The Inkblots: Hermann Rorschach, His Iconic Test, and the Power of Seeing Hardcover – February 21, 2017

Freud and Jung . . . if you asked an average person, with an average amount of knowledge about psychology, to name notable Germanic individuals in that field during the early 1900s, those are probably the two names most likely to be mentioned. Not Hermann Rorschach. (Not Eugen Bleuler, either, for that matter.) Hermann Rorschach created one of the most widely used psychological test during the 20th century. Probably one reason he has been forgotten is because he died in his 30s in 1922. The book, without a doubt, makes Dr. Rorschach’s Russian wife responsible for his death, because she would not get him medical help. He was in severe pain, but she believed it was just nicotine poisoning, something he had experienced before. She was a medical doctor herself and she was wrong. It was appendicitis, and not getting surgery in time killed him. After his death, his wife then tried to throw their two young children out the window, because they reminded her of him. Apparently, she regained her sanity, though, and wrote future touching things about him.It was truly a shame Dr. Rorschach died so young, too, because not only was he a pioneering psychiatrist, he was a kind, empathetic, compassionate man. He truly cared about his patients . . . except the maddening neurotic ones that often wasted a psychiatrist’s time . . . and obviously lacked Freud’s and Jung’s arrogance and ambition. He is gone before the halfway mark in this book, which kind of knocked the wind out of it, but not totally. Author Damion Searls then goes forward describing the successes and failures of the Rorschach inkblot test in the 20th and 21st century. One of the more interesting chapters was about how the inkblot test, as well as other psychological tests, were given to the Nazis on trial at Nuremberg. Were these men who did such atrocious things sane or insane, normal or abnormal, evil or just human? One can only wonder what Hermann Rorschach would have thought of the Nazis.

There is a relationship between wisdom and understanding. It is the associate connection between what we see and how we feel. “The Inkblots”, by Searls is a fascinating and thought provoking look into the development and history of the test and it’s author, Hermann Rorschach.Different people see things differently. The various avenues of inquiry with regard to these differences requires an examination of the subject’s unconscious. An unstructured and non-objective test can reveal a subjects unconscious needs and motivations which contribute to the manner in which he responds to the question, “Tell me what you see”. The subject’s responses are evaluated according to the quality and coherence of his thought processes.The assumption of the test is that we are not passive recipients of stimuli; nor are we passive with regard to the way we interpret facts. The manner and logic of responses constitute the overall strength or weakness of a subject’s organizing ability. According to the projective hypothesis there is a back and forth process whereby one projects himself while concurrently internalizing his world. In other words, our reactions rest on the manner in which we associate our ideas.Most insightful, I believe, is Rorschach’s emphasis on the process of empathy. We gain the ability to connect with the world by exercising our capacity for empathy. The counter pole to empathy is defined as “abstraction”. “Abstraction”, is described as “an urge to turn one’s back or pull away from a connection with the world.”Searls goes on to explain the two poles of logical synthesis, deduction and induction. Details of the blot once identified can be further integrated in accordance with the reality of the blot. Cognitive coherence and cognitive complexity go hand in hand with our ability to remain reality oriented.This is a fascinating book, both for its range of information and its focus on detail. I thoroughly enjoyed Searls’ emphasis on the human dimension of personality. After all, the personality is a fascinating topic for not just psychologists and an effort to understand ourselves is always an endeavor worth pursuing.

Having done some scientific studies of the Rorschach and being intensely regretful about how little interest there currently is in these inkblots as a research tool I mainly read this book to learn more about this intriguing man who, like Mozart and Schubert, died in his middle thirties, and left a lasting legacy. It turned out to be fascinating portrait of the man and the method he invented. Hermann Rorschach was not a glamorous guy- he worked on the backwards of State Hospitals with chronic patients that his contemporaries largely ignored, just as they are today - but he was at once a survivor, a great creative artist and a devoted man of science who was fascinated with the ways people (whether insane or "normal") make sense of the world they live in. I wish that the same questions that Rorschach asked, and only approximated in measuring, would continue to vex the best neuroscience laboratories of today. I loved the description of his path of discovery, and of the subsequent fate of his method around the world.

Fascinating study of the life of Rorschach and the history of the test he invented, in the context of the ferment around psychoanalysis, psychiatry, and perceptual psychology at the time Rorschach worked.

Pleased to get the book at the price I paid. Not an easy title to find at a reasonable price.

Item arrived in basically new condition, very happy

I have been thinking a lot about things of mind and some months ago I found this title. This book is a mix between Hearmann’ biography and Test’ biography. Yes! The Test has hisself biography too, with wins, loses, controversy and, the most important, ambiguity. It is a travel to inside seeing and perception. Very interesting to phichologists and people in general

One of the few books I could not finish. I find it rather boring due to the amount of minor small details included. I did not like the tendency to magnify and distort those things positive and not presenting a more real image of a real human being.

Fascinating look into how the ink blot tests came into being, placed in the context of the times.