The Inkblots review

  

       Have you ever heard of the Rorschach test? You know, the test that uses what people see in inkblots to help a psychologist identify aspects of your personality or how you function emotionally? Between seeing (Non-Rorschach) inkblots used in advertising, movies, Internet quizzes, etc. I'm sure you have heard of this test. However, do you know anything about the test or the man who created it? I didn't. Although I am not super into psychology, I thought I might learn something from this book so I applied to read from NetGalley it in exchange for a fair review. (Thanks Crown, Mr. Searls and NetGalley!)

      The first part of this book is a biography of Hermann Rorschach, a Swiss psychoanalyst responsible for creating this test.  I wondered why I hadn't really heard much about his life before reading this book. (The author states that his family were very private after Rorschach's death and that some of his things were lost in a fire after they were donated.) It was interesting for me to read about some of the beliefs of the times and places where he lived and worked. Rorschach died pretty young, at the age of 37. It would've been interesting to see what he would've accomplished had he lived longer.

       The second part of the book was basically a cultural history of the test- the strengths and weaknesses of the test, how it is scored, who it was used by and when, etc. To be honest, there were times that I found myself skimming some of these sections because psychology is not the most riveting subject to me, but there were definitely things I didn't know. I hadn't really considered that the whole aspect of "personality" is still a relatively new thought. While interpreting these tests, people used to think that some results were just dependent on how you were wired; now personality is a factor. Also, the interpretation of the test is skewed a bit depending on culture. Some of the scoring of the test has to do with colors- and some cultures associate colors to other objects or representations. I also didn't know how this test was used by the Nazis or in military screenings. It was an interesting read overall.