structured Sentence Completion Test (Forer, 1957) is also published in a manual format with a structured scoring procedure. Hart (1986) has developed a sentence completion test for children. The content of the sentence stems, number of stems provided, and scoring procedure vary with each of the systems. A review of the sentence completion methods in personality assessment (Gold-berg, 1965) and more current research findings (Rabin Zltogorski, 1985) are available. Specific issues of interest to counselors have been examined for scholastic achievement (Kimball, 1952), attitudes towards peers and parents (Harris Tseng, 1957), classroom social behavior (Feldhusen, Thurston, Benning, 1965), careers (Dole, 1958), egocentricity (Exner, 1973), safety and esteem (Wilson Aronoff, 1973), self-actualization (McKinney, 1967), and defense mechanisms (Clark, 1991).

Sentence completion devices may also be constructed by counselors and tailored to the needs of various populations (Hood Johnson, 1990). As an example, a school counselor in a middle school could develop a device that focuses on topics specifically related to early adolescence. Hypotheses may be derived directly from responses of the sentence stems. An obvious example is a student who has conflicts with learning and school and responds to the sentence stems: "I like . . . to get in trouble." "Teachers are . . . a pain." "School . . . is for losers." Appendix A lists the sentence stems used by the author in counseling children and adolescents.

Goals and plans for counseling are also directly related to the content of responses to the sentence completion technique, and specific issues introduced by the client often produce productive leads for exploration in counseling. Goals are suggested by patterns of responses in which the client indicates clear needs. A person in late adulthood, for instance, depicts strongly manifested isolation and abandonment issues with the following sentence stems: "I feel . . . very lonely." "What bothers me . . . is the constant time by myself." "I am afraid . . . of dying alone." The pattern and number of client issues may also be clarified, which assists in judging the estimated length of counseling and predictions about continuation (Hiler, 1959).