Disturbance of imagination and symbolization in pervasive developmental disorders: Preliminary study utilizing the Rorschach inkblot test

Two clinical cases of children of 6 and 7 years are presented with their re spective Rorschach records. The first case had a diagnosis of autism, the s econd of Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. The mode s of elaboration and responses to the ambiguous stimuli of the Rorschach te st were compared with the clinical symptoms of the two subjects, which are centered on the two opposite poles of absence of imagination in the first c ase and distortion of the imaginative processes in the second.