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The MARI® manages to span the spectrum of psychological
assessments.
While it is often considered to be mainly projective, it includes
inherent meaning that takes this instrument well beyond the scope
of any projective instrument.
Projective Tests
The Rorschach ("ink-blot") Test is one of the best known and widely used
of the projectives.
It is estimated that the Rorschach is used by 80% of psychologists.
Obviously, these professionals recognize the importance of using
a tool that allows for more personal and imaginative input from clients.
Both
the Rorschach and the TAT (Thematic Apperception Test) are based
on stimuli
that is purposefully ambiguous. The Rorschach
is comprised of ink blots. The client is asked to "project" what
they "see" in stimuli which possess no inherent meaning. The meaning
lies in the attributions of the client. Similarly, the TAT is a compilation of
purposefully ambiguous pictures that are designed to elicit
responses and stories. Some argue that the pictures (such as a child sitting alone in a room or looking sad while a
female looks on in a disapproving way) are not completely ambiguous.
They, nevertheless, are designed to serve as an outlet for divulging
emotions and motivational states.
The
MARI® is primarily projective. The client is presented
with 39 symbols.
S/He is asked to choose
6 symbols s/he likes and 1 symbol s/he does not like*. For most people,
the choices of symbols are mainly intuitive. People are drawn to
some symbols rather than others for reasons they can't explain.
Occasionally, a client is drawn to a symbol that resonates for
an overt personal reason. For the most part, however, the choice of symbol
is done on an other-than-conscious level.
*Thanks to Phyllis Frame, A.T.R., for her suggestion of the "rejected" card
The
client is then directed to find the color card that "goes
with" each symbol they have chosen. Again, choice of color
is not really conscious. In fact, it is especially with color choice
that one sees the intuitive function at work. People may initially
choose colors that they claim to like. Put with the symbol, however,
clients often find that the colors they thought they preferred
somehow don't actually go with the symbol. They often say
things such as, "No, that color's not right: It needs
to be a little darker...or lighter or..."; They
are more inclined to try numerous colors with each symbol until
finally feels "right." It is this search for
what is "right" that reveals the intuitive process
at work.
Unlike
ambiguous stimuli that have no inherent meaning, the symbols
on the MARI®, are
pregnant with meaning. Symbols
are so basic to our nature that some theorists have even suggested that they are
encoded in our
very DNA! Symbols encompass so much experience of human development that is impossible
to separate them from our collective cultural knowledge. Symbols predate
language, culture and even the concept of time. Our responses to symbol, therefore,
can be almost viscerally physical.
Similarly, our responses to color are deeply associated with our
bodies, and therefore far more internally based than we can acknowledge
on a conscious level.
Objective Tests
The most used objective instrument is the MMPI (Minnesota
Multi-Phasic Personality Inventory). This test was designed for use
of clinical
assessment of individuals with psychological difficulties. It is
a paper-and-pencil (or computerized) series of more than 500 questions
that are to be answered true or false. Practitioners like it because
it can be machine-scored, and provides scales relative to pathological
behavior. Other lesser known tests such as the California Psychological
Inventory, Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire and the
Strong
Vocational Interest Blank are similar, but used more often in vocational
or employment screenings. Clients do not find these tests particularly
interesting; It is often a task just getting through it.
The field of psychology is less than a hundred years old. When
it began with the analytic tradition, it was considered to be
subjective. As the field of psychology evolved, objectivity had
become more
and more valued. As objectivity became more and more emphasized, the work
of C.G. Jung became devalued and marginalized as one of the most
subjective of
perspectives.
The
growing prejudice of quantifying the field of psychology has only recently
been revisited. We are beginning to realize that Jung's
perspective was not as subjective as once believed.
Analyst and author Anthony Stevens helps recast our understanding of Jung's
basic perspective. Stevens
states that Jung has grounded his psychology in biology with
the theory
of archetypes and the collective unconscious. "The
life of the individual is to be seen not only in the context of
his culture but in the context of the species." Jung believed
that every individual life was the same as the eternal life of
the species. This belief imbues the Jungian model of the psyche
with biological assumptions. "Just as the structure of the
psyche is determined by the essentially biological concept of the
archetype, so psychic function proceeds in accordance with the
biological principles of adaptation, homeostasis and growth...." (Stevens,
On Jung, p. 40)
Our earlier understanding of Jungian concepts of the archetypes
as simply subjective is quickly being replaced with the new recognition
of the universal and objectively biological basis of the psyche.
Personality
Tests
Personality tests have more inherent interest to the client.
It tells them about themselves. The best known is the Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator.
Tests such as the Myers-Briggs allow the client to ascertain where
he or she functions according four basic orientations: Extravert
vs. Introvert, Intuitive vs. Sensing, Thinking vs. Feeling and
Judging vs. Perceiving. Interestingly, these concepts have their
basis in Jungian psychology.
While it is enjoyable and instructive to learn more about how
one functions in the world or processes information, the information
is limited to these variables. The Myers-Briggs, therefore, leaves
much unexplored. It does not speak to any issues that may
underlie
problematic functioning, nor does it address physical aspects
in any way. It does not address emotional responses. It does not
speak
to the realms of meaning such as spirituality, inspiration, or
religious orientation. It is limited to an interesting but
rather superficial strata of human functioning.
The
MARI® is perhaps most similar to a personality
test, but it allows for the expression of the many deeper
dimensions of human experience. It provides in-depth information about the current functioning
in the psyche, but allows for creative approaches in the
re-imagining of future outcomes.
It provides such accurate information that the responsibility of
depth of interpretation lies fully with the ethics and therapeutic
talents of the administrator. Because this interaction is really
seen as a collaboration between the client and administrator, as
well as between the conscious and unconscious levels, a new
classification is needed: It transcends and goes deeper than the
projective and objective...It is really a "CONNECTIVE".
BASED ON THE MANDALA
The MARI® is based on the concept of the mandala.
Most art therapists and mental health professionals who are familiar
with the more experiential
techniques are aware of the wealth of information that can be
gleaned from a mandala. A well interpreted mandala will always reveal more than any personality
test.
(For further information on mandalas, see - Jung, "Concerning
Mandala Symbolism," "Mandalas" and "The
Symbolism of the Mandala.")
A
MOST POWERFUL INSTRUMENT
The
MARI® is, therefore, an instrument that
appears to be projective. In reality, the
client is choosing symbols that are already steeped in
meaning: associations that have been historically attributed and culturally sanctioned.
In choosing amongst assorted symbols and colors, the client is literally delving
into a sea of "archetypal soup". The client, however, knows only
that he or she is choosing cards that have symbols and colors on
them. Most of the deeper implications and meanings are initially
veiled from the client, but that allows the client and administrator
to "dip toes in the water", allowing core issues to be addressed at
a pace that is non-threatening and gentle for the client. The client doesn't begin to
comprehend the power of the MARI® until the
process of feedback is facilitated by the administrator.
The combination of color and symbol, as well as the relationship
of the symbols on the Great Round, reveals a wealth of information
that is then approached progressively and systematically.
The
non-verbal MARI® process precedes the egoic filters that are activated
when one individual interacts with another. In dream recall/analysis,
the
subject is involved in an interactive dialog with a human facilitator.
At best, the subject is recalling the dream content through or
his or her own conscious, personal filters.
With the MARI®, the subject is interacting with symbols that have
little or no meaning on a conscious level. In the case of the MARI®,
any such defenses are dissolved, penetrated or broken. Thus, the inner
life of the client is projected in its most pure, unmitigated form.
HIGH
ETHICAL STANDARDS OF ADMINISTRATION
The
MARI® is the most comprehensive instrument that exists today. It is so
potentially revelatory that it is imperative
that those
who administrator the MARI® be highly ethical and
free from personal biases that may influence interpretation.
Some
biases can be as
simple as an orientation to any single psychological system at
the expense of a wider perspective.
Because
the MARI® is such a powerful tool, the intentions
of the practitioner
are of the utmost importance. The MARI® has been
likened to the scalpel of the surgeon or a laser beam into the
person's deepest core. The client, however, has no conscious
awareness that this is happening. For this reason, the intentions
of the practitioner must be of the highest and clearest moral and
ethical standards. Comprehensive MARI® training focuses on the development and practice of such ethical,
therapeutic and positive approaches whilst remaining conversant with
traditional orientations.
A
DOORWAY INTO THE UNCONSCIOUS
Theoretically,
free association and dream recall are accompanied by conscious
filters.
Once the subject has been awakened out of sleep, they have an integrated
brain. The corpus callosum is activated and the hemispheres function
together -hence the conscious filters. The problems are similar
with dream recall: First, you have to teach the dreamer to remember
his or her dreams, then you have to wake them up. Again, once awake,
their conscious filters are in place. The MARI® bypasses
these filters. Until
now, we were never able to get back to this original dream state
- for with wakefulness, there is translation.
The MARI®, however, passes beneath the radar of
the ego, allowing sensitive information to be revealed and
addressed in the most creative and compassionate way possible.
The
MARIｮ truly is the Doorway
into the Unconscious.
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