The Centrality of Self in Personality Conceptualization: Using the Wartegg to Assess Core Identity Characteristics, Adaptive Capacities, Self-Concept, and Defenses
In our role as assessment psychologists, developing a comprehensive conceptualization of an individual’s personality structure, organization, defenses, and adaptive capacities is oftentimes our goal—one that informs diagnosis, treatment planning, and a sensitive idiographic understanding of the whole person. In considering personality, whether through a conceptual/theoretical lens or a more practical-applied diagnostic framework, self and identity play a critical and central role; however, apart from face valid self-concept and self-esteem self-report measures, identity proves an elusive concept to assess. Performance-based measures have proven useful in this pursuit, with the Wartegg Drawing Completion Test (according to the Crisi Wartegg System) providing invaluable insight into identity consolidation, self-concept and self-esteem, shame and defenses against shame, and overall independent and adaptive capacity.
In this presentation, the core concepts of identity will be briefly reviewed, from both a theoretical and practical perspective—including consideration of self-functioning (including identity and self-directedness) as defined by the AMPD Alternative Model of Personality Disorders. Foundational principles of Crisi Wartegg System interpretation will be presented, highlighting indices and test-derived data related to evaluation of self-concept, self-directedness, dependence vs. independence, self-empathy vs. shame, identity consolidation vs. diffusion, and identity-based defenses (including narcissism and deflation). Discussion of how normative Wartegg data related to these distinct aspects of self/identity inform clinical diagnosis, as well as assist clinicians in understanding their client’s habitual adaptive strategies, will be highlighted as a foundational addition to personality assessment.
Presenter: Dr. Jacob Palm
Learning Objectives:
By the end of this presentation, participants will be able to:
- List and describe the two trait characteristics related to Self-Functioning as defined by the AMPD.
- Identify five CWS-derived data points (e.g., Box Codes, calculated indices, ratios, frequencies, percentages) that significantly inform understanding of self-concept and identity consolidation.
- Identity and describe the three CWS boxes that indicate a “not good enough” or shame-based core self-concept.
- List three CWS-derived indicators of narcissistic defenses, and three CWS-derived indicators of deflation defenses.
Skill Level: Intermediate. Participants familiar with the Wartegg will benefit, but no previous knowledge of the test is required to participate.
The Society for Personality Assessment (SPA) is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. SPA maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
Society for Personality Assessment is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0218.
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Member Registration
Presenter: Dr. Jacob Palm |
FREE |
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Non-Member Student Registration
Presenter: Dr. Jacob Palm |
$39.00 |
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Non-Member Early Career Registration
Presenter: Dr. Jacob Palm |
$45.00 |
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Non-Member Registration
Presenter: Dr. Jacob Palm |
$50.00 |
Jacob A. Palm, Ph.D., serves as the founder and director of the Southern California Center for Collaborative Assessment, where he provides assessment services across the lifespan using a collaborative/therapeutic assessment model. He is the United States representative of the Istituto Italiano Wartegg in Rome, Italy, where he works closely with Dr. Alessandro Crisi on clinical applications, research, and training of the Wartegg Drawing Completion Test. Dr. Palm has facilitated over 1000 clinical consultations using the CWS, and regularly presents at national and international conferences, community-based agencies, and university training programs about the test. Along with Alessandro Crisi, Dr. Palm is co-author of The Crisi Wartegg System (CWS): Manual for Administration, Scoring, and Interpretation (Routledge, 2018).
Dr. Palm is on staff at Miller Children’s Hospital at Long Beach Memorial and provides assessment consultation to various programs throughout the southern California area, including the Professional Recovery Center. He provides integrated assessments as a member of the Teen Brain Team at Hoag-Presbyterian Hospital, Neurosciences Institute (Newport Beach). Dr. Palm completed his doctorate at Fordham University, in the Bronx, New York. He has previously served as the Director of APA Internship Training and Director of Psychological Assessment for The Guidance Center, a community mental health center, in Long Beach, California.
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596
Bach, B., Hopwood, C. J., Simonsen, E., & Krueger, R. F. (2025). Practitioner’s guide to the alternative model for personality disorders. The Guilford Press.
Crisi, A., & Palm, J. A. (2018). The Crisi Wartegg System (CWS): Manual for administration, scoring, and interpretation. Routledge.
Crisi, A., & Dentale, F. (2016). The Wartegg Drawing Completion Test: Inter-rater agreement and criterion validity of three new scoring categories. International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Therapy, 16(1), 83-90.
David, R. M., Carroll, A. J., & Smith, J. D. (2021). Virtual Delivery of Therapeutic Assessment: An Empirical Case Study. Journal of Personality Assessment, 1-11.
Engelman, D. H., Allyn, J. B., Crisi, A., Finn, S. E., Fischer, C. T., & Nakamura, N. (2016). “Why am I so stuck?”: A collaborative/therapeutic assessment case discussion. Journal of personality assessment, 98(4), 360-373.
Nielsen, S. R., & Wright, A. G. C. (2024). The Structure of Identity Dysfunction in Self-Report Measures. Journal of Personality Assessment, 107(1), 12–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2024.2362982
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