Unravelling the Mystery of the Rorschach Test by Going Back to Its Origins

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Free AccessUnravelling the Mystery of the Rorschach Test by Going Back to Its OriginsAnne AndronikofAnne AndronikofAnne Andronikof, 1, rue de la Tannerie, 60590 Enencourt-Léage, France[email protected]https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0977-8794 Hermann Rorschach Archives and Museum, Bern, Switzerland Paris-Nanterre University, France Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:October 17, 2023https://doi.org/10.1027/1192-5604/a000172PDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInReddit SectionsMoreIs there a theory behind the Rorschach Test? Or did Hermann Rorschach conceive his experiment blindly without any preconception (but then why did he call it an “experiment”)? This is the riddle that five authors investigate in this special issue. The fact that the Rorschach Test is still very much used throughout the world as evidenced by the very active life of the International Society of the Rorschach and Projective Methods (https://www.internationalrorschachsociety.com/), although the test was created more than 100 years ago (1921); the fact that the life of the test is marked by a very abundant literature, passionate debates, and controversies; and the fact that psychologists belonging to very different theoretical horizons (psychoanalysis, phenomenology, neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, Gestalt, psychiatry) use the test with efficiency, all bear witness to the complexity of the test and its enduring mystery.Ellenberger (1954), author of a biography of Hermann Rorschach and an analysis of his work that is still a reference today, wrote that Rorschach was “a man of genius” but that his work remains mysterious: Ellenberger entitled a chapter of his article “The Mystery of the Psychodiagnostik.”Rorschach (1884–1922) alas died a few months after his test was published and his ideas, the nascent theory he was investigating, was nipped in the bud. The notion that he did have a theory that he did not want to develop before he could collect solid empirical data has been overlooked by many authors of the 20th century, who dubbed the test “a-theoretical,” enabling them to embed the test in their preferred model of personality. In reality, Hermann Rorschach did have a personal theory underlying his experiment, as he clearly states in the introduction to Psychodiagnostics: “The theoretical reason for the experiment is, in part, still only in its infancy” and “The investigative method originally grew out of theoretical questions” (p. 139).On the occasion of the centenary of the publication of Psychodiagnostics in 2021 (Rorschach, 1921/2021), eminent specialists have sought to unravel its mystery: how to understand the theoretical framework of his “experiment”; what theory or theories was he trying to test with his inkblots? This is a very topical issue since various models from different perspectives were recently proposed to advance the understanding of the Rorschach Test (see, e.g., Meyer & Friston, 2022, and Bornstein, 2022).Silberstein (2023) restores the meaning and scope of the psychopathological, psychological, and psychoanalytical theories of the early 20th century. He shows how the main ideas on which the Rorschach Test is based were already in draft form in Rorschach’s medical thesis of 1912. In particular, the central place given to kinesthesis led to the discovery of the fundamental notion of Erlebnis, that is, the relationship between kinesthesis and colors, which reflects the dominant orientation of a person’s way of being in the world.Gaudriault (2023) shows how the Rorschach method has profoundly transformed the psychological approach to the human being by devising a method that enables the person taking the test to express his or her inner reality and the psychologist interpreting the test responses to understand the architecture of the person’s psyche. To do this, Gaudriault draws on a host of philosophers and painters, before focusing on the importance of symmetry and the orderly succession of the plates. Finally, he points out an aspect that is all too often forgotten, namely, that Hermann Rorschach was one of the first to use a test to assess the psychological changes that might result from psychotherapy, in this case, brief psychoanalysis.Keddy and colleagues (2023) explore the epistemological relationships between Carl G. Jung’s word association test, the notion of differential (or individual) psychology introduced by Binet and Henri in France and William Stern in Germany, and the Rorschach Test. They show the affinities, historically documented or supposed, between the Jungian notion of complexes and its extraversion/introversion poles, on the one hand, and the extratensive/introversive poles of Hermann Rorschach, on the other. They point out that Jung himself considered the Rorschach experiment to be the most serious development of the “basic idea” of using a scientific approach, studying the individual and studying complex phenomena.McElfresh (2023) provides a comprehensive and detailed overview of the European theoretical ferment of the early 20th century and develops the idea that the theory that best encompasses and explains Rorschach’s intentions is phenomenology. He summarizes the essentials of phenomenological theories, principally those of Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty. He argues for maintaining a balance between quantitative and qualitative approaches in the human sciences, using multiple methods and multidisciplinary involvement.Andronikof (2023) recalls Hermann Rorschach’s fascination with perceptual puzzles and the conflicts of thought provoked by ambiguous stimuli. She shows how Rorschach was a precursor of the most up-to-date knowledge in neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, and personality. She argues that the genius of Hermann Rorschach was to link conflicts in perception to personality, as if saying “tell me what you see, how you interpret the image, that is, how you solve the ambiguity, and I will tell you how your personality functions.”We hope that this very special issue of Rorschachiana will be a landmark in the search for Hermann Rorschach’s basic theory, that it opens a window into the “mystery” of the test, and that it will trigger a renewed interest in the fundamental question: What exactly was the theory of Hermann Rorschach, and in what aspect was it so new that he did not yet dare formulate it?References Andronikof, A. (2023). The theory of Hermann Rorschach. Rorschachiana, 44(2), 193–213. https://doi.org/10.1027/1192-5604/a000173 First citation in articleLink, Google Scholar Bornstein, R. F. (2022). 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Inkblots and the life-world – Toward a Rorschach phenomenology. Rorschachiana, 44(2), 136–175. https://doi.org/10.1027/1192-5604/a000162 First citation in articleLink, Google Scholar Meyer, G. J., & Friston, K. J. (2022). The active Bayesian brain and the Rorschach task. Rorschachiana, 43(2), 128–150. https://doi.org/10.1027/1192-5604/a000158 First citation in articleLink, Google Scholar Rorschach, H. (2021). Hermann Rorschach’s Psychodiagnostics: Newly translated and annotated 100th anniversary edition (P. J. KeddyR. SignerP. ErdbergA. Schneider-Stocking, Trans. & Eds. Hogrefe Publishing. (Original work published 1921) First citation in articleGoogle Scholar Silberstein, F. (2023). On the background and foundations of Psychodiagnostics. Rorschachiana, 44(2), 102–118. https://doi.org/10.1027/1192-5604/a000174 First citation in articleLink, Google ScholarFiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Special Issue: History and Theory of the RorschachVolume 44Issue 2September 2023ISSN: 1192-5604eISSN: 2151-206X Published onlineOctober 17, 2023 InformationRorschachiana (2023), 44, pp. 99-101 https://doi.org/10.1027/1192-5604/a000172.© 2023Hogrefe PublishingPDF download