The Rorschach Test: Diagnostik: Medical Museum: University of Iowa Health Care

University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Medical Museum

Diagnostik

The Rorschach Test

Hermann Rorschach (1884-1922) was a Swiss Psychiatrist who is best known for devising the inkblot test that bears his name. He studied art as a secondary-school student earning the nickname Kleck, meaning "inkblot," because of his interest in sketching. Rorschach considered following his father in an art career, but was drawn to psychiatry, taking a deep interest in the then new field of psychoanalysis. He earned an M. D. from the University of Zurich in 1912. (1)

2.Artwork based on Rorschach inkblots and Jung mandala.
Courtesy of Marguerite Perret and Bruce Scherting .

By 1918 he had started to experiment with the interpretation of inkblots by showing 15 accidental inkblots to patients and asking them, "What might this be?" The Rorschach test is based on the human tendency to project interpretations and feelings onto ambiguous stimuli. Rorschach held that a person's perceptual responses to inkblots could serve as clues to basic personality tendencies. He published the results of his studies on 300 mental patients and 100 normal subjects in the monograph Psychodiagnostik in 1921. (2) By this time, the number of inkblots had been reduced to ten carefully selected images.

Although ignored at first, today this work is regarded as one of the great classics of psychiatry and psychology, but Hermann Rorschach himself never experienced its success. He had difficulties finding a publisher, and died of complications from appendicitis before he could properly test and evaluate his invention. (3) The Rorschach test was especially popular as a diagnostic tool in the 1950s. It later fell out of favor, criticized for its susceptibility to subjective interpretation on the part of the evaluator.

3.Artwork based on Rorschach inkblots and Jung mandala.
Courtesy of Marguerite Perret and Bruce Scherting .

It has however been pointed out by supporters that Rorschach never had the opportunity to fully develop his approach and that many of the shortcomings of the test can be attributed to inconsistent usage. More recently, new comprehensive scoring systems have been developed, resulting in improvements in standardization and norms.

1. The Encyclopedia Britannica, 1999-2000
2. Ibid.
3. Ellenberger, H., The Life and Work of Hermann Rorschach (1884-1922). Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 18 (1954), 172-219. Reprinted many times; e.g. in Beyond the Unconscious. Essays of Henri F. Ellenberger in the History of Psychiatry (ed. M. Micale, Princeton UP 1993), 192-236.

Last modification date: Mon Jun 5 13:44:45 2006
URL: http://www.uihealthcare.com /depts/medmuseum/galleryexhibits/diagnostik/rorschach.html