Use of the Adult Attachment Projective Picture System (AAP) in the Middle of a Long-Term Psychotherapy

Abstract

This article relates how the Adult Attachment Projective Picture System (AAP) was used as a midtherapy intervention with a middle-aged man being treated for relationship difficulties. The man, who was identified via the AAP as having a dismissing attachment status, had difficulties committing to psychotherapy, presumably because he was terrified of experiencing the underlying depression and grief revealed on his Rorschach and AAP. Reading an AAP-based description of his attachment status helped the man become aware of his characteristic defenses against painful affect, and gave him the motivation to stay in therapy while experiencing and getting support for his unresolved mourning. This work led to the man's experiencing less ambivalence about intimate relationships. There are several important ways that the AAP augments a traditional personality assessment battery and is useful in conducting a long-term psychotherapy.

Acknowledgments

An earlier version of this article was presented March 9, 2007, at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality Assessment, Arlington, VA, as part of a symposium, “Clinical Applications of the Adult Attachment Projective (AAP),” Stephen E. Finn and Carol George, Co-Chairs.