The Clinical and Projective Use of the Bender-Gestalt Test

In the thirty-five years during which the author has used the Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt Test in his clinical practice, he has consistently been impressed by its effectiveness in providing a range of important information about test subjects and by its convenience as a diagnostic tool. The test is extremely easy to administer, it takes a relatively short amount of time to complete, and it may be used alone or it can be included with any test battery. More importantly, it not only has been used as a measure of perceptual-motor development and competence, but as a convenient and helpful means of assessing personality dynamics and functioning. In this book, the author describes a method to increase the scope of the test subject's performance so that both verbal and nonverbal behaviors may be observed, along with demonstrating an approach to generate clinically useful hypotheses on what the observed behaviors may signify. The components presented are: (1) the psychodynamic perspective; (2) the multi-phase administration; (3) the process of clinical interpretation; (4) symbolism and the Bender-Gestalt designs; (5) interpreting the verbal associations; (6) projective assessment; and (7) applications in counseling and psychotherapy. Additional data regarding the Free-Association and Selective-Association phases is included. The method being advocated in this book has been taught by the author to numerous psychologists-in-training as well as to many professionals with very gratifying results. It is because of the successful application of this particular projective approach by those who employ it that the decision was made to present the rationale and method in book form.