University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Medical Museum

Diagnostik

Mandala and "Blotto":
Jung and Rorschach

The word mandala is Sanskrit for circle. It is a symbolic diagram, representing the universe, that is used as an instrument of meditation in Buddhist Tantrism.

Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) believed that drawing quaternary images (including mandalas) in therapy can be used to create a sacred, protected psychological space. As such, it can serve as a medium for healing.

These works are based on images of the Iowa State Psychopathic Hospital and related University Hospital and research departments. They assimilate the visual symmetry of the mandala and the provocative qualities of the Rorschach inkblot test. Like inkblots, these images suggest perceptual associations - angels, torsos, spacecraft - that go beyond their photographic source material. What do you see?

4.Courtesy of Marguerite Perret and Bruce Scherting.

5.Courtesy of Marguerite Perret and Bruce Scherting.

Meditations
Digital Prints

Blotto
Digital Transparencies

Rorschach based his idea in part on a popular children's game known as "blotto." While working at an adolescent psychiatric ward, he observed that children with certain illnesses gave characteristically similar answers when describing the images in the game. These works combine shapes based on the Rorschach inkblot test with images of the Iowa State Psychopathic Hospital and related University Hospital and research departments. The inkblot serves as a theme throughout this exhibit. It is used to reveal, obscure and modify images. Transparent imagery and the light box format enhance this effect. The illuminated subject implies both disclosure and revelation.

6.Courtesy of Marguerite Perret and Bruce Scherting.

7.Courtesy of Marguerite Perret and Bruce Scherting.