From achievement to power: David C. McClelland, McBer & Company, and the business of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), 1962-1985.

During the 1960s, Harvard psychologist David McClelland focused his research and business endeavors on increasing the need for achievement in small businesspeople, with the goal of fostering economic success in the developing world. However, by the early 1970s, McClelland would focus almost entirely on developing executives' need for power in the United States. In this paper, I argue that underlying this shift was McClelland's dedication to the project of behavioral engineering and a newfound belief that training individuals in the responsible exercise of leadership and managerial power had become the most effective path to achieving his liberal political aims.

Dredging and projecting the depths of personality: the thematic apperception test and the narratives of the unconscious.

ARGUMENT: The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) was a projective psychological test created by Harvard psychologist Henry A. Murray and his lover Christina Morgan in the 1930s. The test entered the nascent intelligence service of the United States (the OSS) during the Second World War due to its celebrated reputation for revealing the deepest aspects of an individual's unconscious. It subsequently spread as a scientifically objective research tool capable not only of dredging the unconscious depths, but also of determining the best candidate for a management position, the psychological complexes of human nature, and the unique characteristics of a culture. Two suppositions underlie the utility of the test. One is the power of narrative. The test entails a calculated abuse of the subjects tested, based on their inability to interpret their own narrative. The form of the test requires that a subject fail to decipher the coded, unconscious meaning their narrative reveals. Murray believed the interpretation of a subject's narrative and the projection contained therein depended exclusively on the psychologist. This view of interpretation stems from the seemingly more reasonable belief of nineteenth-century Romantic thinkers that a literary text serves as a proxy for an author's deepest self. The TAT also supposes that there is something beyond consciousness closely resembling a psychoanalytic unconscious, which also has clear precedents in nineteenth-century German thought. Murray's views on literary interpretation, his view of psychology as well as the continuing prevalence of the TAT, signals a nineteenth-century concept of self that insists "on relations of depth and surface, inner and outer life" (Galison 2007, 277). It is clear the hermeneutic practice of Freud's psychoanalysis, amplified in Jung, drew on literary conceptions of the unconscious wider than those of nineteenth-century psychology.

Reflexões sobre o uso clínico do TAT na contemporaneidade / Reflection about the clinical use of TAT in contemporaneity

A elaboração de testes psicológicos ocorre em contextos socioculturais específicos e, portanto, não estão isentos de sua influência. Considerando as mudanças sociais que ocorreram desde a data de publicação do Teste de Apercepção Temática - TAT, é plausível indagar sobre as condições desse instrumento de apreender a subjetividade do indivíduo nos tempos atuais. Diante destas reflexões, este estudo buscou evidenciar a influência do contexto sócio-histórico-cultural e artístico na definição dos cartões do TAT, e refletir sobre sua utilização na realidade contemporânea. Nossas ponderações, sustentadas pela experiência clínica, sugerem que essas influências aparecem nas histórias contadas pelos sujeitos que referem-se aos cartões como imagens que dizem respeito ao passado, com conotações particulares. Diante disso, recomenda-se um uso crítico e cauteloso do TAT, no que diz respeito à análise das histórias produzidas, especialmente nas interpretações referentes ao uso dos mecanismos defensivos de isolamento e apego à realidade.

The elaboration of psychological tests occurs in specific social cultural contexts and, therefore, these are not free from their influence. Considering the social changes that have occurred since the date of publication of the Thematic Apperception Test - TAT, it is plausible to question the conditions of this instrument used for learning the individual's subjectivity nowadays. In face of such considerations, this study aimed at offering evidence of the influence of the social-historical-cultural and artistic context over the definition of the TAT cards, and pondering about its use in contemporary reality. Our considerations, supported by clinical experience, suggest that these influences appear in the stories told by the subjects, which refer to the cards as images related to the past, with particular connotations. Considering that, a critical and cautious use of TAT is recommended for the analyses of the stories produced, especially in the interpretations related to the use of defense mechanisms of isolation and attachment to reality.

Origin and history of the "Series B" and "Series C" TAT pictures.

I present the origin and history of the "Series B" and "Series C" pictures of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT; White, Sanford, Murray, & Bellak, 1941; Clark, 1944). I fill in the evolutionary gap between the "Series A" pictures (W. G. Morgan, 2002) and the 1943 "Series D" (W. G. Morgan, 1995, 1999). Here one can observe which cards were retained from series to series, what new cards were experimentally introduced, and which cards were resurrected after a period of disuse. It would seem that only the world shattering events of WWII were enough to halt this evolution and freeze the content of the TAT at the time of Murray's departure from the Harvard Psychological Clinic to join the Office of Strategic Services.

Origin and history of the earliest Thematic Apperception Test pictures.

I present the origin and history of the "Series A" pictures of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT; Murray, 1943/1971). The TAT and its pictures evolved during the 1930s and early 1940s. The Series A pictures were probably never a distinct, fixed set of cards as the name seems to imply. The pictures used were in a constant state of flux with additions, deletions, and modifications common. In this article I describe the origins of the test and catalog its earliest pictures. It is hoped that familiarity with the test's development will increase appreciation for the efforts of the test's originators and add perspective and depth to one's awareness of the stimuli used.

Origin and history of an early TAT card: picture C.

The origin and history of Picture C is reviewed, and the role that David Ricks played in preserving many original TAT materials is presented. I suggest that a process similar to that employed with Picture C may have been used in the development of the other "old standbys." The unusual directions for the use of Picture C may possibly suggest awareness by C. D. Morgan and Murray of Schwartz's earlier work with the picture-story technique.