The Bender-Gestalt Test (BGT) in Forensic Assessment

The Bender-Gestalt Test (BGT) has frequently been utilized as a measure of personality functioning and neuropsychological impairment. This article provides an overview of BGT's strengths and weaknesses, analyzes the test by standards of admissibility, and offers guidelines for its use in forensic testimony. The forensic psychologist must be cognizant of the Bender Gestalt Test's well documented (over 1,000 published studies) strengths and weaknesses, understand it's psychometric properties, and be familiar with the test's reliability and validity. For the past two decades the BGT has been found to be one of the top ten most frequently administered personality and neuropsychological measures.