Assessing and Understanding Psychosis

In this presentation, Dr. Ridenour will describe how to assess psychosis using self-report measures, the TAT, and Rorschach. He will outline how to conceptualize the various aspects of psychosis from a psychodynamic and phenomenological perspective, including struggles with language, reality testing, thought organization, and self-other boundaries. Special attention will be given to how to assess psychosis on the Rorschach and how to think about the implications of these problems in daily life. Dr. Ridenour will also describe how to look for subtle manifestations of thought disorganization on the TAT and the ways psychosis is evident through both quantitative measures such as the SCORS-G and through qualitative analyses of TAT narratives. Finally, he will present a complex case with an individual who was experiencing an emergent schizophrenia spectrum disorder and how to integrate data from referral sources, behavioral observations, and multimethod assessment data. He will also describe the complexity of sharing feedback with people who are experiencing psychosis and how to help both family members and individuals emotionally process and face the challenging reality of psychosis.