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PEOPLE & ARTS Thursday 23 February 2017
Review: ‘The Inkblots’ documents history of Rorschach test

can’t breathe.” A system- a new computer program when he tries to assess
atic collection of test results made interpretations these popularized inkblots
in a large sample would based on patient respons- as cultural metaphors. The
be required, he wrote, and es to the inkblots. In 2008, chapter “The Rorschach
a solid theoretical basis Japanese researchers used Test Is Not a Rorschach
would need to be estab- an MRI to track real-time Test” fails to build a con-
lished. brain activity of subjects vincing case. But it includes
Rorschach died tragically viewing inkblots, finding a fun passage where Searls
at age 37 of peritonitis from original and standard an- reveals a psychologist test-
a burst appendix a year af- swers arise in different parts ed him with the inkblots
ter publishing “Psychodiag- of the brain. and told him he was a little
nostics.” The inkblots, freed Pop culture has found obsessive.
from their creator’s control, the test images irresistible. So, there you go: the Ror-
billowed in popularity as Andy Warhol made his own schach works.
others adapted them to series of giant inkblots and In the end, Searls’ obses-
various uses over the de- titled each of the paintings sion with details — gleaned
cades. “Rorschach.” Jay Z put one in part from an unpublished
In 1945, a psychiatrist ad- of Warhol’s works on the archive of source mate-
ministered the test to Nazi cover of his book “Decod- rial — grows a bit tiresome.
prisoners awaiting judg- ed.” Advertisers have used Some readers will find more
ment in the Nuremberg inkblots to sell perfume, in- than they want to know
Trials. In the Sixties, the test vestment advice and mo- about Rorschach’s short life
peaked at a million uses a bile phones. and the subsequent profes-
year in the United States. Searls, a literary translator sional feuds over his work’s
As new data technology of French and German, clinical validity and com-
emerged in the late 1980s, wades out of his depth peting scoring systems.q

This cover image released by Crown shows “The Inkblots: Her-
mann Rorschach, His Iconic Test, and the Power of Seeing,” by
Damion Searls.
Associated Press

CARLA K. JOHNSON never been worked out.
Associated Press That hasn’t stopped its run-
A bear. A bat. A butterfly. away success.
Images seen in Rorschach The 10 cards, printed with
inkblots reveal the viewer’s symmetrical forms, remain
unconscious mind, includ- the same as when Swiss
ing any serious mental dis- psychiatrist Hermann Ror-
orders. Or do they? Is the schach first published them
Rorschach test a brilliant di- in 1921 to accompany his
agnostic tool, or a glorified book “Psychodiagnostics.”
parlor trick? Rorschach’s influences in-
“The Inkblots: Hermann cluded a children’s game
Rorschach, His Iconic Test, called klexography, psy-
and the Power of Seeing” choanalysis trailblazers
raises these questions and Freud and Jung, and ob-
lands in the middle. Author servations of his asylum pa-
Damion Searls concludes, tients’ interpretations of the
after much throat-clearing, set of images.
that patients, in partnership “Rorschach did not con-
with gifted psychologists, ceive of the blots as a ‘test’
may uncover fascinating at all: he called it an exper-
areas to explore through iment, a nonjudgmental
the Rorschach. But using and open-ended investi-
the results in parental cus- gation into people’s ways
tody lawsuits or other high- of seeing,” Searls writes.
stakes arenas, he writes, is Rorschach resisted initial
fraught with problems. pressure to use his inkblots
For instance, what precise- in schools as an aptitude
ly are we testing when we test. He wrote that the
ask people what they see thought of an aspiring stu-
in inkblots? Surprisingly, we dent barred from university
don’t know. The test’s theo- study because of his work
retical underpinnings have made him feel “a bit like I