Ink stains forming mysterious symmetrical figures . These are the figures (or, rather, the non-figures) that are used in one of the best known projective tests: the Rorschach test .

It is a method that was born in the first half of the 20th century, when psychoanalysis dominated Europe, and whose use has become popular both in personnel selection processes and even in the clinical field. But… What are the ideas behind the Rorschach test? How is it used? Is it effective and reliable?

To answer these questions we have to start by getting to know the person who invented the inkblot test: the Swiss psychoanalyst Hermann Rorschach.

Who was Hermann Rorschach?

Hermann Rorschach was born in Zurich in 1884, and already as a child he showed a great interest in creating figures through the use of painting. After graduating from medical school he began to specialise in psychiatry, and these studies led him to enter the world of psychoanalysis, which at that time was the most popular psychological trend in Europe.

In this way, Rorschach became very familiar with the concepts of free association and projection , which at that time were used by Sigmund Freud and his followers in clinical practice. Rorschach was the first to use the term “psychodiagnosis” to refer to the interpretation of symptoms in order to discover the mental disorders that disturb people’s well-being.

But what Rorschach understood as psychodiagnosis was far from a medical evaluation based on observation of objective properties. For him, the diagnosis had to be based on the interpretation of the way in which the unconsciousness of the patients manifested itself through their creations. Specifically, Rorschach focused on the interpretation of the artistic works created by patients in an attempt to understand the functioning of their minds. This idea was the seed that later led to the creation of the Rorschach test based on inkblots.

The Rorschach test

In 1921, Rorschach published a book called Psychodiagnosis. This monograph presented for the first time a psychological test based on the interpretation of ten cards showing symmetrical ink spots. The curious thing about these cards was that the property that defined the figures that appeared on them was their total ambiguity .

The stains had no apparent meaning, and Rorschach had certainly taken great care to prevent his creations from being interpreted in a clear manner.

The test of the spots that I had created emphasized total freedom in attributing a meaning to these figures . It was a tool designed to be used in the diagnosis of psychological characteristics, but at the same time it avoided the possibility of measuring concrete and well typified responses that would allow the comparison of the results obtained by different people.

Rorschach wanted everyone to be able to give the answer they wanted, and the range of response possibilities was infinite, unlike in personality tests where you have to select an answer from several available ones. In order to understand why this peculiarity exists, one must understand the value given to interpretation by psychoanalysis.

Interpreting spots

The idea on which Rorschach based his proposal to create a system of psychological evaluation was totally related to the Freudian concept of the unconscious.

The unconscious was, for Freud, a side of the mind whose form has been given by old traumas and uncontrollable desires . Hypothetically, this psychic instance that directs our way of thinking and acting, even if we are not aware of it, but must always remain hidden from our consciousness. That is why the unconscious is constantly being repressed by psychic structures that fight so that it does not assault the consciousness, and this continuous fight can generate psychopathologies.

However, Rorschach also knew the other side of the coin about the repression of the unconscious according to Freud. The creator of psychoanalysis believed that contents of the unconscious can emerge into consciousness and manifest themselves indirectly through symbolic disguises which, by concealing the true nature of what one wants to repress, do not endanger the stability of consciousness. For example, proposed the idea that dreams are symbolic manifestations of desires that must be repressed .

But this way of symbolically disguising elements of the unconscious does not occur only in dreams, but in many other dimensions of human activity. Rorschach came to the conclusion that a part of the unconscious can be projected into symbolic interpretations of what is seen, and so tried to create a psychological test in which people had to interpret totally ambiguous figures, without any apparent meaning . In this way, the way they interpreted these totally meaningless forms would reveal hidden aspects of their mind.

The Rorchach test today

Rorschach died at the age of 37, months after publishing the book that would make him famous, and his symmetrical inkblot test soon began to gain much popularity. It began to be used as a diagnostic tool for mental disorders, but its main use was as a personality test .

It reached a point where it became so popular in the field of personnel selection that it was one of the most used tools in the world of Human Resources, and also entered into forensic psychology to become a resource for expertise in legal proceedings.

Even today, the Rorschach inkblot test is widely used both in the legal sphere and in companies, and the various schools of psychodynamics have continued to work to try to improve the criteria of interpretation that the Swiss psychoanalyst began. In fact, much effort has been made to perfect a system for interpreting the results of the Rorschach test, the best known being the Rorschach Comprehensive System promoted in the 1960s by John E. Exner .

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However, the popularity of the Rorschach spot test runs parallel to another very important fact: the Rorschach test does not have the validity and reliability that one would expect from a resource with a good empirical basis . That is why the use of these spots to assess psychological characteristics is considered a pseudoscientific practice.

The critics of the Rorschach test

The first argument used to link the test of the broads with pseudoscience refers to the epistemological paradigm on which psychoanalysis and the Freudian theories that have given rise to the psychodynamic current of psychology are based. This is because Rorschach’s ideas about the unconscious cannot be tested or falsified : there is no clear way to rule out the possibility that a person has a childhood trauma or wishes to be protected by an authority figure, to give an example, because explanations about the unconscious forces that move the person can always be modified on the fly without compromising the initial hypotheses.

Similarly, if someone sees a unicorn on one of Rorschach’s plates, there are countless ways to justify that person being very introverted, to give one example. This criticism, therefore, questions the validity of the theories on which the Rorschach test is based.

The second strand of criticism directed against the Rorschach test is of a more pragmatic nature and questions the usefulness of the test as a diagnostic or personality testing tool. It points out that it is not a valid or reliable instrument and that through its use, not many robust correlations have been found that allow us to establish what type of responses reflect what type of psychological tendencies . The way in which the answers of the persons who take the test are interpreted fails to reflect clear trends, and in general the conclusions reached are arbitrary or based on biases.

Conclusions

The Rorschach test is one of the most iconic and best known inventions. It has appeared in series, novels, films and even gives its name to one of the most famous comic book characters of the writer and scriptwriter Alan Moore . It is also often understood as one of the resources that psychologists use to study personality. However, the fact that its theoretical foundations are so questioned greatly undermines its credibility as a diagnostic tool or psycho-technical test.

Bibliographic references:

  • Gacono, C. B. and Evans, B. (2007). The Handbook of Forensic Rorschach Assessment (Personality and Clinical Psychology). New York: Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates.
  • Lilienfeld, S.O., Wood, J.M., Garb, H.N. (2000). The scientific status of projective techniques. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 1(2), pp. 27 – 66.
  • Sutherland, S. (2013). Irrationality: the enemy within. London: Pinter & Martin.
  • Wood, J. M., Nezworski, M. T., Lilienfeld, S. O., Garb, H. N. (2003). What’s Wrong with the Rorschach? San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.