Customer Reviews

MMPI, MMPI-2, & MMPI-A in Court: A Practical Guide for Expert Witnesses and Attorneys

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I found this book to be highly readable, well indexed, and a valuable source for report writing and preparing court testimony. The research cited is current, validity and clinical scales well defined, and sources of bias clearly stated. In addition, ethical considerations and pitfalls of reliance on this testing instrument are provided. Excellent comparisons of the MMPI and MMPI-2 including modified, deleted, and new items. Extremely valuable for any psychologist going to court and explaining to a judge or jury to results and interpretations of this instrument.

This is the single most useful psych resource I've ever used, and I have a pretty extensive library. The explanations of some of the internal features of the MMPI-II were impressive and helpful even to a Ph.D. psychologist with 30 years' clinical experience! Unless you have a graduate degree in psychology, this book is your best bet for mounting an effective challenge to bad, sloppy, or harmful psychological testing.

This has been a very helpful book, helping me to gain perspective as a mental health professional into how the legal system views us. It's well-written and full of information I've never heard in any of my other classes.

Any book or article that Butcher is involved with is well-done and statistically accurate. However, in the "world of MMPI" there are other "camps" meaning other valid standpoints of the validity and meaning of MMPI Validity scales, Clinical Scales, Subscales (Harris-Lingoes, etc.), and Content Scales. This, of course, relates to the very important distinction between collectivity and individuality when it comes to human behavior. Countless studies have shown that complex human behavior cannot with certainty be predicted, but general trends (such as the clinical course in Schizophrenia, M-D illness, other DSM-IV dx, et.c) and such things at personality types) can provide useful information in the present and alert one what might occur in the future.

The MMPI is a tool created and based on a materialistic viewpoint of psychopathology, a compartmentalization of the complexity of the psyche, into small "boxes" that by the very nature of their creation, exclude and include by strict criteria that can be tested statistically. However, the clinician must always keep in mind that life is not a statistic, it is, as yet, an undefinible thing. And so human behavior is both collective and individual at once and to varying degrees. When a particular "box" works, we, as scientists, construct models about which the "facts" fit for a season. Then, and I would dare say invariably, a new and better (meaning it fits or "explains" or "compartmentalizes" the the facts and trends that we see in life) model arises which replaces the older one. This is the way of science, which, if it is practiced with openness and flexibility, and an understanding that it is of a changeable nature, as technology and knowledge advance, that is not contradictory to the behavior sciences.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants a deeper knowledge of the "Minnesota" group of MMPI experts, for the other leading experts, read the works of the "Ohio" group (Graham, Ben-Porath, etc.)

Robert I. Winer, M.D.
Neurologist, Psychopharmacologist, Psychoanalyst
Philadelphia, PA
[...]

I was subjected to the MMPI and it's interpretations while attempting to maintain equal parenting time of my son. After my attorney ignored repeated requests for the results, I fired him, and have since represented myself.

Knowledge is Power. This book provides a "survey course" that will help pro per litigants. After reading it, I knew more about the MMPI than my lawyer.

In a court of law, you should be able to ask the forensic psychologist, "Sir, was the MMPI designed to evaluate parental ability"? Of course, the answer is, "No". But in family court, Rules of Evidence do not apply. If you memorize this book, you will be able to take apart any forensic psychologist.

Good Luck,

Kids Need Both Parents

copss.org

I am a medical librarian. Although this is not my area of expertise, I thought the book contained some good explanations and warnings. I did make a correction that I wish to share with other readers in case someone might choose to use Harold Klawans' otherwise excellent description of what is considered medical literature, which is quoted in chapter 8. "Index Medicus" is put together by the National Library of Medicine, not the Library of Congress.