Charles A. Peterson

Racial bias and the MCMI.

We studied the scores obtained on the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) by Black and White male psychiatric inpatients to determine the presence or absence of racial bias. In predicting psychopathology for the two races, comparisons of MCMI performance indicated significant differences for all diagnoses except the personality disorders. The subjects were then matched into two groups of 209 patients each, according to DSM-III psychiatric diagnoses. The data were analyzed at the item, scale, and structural levels. At the item level, application of the Mantel-Haenszel Procedure revealed that 45 of the 175 items of the inventory were answered significantly different by the two racial groups. Because this number was higher than what could be expected by chance, the finding suggested possible deficiencies in terms of the culture-fairness of the items used in the test. At the scale level, an analysis of variance (ANOVA) demonstrated that the scores obtained by the Black and White groups were significantly different in 9 of the 20 scales (Histrionic, Narcissistic, Antisocial, Paraphrenia, Hypomania, Dysthymia, Alcohol Abuse, Drug Abuse, and Psychotic Delusion). With the exception of the Dysthymic scale, all of the differences were in the direction of the Blacks obtaining a higher score than the Whites. At the structural level, however, a principal components factor analysis performed on each group resulted in factor structures that looked identical.

Brief Book, Software, and Test Announcements

Most psychoanalysts study Freud and subsequent psychoanalytic theory and practice in “the artificial and sometimes hothouse” climate of conformity in psychoanalytic institutes (Glover, 1952, p. 403). W. Ronald Fairbairn is the noteworthy, rare exception who studied and developed his theories in splendid isolation in Edinburgh, Scotland, ultimately giving rise to the “object relations” school of psychoanalysis. Lesser mortals— the rest of us—benefit from tutoring, guided study, consensual discussion and reading, and rereading. Although there probably is no substitute for this old-fashioned kind of indenture, this new study guide will change the way Freud is read and understood. This labor of love—tested on generations of analytic candidates—is as significant a step forward in psychoanalytic scholarship as is Grinstein’s (1971–1975) Index to the Psychoanalytic Writings or the newer Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing Web (PEPWEB). First of all, the reader will notice that this is DEEP scholarship, the deep dream work well beneath the manifest content. Second, the organization is masterful: Works are presented chronologically; publication and bibliographical data is given; all quotations are referenced to the Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (24 volumes; Strachey, 1953); text-box (relevant) biographies

Book Reviews: Editor's Introduction

When Freud (1937) spoke of the difficulties facing the psychoanalyst, he made reference to teaching as an “impossible profession,” with both parties in the transaction destined for disappointment in process and product. Better than mana from heaven, Handler and Hilsenroth’s (1998) new book makes teaching and learning psychodiagnosis not quite so impossible. Although the author and editors do not mention this directly, it is safe to say that—with this fine work on our bookshelf— psychological assessment will have fewer Y2K problems.