Paul Lerner and the heart of assessment: a tale of three relations.

Psychodynamically oriented assessment using the Rorschach (Exner, 1974, 1978) or Thematic Apperception Test (TAT; Murray, 1943) understands the testing situation as a 3-way interaction in which the examinee talks to the examiner about the inkblot or the TAT picture. In an attempt to define what is at the heart of assessment, I review the following permutations among these components: the participant and the test, the examiner and the participant, and the examiner and the test. In addition, I focus on some of Paul Lerner's contributions, especially on his unwavering stance regarding the importance of the examiner-examinee dimension as an information-gathering tool.