We propose a method for formalizing a narrative concealed within the protocols of the T.A.T., a narrative which we refer to as the hidden picture. We do this by connecting a psychoanalytical conception with a structural analysis of narratives based on the concepts of diegesis and synchrony (as opposed to mimesis and diachrony). This allows us to see that any narrative produced during the T.A.T. has a three-part structure composed of an Initial Situation, a Complication, and a Resolution. According to our hypothesis, the Complication would be a narrative means of figuring (and dramatizing) the subject’s psychic conflict, which means that there is an isomorphy between imagos and actants (figures), between objects and elements, and between desires and fictional actions. The transference dynamic between the narrator and receiver of the narrative will be crucial for the construction and analysis of the hidden picture. A protocol is presented to define the three steps of the hidden picture: first, a Complication is extracted for the narrative of each picture (16 Complications for the French version of the test); then, the Complications are all sequenced according to order of the test; lastly, the hidden picture is read, analyzed and interpreted. We argue that the hidden picture is a rigorous methodological resource for detecting the unconscious as well as the transference and its structure, opening up original ways of working with projective methods in the field of psychoanalytical research.