Inkblots and Clouds

The Rorschach test, used for interpreting "ambiguous designs" to assess an individual's personality, goes back to Leonardo da Vinci and Botticelli. However, Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Hermann Rorschach (1884-1922) was the first to establish a systematic approach to a psychometric examination in 1921. Rorschach's art education helped develop a set of patterned inkblots to determine an individual's perception of objects, shapes, or scenery into meaningful things. During testing the individual describes what they see in each one with a therapist interpreting the person's answers appropriately. The most common being faces or other pattern forms in nature that are not obvious at the outset. Trained artists or graphic designers may find it easier to guess a "hidden" picture. The interpretations of cloud formations might yield additional results of personality or creativity traits. Appropriate as weather permits.

The Rorschach test is best used for subjects aged five to adulthood. There are ten ambiguous inkblots, each printed on a separate white card, each near-perfect bilateral symmetry. Rorschach experimented with both asymmetric and symmetric images before choosing the latter. While symmetry has a disadvantage in that it may result in stereotypical answers, it also makes conditions the same for right and left-handed subjects and it facilitates interpretation for certain blocked subjects. Symmetry makes possible the interpretation of whole scenes.

Today, the Rorschach is merely a relic of psychology's past, simply pseudoscience, and its usefulness is debatable. Different psychologists might draw different findings from the same data suggesting the results are subjective rather than objective. Certain United States courts deem the test inadmissible. The controversy regarding the Rorschach test may center on the word "appropriate." Trained and skilled professionals must utilize the test in an appropriate manner, in the appropriate settings, and to answer appropriate clinical questions. It is still most useful for diagnosing schizophrenia, Hermann Rorschach's original intent.

See all 10 RORSCHACH inkblots.