Unravel the Secrets of your Psyche

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Unravel the Secrets of your Psyche
Your view of these ink blots could reveal your deepest desires - and darkest fears.
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By John Naish
Look at the third image on the right - do you see a strong man flexing his muscles? That could mean you are highly capable and always rise to a challenge.

What about the second - does it look like two emus wearing feather boas? If so, you could be prone to mood swings. But if you see sunglasses or a beard, you worry too much about what other people think.

These ‘diagnoses' are part of a new personality test that revives one of the most controversial methods ever used in psychiatry - the Rorschach Inkblot test.

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A: Do you see...


1 An X-ray image of a chest, showing red heart, lungs, blood?

2 An eccentric professor with fringes of white hair, a top-knot and big nose?

3 A stingray or skate?

If you saw...

1 X-ray: this suggests you have things welling up inside you that you want to express, but you'd prefer to suffer in silence and not rock the boat. You find it hard to say no in general.

2 Professor: You are benevolent, self-effacing, and a very good friend and thinker.

3 Stingray or skate: You tend to put yourself second, and are familiar, though not necessarily comfortable, with being elbowed aside by more powerful characters.

As a result you can sometimes be apologetic to a fault.

During the last century, professionals used it on everyone from *neurotic housewives to Nazi war criminals, in the belief that it allowed them to fathom the *hidden undercurrents that drive people's actions and emotions, and assess their mental wellbeing.

The inkblot test is rather like staring at clouds: when you see a meaningless shape, your brain tries to make sense of it by organising it into a picture. Such pictures, proponents argue, can speak volumes about your thought *patterns.

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B: Do you see...

1 A pair of emus facing one another, wearing feather boas?

2 A beetle or scarab, possibly with crab's claws?

3 Sunglasses, bra or beard?

If you saw...

1 emus: You feel the pull of the highlife - though, sometimes, you don't like how you feel the next day; you waver between extreme moods, taking yourself too seriously or just not caring.

2 Beetle: You are very hard-working; success comes naturally to you. You lay your plans, and follow them through.

3 sunglasses, bra or beard: You like dressing up, although you can worry excessively about what people think of you and seek external solutions - a new car, new clothes - to internal problems.


The original inkblot shapes were drawn by the test's inventor, Swiss psychiatrist *Hermann Rorschach. When he was a boy, Rorschach wanted to be an artist. Instead, he trained in psychiatry, but used his artist's eye to develop the inkblot test as a way of delving into the subconscious, testing it out on 405 people to check his theories.

Rorschach struggled to get his idea accepted as a therapeutic method. When he finally *persuaded an *academic publisher to turn it into a book in 1921, not one copy was sold. The publisher went bust and *Rorschach died three months later of peritonitis aged 37.

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C: Do you see...

1 A strong man, flexing his muscles?

2 a scorpion?

3 fallopian tubes?

If you saw...

1 Strong man: this suggests you are highly capable, mastering everything you turn your hand to. You are naturally gifted and extremely determined. You pride yourself on always being equal to the challenge.

2 Scorpion: You are highly tuned, like a gymnast, so diet and sleeping can be problematic, since you are physically very sensitive, but not emotionally; anything that smacks of therapy gets on your nerves.

3 Fallopian tubes: You have a sense of stalled potential, of putting an enormous amount into life, yet still waiting for it to start. Your idea of how things should be - for instance, whom you should be with, what you should be doing - is very vivid, and if reality falls short of expectations, your considerable achievements provide little consolation. Inkblot test.


Word of the method spread to the U.S., *however, where it *rapidly took off. By 1939, the Rorschach test had its own institute in New York. Everybody took the test, including Albert Einstein and President Roosevelt. The Rorschach test fell from grace in the Sixties, when researchers demanded rigorous scientific evidence of its effectiveness. Critics said it was unscientific and even dangerous because it relies on the *therapist's interpretation of patients' answers.

In the journal Psychological Assessment, the test was recently described as ‘the most cherished and the most reviled of all psychological assessment instruments'.

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D: Do you see...

1 Clown with a runny nose, melting face or someone sticking out their tongue?

2 A lady in a dress holding her skirts above a pair of jumping dolphins?

3 A long-lost cuddly toy?

If you saw...

1 Clown, face or someone sticking out their tongue: this suggests that you're social and seek out company - no one could cal l you a recluse. However, you do have aloof tendencies, a habit that will cause your friends concern.

2 Lady above dolphins: You are charismatic, often in a darkly brooding way. this draws attention to you, which is good for your ego, but it does not necessarily add much to your self-esteem.

3 Cuddly toy: sometimes, when things are difficult, you tend to dwell on your past, a time when you felt you belonged in the world and didn't have to fight constantly to prove yourself. Inkblot test


But many professionals still swear by it, because it asks a *fascinating question: what does your imagination reveal about your *personality and mental health?

In the Eighties, U.S. psychologist Dr John Exner led teams examining the results of thousands of patients' tests to give the *system more solid scientific foundations - and now the Exner system of scoring is the standard method for interpreting the *inkblot test.

Dr Justine McCarthy Woods, the president of the British Rorschach Society, says: ‘The Rorschach is a psychological tool which serves a vital function in mitigating human suffering and helping people identify the sources of their mental confusion and emotional pain.'

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E: Do you see...

1 A mouth, with tongue, tonsils and throat?

2 A pair of yellow fledglings pecking?

3 A red cat with whiskers or paws, possibly eating a butterfly, or a viper's mouth?

If you saw...

1 Mouth: You are a real force - your strength of character, accomplishments and expansiveness cause rooms (and lives) to rearrange themselves around you when you walk in.

2 Fledglings pecking: You are very nurturing, lavishing such care on others that it sometimes seems you don't need any in return. You're not entirely sure you deserve to be loved at all.

3 Cat or viper's mouth: Sometimes your relationships can seem like a bicycle tyre with a slow puncture; you can give a huge amount, but still it's not clear that it's working for you. You feel inadequate, though you don't know why. Inkblot test

Now the test has been revived publicly by the Redstone Inkblot Test - a parlour game that uses 12 inkblots close in style to the ten original Rorschach pictures.

Then look at the descriptions and see which you agree with most - and read what this suggests about you.

* Adapted from The Redstone Inkblot Test, by Will Hobson, £11.95, The Redstone Shop | Welcome