Hermann Rorschach

Swiss psychologist

• Born: November 8, 1884
• Birthplace: Zurich, Switzerland
• Died: April 2, 1922
• Place of death: Herisau, Switzerland

Rorschach is credited with only one major scientific achievement during his short career, but this achievement was important in the development of modern psychology and had far-reaching effects on other disciplines as well. In the early 1920’s, Rorschach set forth a formal method of testing personality traits by recording, timing, and interpreting a subject’s reactions to a series of inkblots. The test remains one of the most valuable testing tools of psychology.

Early Life

Hermann Rorschach (ROHR-shahk) was born in Zurich, Switzerland. The psychiatrist’s early preoccupation with inkblots in part came from the fact that his father, Ulrich Rorschach, was an art teacher at local schools. Early in life, he was given the nickname Kleck, meaning inkblot in German, by companions at school. Rorschach was the eldest of three children; he had a sister, Anna, and a brother, Paul. When he was twelve years old his mother died, and six years later his father died also.

Rorschach attended local elementary and high schools and was graduated with distinction from the latter when he was nineteen years old. At this time, he decided to pursue a career in medicine and attended medical schools in Neuchâtel, Zurich, and Bern all in Switzerland as well as in Berlin, Germany. He completed his medical study in five years, finishing in Zurich, where he had worked at a psychiatric unit of the university hospital and had excelled as a student of Eugen Bleuler. In 1909, he secured a residency at an asylum in Munsterlingen, Switzerland; the following year, he married Olga Stempelin, a Russian who worked at the institution. They later had two children: Elizabeth, born in 1917, and Wadin, born in 1919.

In 1912, Rorschach completed all requirements for the degree of doctor of medicine from the University of Zurich. In 1913-1914, his wife and he worked at a mental institution in Moscow, Russia; they returned to Switzerland when Rorschach became a resident doctor at Waldau Mental Hospital in Bern. Some two years later, he left Bern for Appenzell, Switzerland, where he accepted a better position at the Krombach Mental Hospital. In 1919, he became the first vice president of the Swiss Psychoanalytic Society.

Life’s Work

Because of his father’s influence, Rorschach had been interested in drawing and art from youth. As early as 1911, when he was completing the doctor of medicine degree at the University of Zurich, he had conducted limited research with inkblots, using schoolchildren as his subjects. As a student of psychology and psychiatry himself, Rorschach studied the works of other researchers who had conducted experiments into the possibility of determining personality traits by using inkblots; chief among these were the recorded experiments of Justinus Kerner and Alfred Binet. None of these, however, succeeded in formulating a systematic method of conducting such a test and meaningfully interpreting the results in a consistent fashion from subject to subject.

Between 1911 and 1921, Rorschach conducted extensive research (both on patients in the mental hospitals where he worked and on well-adjusted, unconfined persons) to develop such a test. During this period, he published several professional papers, none of which received any particular notoriety. His single contribution was his Psychodiagnostik (1921; Psychodiagnostics: A Diagnostic Test Based on Perception , 1942), written as a preliminary study on a basic method that he expected to refine and improve. The major contribution of the work to psychiatry is that it presented what came to be known as the “Rorschach test.” (Later, this phrase was changed to “projective test”; the terms are now more or less used interchangeably, although technically the Rorschach test is merely one kind of projective personality test.) Rorschach’s book has usually been cited for this achievement, but in fact it contains a far grander scope than this. Psychodiagnostics provides an entire theory of human personality, both individual and collective. Rorschach found two major personality types, the “introversive” and the “extratensive” roughly equivalent to “introverted” and “extroverted” in modern parlance. Introversive persons are motivated by internal factors and inclinations, finding meaning in activities of the self; extroverts, on the other hand, function under the influence of external forces and motivators and look outside themselves to find meaningful experiences. Rorschach believed that both of these types exist in each person but to different extents, in various measures, and in determinable ratios. The test he devised was intended to discover these ratios in an individual, that is, the extent of introversion and extratension. Additionally, he believed that the test could be some measure of the subject’s emotional stability, intelligence, capabilities, resolve at problem solving, and general normalcy; he thought that the test would reveal with some certainty any significant psychological problems or aberrations.

The test itself is unusually simple, although recording, scoring, and interpreting the results is a complicated process, the effectiveness of which depends primarily on the capabilities and experience of the person giving the test. The subject is shown ten cards in turn, five of which are black and white, two of which are black and white with some color, and three of which are in color. The tester maintains total neutrality when asking the subject what he or she sees. The inkblots themselves are meaningless in that they do not, by design, represent any known object in the physical world; however, they are symmetrical figures that are suggestive of actual physical objects. The subject’s responses are carefully noted in terms of location (the part of the inkblot on which the subject’s eyes focus); time (the length of time it takes the subject to see an object after the inkblot is presented); content (what the subject “sees”); various determinants (the subject’s focus on color, form, and shadings of the drawing); and originality (the subject’s ability to see items not usually suggested). Through the years, testers have amassed a wealth of information regarding these responses. Statistical data, formulas, weighted frequencies, and the like have been developed to help ensure accuracy of test results. It is interesting also that the same ten inkblots designed by Rorschach are still in use.

When Psychodiagnostics first appeared in Europe in 1921, it was virtually ignored, until it was attacked. The belief of the day by the best-known psychologists and psychiatrists was that personality could not be tested. They recognized some validity in the free-association responses to inkblot drawings but were overwhelmingly skeptical of formulating a system that could be of much use. In 1922, Rorschach himself expressed to the Psychoanalytic Society his intention to change and improve his techniques. Unfortunately, this was never to happen, because he fell prey to an attack of appendicitis and died on April 2, 1922, in Herisau, Switzerland.

Significance

The loss to psychology wrought by Hermann Rorschach’s premature death can only be guessed. He was the foremost researcher into psychological testing of his day, and he clearly had a masterful command of every facet of study in his discipline. However great the loss, there is some professional comfort in knowing that his methods were quickly adapted and adopted by his students and colleagues; consequently, his ten inkblots have been the subject of a large number of studies, publications, experiments, and applications. His program has been used in studying child development and psychology; it has also been used by employers screening job applicants, by the military to determine which soldiers would do well as commanding officers in warfare, and by prison officials, psychologists, and psychiatrists. Moreover, Rorschach’s program, or a modified version thereof, has been used in anthropology, sociology, and education. Counselors and clinicians have administered the test and made use of the results in the treatment of persons with speech problems, juvenile delinquents, alcoholics, and drug abusers.

The Rorschach test has been an integral part of psychological testing and diagnosis for nearly a century, yet its validity is still subject to dispute. Some professionals maintain that personality cannot be tested; others relentlessly affirm the accuracy of a properly administered and interpreted test. Most persons who work extensively with the Rorschach test testify to its value as an indicator. They make use of it for formulating hypotheses about a particular subject’s behavior and motivation, or they regard it simply as one possible test that can be successfully used as part of a psychological profile. Whatever the case, Rorschach made an enormous contribution to psychological testing, and thereby to psychoanalysis and to psychology itself, when he published Psychodiagnostics.

Bibliography

Beck, Samuel J. The Rorschach Experiment: Ventures in Blind Diagnosis. New York: Grune & Stratton, 1960. This book is primarily concerned with assisting testers in interpreting test results. Beck relates personal experiences in instructing others in the matter of correct interpretation.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Rorschach’s Test. New York: Grune & Stratton, 1944. Beck was the leading proponent of Rorschach testing in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century. The book is essentially an instruction manual on how to administer the test. Diagrams of the ten inkblots are comprehensively treated.

Bohm, Ewald. A Textbook in Rorschach Test Diagnosis for Psychiatrists, Physicians, and Teachers. Translated by Ann Beck and Samuel Beck. New York: Grune & Stratton, 1958. Bohm was a leader in Rorschach testing in Europe during the two or three decades after Rorschach’s death. Details Bohm’s experiences using the test in diagnosing particular psychological maladies.

Hirt, Michael. Rorschach Science: Readings in Theory and Method. Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 1962. This is somewhat advanced in its discussions, content, and approach, and will be of little use to a student unfamiliar with Rorschach testings. For those who are, however, it provides valuable information about problem areas of testing and interpreting test results.

Klopfer, Bruno, and Douglas Kelley. The Rorschach Technique: A Manual for a Projective Method of Personality Diagnosis. Yonkers-on-Hudson, N.Y.: World Book, 1942. This book is one of the best overall treatments of Rorschach and his testing theories. A history of projective testing is provided, and every important aspect of the testing process is examined in a readable fashion.

Rabin, Albert I., ed. Assessment with Projective Techniques: A Concise Introduction. New York: Springer, 1981. This book contains ten articles written by professional specialists in psychological testing. The contributions represent sundry attitudes and approaches to Rorschach testing. Provides a good introduction to the field.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Projective Techniques in Personality Assessment. New York: Springer, 1968. This text is a comprehensive general introduction to projective techniques in psychological testing. It contains articles by some twenty of the best researchers of the decade.

Rickers-Ovsiankina, Maria A., ed. Rorschach Psychology. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1960. This book is a collection of essays written by eighteen contributors from the field of psychological testing. The text is not an introduction manual in methodology; various aspects of the testing process are critically examined.

Wood, James M., M. Teresa Nezworski, Scott O. Lilienfeld, and Howard N. Garb. What’s Wrong with Rorschach? Science Confronts the Controversial Test. San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass, 2003. Four scientists point out the flaws in the Rorschach inkblot test. Includes information about Rorschach himself and the history of the test.

Zulliger, Hans. The Behn-Rorschach Test. New York: Grune & Stratton, 1956. Hans Behn-Eschenburg recognized the need for a duplicate Rorschach test one that is composed of a series of alternate inkblots even before Rorschach’s death. This book explains the development of this alternate series and discusses correlation and results between the two tests.