Psychodiagnostics - A Diagnostic Test Based on Perception
(Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating bac...)
Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
This book, "Zwei schweizerische Sektenstifter (Binggeli - Unternährer)", by Hermann Rorschach, is a replication of a book originally published before 1927. It has been restored by human beings, page by page, so that you may enjoy it in a form as close to the original as possible. This book was created using print-on-demand technology. Thank you for supporting classic literature.
(2009 edition, printed in Switzerland. This is the most re...)
2009 edition, printed in Switzerland. This is the most recent version that has been created. Brand new, never used. Colors are crisp and bright. A nice set. Box cover has light shelf wear that was there when I purchased it. RORSCHACH PSYCHODIAGNOSTIC PLATES by Hermann Rorschach, M.D. Complete set of 10 original 2009 plates (not copies), printed in Switzerland, with Rorschach's signature embossed on back of each card. These Plates were created in 2009 using the original antique 1921 printing plates in order to maintain consistency, reliability, & validity. For professional use only. Comes with original box cover. I pay for shipping insurance when I mail these Plates/Cards. I will email pictures if requested.
Hermann Rorschach was a Swiss psychiatrist who developed the inkblot personality test commonly known as the Rorschach test.
Background
Rorschach was born on November 8, 1884, in Zurich, Switzerland. He was the oldest of the three children of Ulrich Rorschach, an art teacher in Zurich schools; he also had a sister named Anna and a brother named Paul. His father's artistic interests may have been behind the young Rorschach's fascination with inkblots in his childhood.
Education
As a secondary school student, he was nicknamed Kleck, meaning “inkblot, ” because of his interest in sketching. He graduated from the local high school with honors. After leaving high school, Rorschach went on to college with the goal of earning a medical degree. He spent time at a number of medical schools-in Neuchâtel, Zurich, and Bern in Switzerland and Berlin in Germany-completing his studies in Zurich after five years. Rorschach earned his doctor of medicine degree from the University of Zurich in 1912.
Career
While taking courses in Zurich, he had been a top student of Eugene Bleuler and had worked in the university hospital's psychiatric ward. Continuing to pursue his interest in psychiatry, he undertook a residency at a mental institution in Munsterlingen, Switzerland, in 1909. Rorschach had begun research on the potential uses of inkblots in determining personality traits as early in 1911. He had done some early experiments using schoolchildren as subjects during his medical training at the University of Zurich, and he had also read about the inkblot experiments of other psychology researchers, including Justinus Kerner and Alfred Binet. He found, however, that his predecessors in this subject had not developed a consistent method of administering and evaluating such a test. Over the next decade, Rorschach conducted studies to develop such a method, using both patients in the mental hospitals where he was employed as well as healthy, emotionally stable people. In 1913 he and his wife accepted posts at a mental institution in Moscow, Russia, where they remained for one year. In 1914, Rorschach secured a job as a resident physician at the Waldau Mental Hospital in Bern, Switzerland. He advanced to a higher position two years later when he was hired at the Krombach Mental Hospital in Appenzell, Switzerland. Respected as a leading psychiatrist in his native country, he was elected vice president of the Swiss Psychoanalytic Society in 1919.
Based on the information he gathered, Rorschach was able to devise a system of inkblot testing that provided a systematic way of testing and analyzing a subject that could produce meaningful results for understanding a person's personality traits. Rorschach presented his new system in his book Psychodiagnostik (1921), which appeared in English translation as Psychodiagnostics: A Diagnostic Test Based on Perception in 1942. The book not only outlined Rorschach's famous inkblot test, but also discussed his wider theories of human personality. One of his primary arguments was that each person displays a mixture of the "introversive" personality, one motivated by internal factors, and the "extratensive" personality, or one more influenced by external factors. He believed that the amount of each trait in a person could be measured by using his ink-blot test, which could also reveal an individual's mental strengths or their abnormalities. Planned Improvements on Testing Method For his inkblot test, Rorschach designed 10 cards, each with a different symmetrical inkblot pattern. The designs, while not depicting any particular objects, do contain shapes suggesting physical items. The cards also vary in color: five are only in black and white, two are primarily black and white with some color, and three are in color. The person administering the test is to show each card to the subject without displaying any reaction to the subject's answers. The subject is instructed to describe what he or she sees in the inkblot, and the subject's answers are then analyzed in several different areas, including the part of the picture focused on, the length of time to generate a response, the content of the response, originality, and the subject's attention to such details as color, shading, and form. The value and accuracy of the test were based in large part on the ability of the person administering the test to interpret the results properly. But it still presented one of the most effective means of evaluating personality ever devised. Rorschach, however, looked upon Psychodiagnostik as a preliminary work that he intended to develop further. Rorschach's book was not immediately given much attention when it appeared. Psychiatrists at that time did not think that personality could be tested or measured, so they initially ignored his work. By 1922, however, the ideas in Rorschach's book had become the subject of some discussion, but most psychiatrists remained wary of his new methods and did not feel that they could yield useful results, although they did acknowledge the potential value for the free-association thought that the inkblots generated. Rorschach discussed his plans to improve upon his inkblot system at a meeting of the Psychoanalytic Society that year, but this work was never completed.
(2009 edition, printed in Switzerland. This is the most re...)
Connections
At the asylum he met Olga Stempelin, a Russian employee there, and the two began a relationship that resulted in their marriage in 1910. The couple had their first child, Elizabeth, in 1917; their second child, Wadin, was born in 1919.