title: Cloning the clinician: a method for assessing illusory mental health.
abstract: Self-report mental health scales cannot distinguish between genuine mental health and the facade or illusion of mental health created by psychological defenses. Shedler, Mayman, and Manis (1994) demonstrated that experienced clinicians can differentiate genuine from illusory mental health using the Early Memory Test, and that illusory mental health may be a risk factor for medical illness. This article describes the development of the Early Memory Index (EMI), a formal scoring system for the Early Memory Test, and presents evidence for its reliability and validity. The EMI makes the technique for assessing illusory mental health accessible to a wide range of investigators, including investigators who lack extensive clinical training.
authors.affiliation: University of Denver, Denver, CA 80208, USA. johathan@shedler.com.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shedler
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Karliner
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Katz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity