Does the Thematic Apperception Test work? That is, does it provide accurate diagnostic information about the patient's psychological state? I have no idea. I'm not in that business (i.e. headshrinking) nor am I in therapy. What the psychiatric/psychological field considers good therapy is beyond me.
But I do like the idea of the person under analysis engaged in a kind of storytelling process, being creative in the process of figuring the insides of their own heads. And many of the images are hauntingly beautiful, or at least hauntingly weird.
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I hadn't heard of the Thematic Apperception Test until now but the theory makes sense. While the patient being treated needs to talk and may even want to but can't this is a method whereby the person can tell a personal story about a singular image. It provides insight into aspects of character helpful to both people.
The other pictographic method of treatment I thought of was the Rorschach Test - made notable in a number of movies, but apparently very helpful to a number of patients. The blots, which were carefully designed, could also be described as beautiful.
Speaking of patients, no not me, but the other very famous psychoanalysist, Carl Jung, was very much into creative visualizing. He used neither Thematic Apperception method or Rorschach ink blots but encouraged his patients to draw their own images. Jung himself created his marvelous 'Red Book' - as a way of recording his psychological observations.
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