Posted
on November 8, 2015
Have
you ever been shown some ink blots and asked, “What do you see?”
Sometimes
you might be warned, “What you see in this picture says a lot about
you...”
These
pictures are a part of a “projective test,” a personality test
that allows people to talk about the deep thoughts and subconscious
worries – because they “project” those thoughts onto a vague
picture or other stimulation.
We
can thank Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach for the inkblot test
(usually called the Rorschach test). When Rorschach was growing up in
northern Switzerland, his friends called him Klecks. That
means “inkblot.” You see, even back then he was into making
inkblot “pictures.” There was an entire art form, pioneered by a
fellow named Justinus Kerner, of making pictures out of inkblots, and
it was called Klecksography.
I'm
imagining Rorschach as a child, with fingers all smudgy with ink, and
even a bit on his clothes or face once in a while. I mean, if your
nickname is inkblot, it is only fitting!
At
any rate, Rorschach wasn't sure whether to go into art or science for
his university studies and career. He ended up choosing science, of
course, but he brought his art into his scientific career.
Rorschach
was interested in the fact that everyone sees different figures and
objects in inkblots. While he was a medical student, he began to show
inkblots to school children and then analyze their responses to the
blots.
He
wrote a book based on his findings, but many consider his assumptions
about and explanations for people's responses to inkblots are faulty.
Some consider the inkblot test to be pseudoscience – something that
LOOKS scientific but actually doesn't follow the scientific method.
Have
fun with inkblot art, in honor of Hermann Rorschach's birthday!
Here
are the original inkblots Rorschach used in his test. BUT the
“results” given by this so-called inkblot “test” are not original - they are not anything to do with Rorschach's analyses - they are not in the least real - they are just for
fun!
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