How does the Rorschach inkblot test work? - Damion Searls

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For nearly a century, ten inkblots have been used as an almost mystical personality test. Long kept confidential for psychologists and their patients, the mysterious images were said to draw out the workings of a person's mind. But what can inkblots really tell us, and how does this test work? Damion Searls details how the Rorschach Test can help us understand the patterns of our perceptions.

Lesson by Damion Searls, directed by Kozmonot Animation Studio.

Take a look at this image.

What might this be?

A frightening monster?

Two friendly bears?

Or something else entirely?

For nearly a century,

ten inkblots like these have been used

as what seems like an almost
mystical personality test.

Long kept confidential for psychologists
and their patients,

the mysterious images were said to draw
out the workings of a person’s mind.

But what can inkblots really tell us,

and how does this test work?

Invented in the early 20th century
by Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach,

the Rorschach Test is actually less about
the specific things we see,

and more about our general approach
to perception.

As an amateur artist

Hermann was fascinated by how visual
perception varies from person to person.

He carried this interest to
medical school,

where he learned all our senses
are deeply connected.

He studied how our process of perception
doesn’t just register sensory inputs,

but transforms them.

And when he started working at a
mental hospital in eastern Switzerland,

he began designing a series
of puzzling images

to gain new insight into this
enigmatic process.

Using his inkblot paintings,

Rorschach began quizzing hundreds
of healthy subjects

and psychiatric patients with
the same question:

what might this be?

However, it wasn’t what the test subjects
saw that was most important to Rorschach,

but rather, how they approached the task.

Which parts of the image did they
focus on or ignore?

Did they see the image moving?

Did the color on some inkblots help them
give better answers,

or distract and overwhelm them?

He developed a system to code
people’s responses,

reducing the wide range of interpretations
to a few manageable numbers.

Now he had empirical measures to quantify
all kinds of test takers:

the creative and imaginative,

the detail-oriented, the
big-picture perceivers,

and flexible participants able
to adapt their approach.

Some people would get stuck,

offering the same answer
for multiple blots.

Others gave unusual and
delightful descriptions.

Responses were as varied as the inkblots,

which offered different kinds of
perceptual problems–

some easier to interpret than others.

But analyzing the test-taker’s
overall approach

yielded real insights into
their psychology.

And as Rorschach tested more
and more people,

patterns began to pile up.

Healthy subjects with the same
personalities

often took remarkably similar approaches.

Patients suffering from the same
mental illnesses

also performed similarly,

making the test a reliable
diagnostic tool.

It could even diagnose some conditions

difficult to pinpoint with other
available methods.

In 1921,

Rorschach published his coding system
alongside the ten blots he felt

gave the most nuanced picture of people’s
perceptual approach.

Over the next several decades,

the test became wildly popular in
countries around the world.

By the 1960s,

it had been officially administered
millions of times in the U.S. alone.

Unfortunately, less than a year after
publishing the test,

Hermann Rorschach had died suddenly.

Without its inventor to keep it on track,

the test he had methodically gathered
so much data to support

began to be used in all sorts
of speculative ways.

Researchers gave the test
to Nazi war criminals,

hoping to unlock the psychological roots
of mass murder.

Anthropologists showed the images to
remote communities

as a sort of universal personality test.

Employers made prejudiced hiring decisions
based on reductive decoding charts.

As the test left clinics and entered
popular culture

its reputation among medical
professionals plummeted,

and the blots began to fall
out of clinical use.

Today, the test is still controversial,

and many people assume
it has been disproven.

But a massive 2013 review of all the
existing Rorschach research

showed that when administered properly
the test yields valid results,

which can help diagnose mental illness

or round out a patient’s
psychological profile.

It’s hardly a stand-alone key
to the human mind–

no test is.

But its visual approach and lack
of any single right answer

continue to help psychologists paint
a more nuanced picture

of how people see the world.

Bringing us one step closer

to understanding the patterns
behind our perceptions.