Cloning the clinician: a method for assessing illusory mental health.

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. Copyright 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol.