Controversial Psychology: The Rorschach Test

The Rorschach test, also known as the inkblot test, is one of the most controversial psychological assessments. Though controversial, it is also one of the most well known projective personality tests. This projective personality test has been used to help better understand clients and provide insight into an individual’s inner conscious and potential psychological problems. Although the idea of the inkblot procedure was present before Herman Rorschach, he was the first to use inkblots to help identify psychological disorders, specifically looking among schizophrenics. While Rorschach only lived to the age of 37, he has made lasting contributions to psychology today. Herman Rorschach, a Swiss psychiatrist, first published his ideas in 1921.He was originally interested in using inkblots to identify psychological disorders when he noticed children’s response to a game, blotto. By dropping ink into a piece of paper and folding it, children would then interpret these images to see who could come up with the most ideas of what the image resembled. Rorschach was intrigued when he realized schizophrenic patients had vastly different answers than others in this

Although it has a large empirical base, it lacks a solid scientific background. The biggest weakness of Rorschach is the lack of standardization. With various test administrators and the ambiguity in interpretation, all the tests can result in completely different results. This also raises the question about reliability and validity. When trying to obtain the unconscious content, it is difficult to eliminate the environmental stimuli and purely focus on the image. Although it may raise questions of uncertainty, to a certain extent, the Rorschach test allows individuals to potentially find the inner problems and find ways to help individuals. Additionally, it can be used as a psychological assistant in finding the root of an