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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION:

A PSYCHOLOGICAL X-RAY: THE POWER OF THE RORSCHACH

“The Rorschach, as a test, provides a broad array of data concerning many characteristics of the individual that, if read correctly, provide an in-depth portrait of the individual as an individual” John Exner, 1997

My name is James Wood. I am a clinical psychologist and Associate Professor at the University of Texas at El Paso. [I appreciate your being personal but the reader will know all this, and it’s not essential to restate here.] Spread on the desk in front of me are the results of a Rorschach Inkblot test, recently administered to what appears to be a deeply disturbed 50-year-old man.

For more than half a century psychologists have prized the Rorschach as one of their most precious instruments. The patient is shown 10 inkblots and asked to tell what each resembles.[1] When scored and interpreted by an expert, a patient’s responses to the blots may reveal important information about personality and intellectual functioning. Called a “psychological x-ray”[2] and "perhaps the most powerful psychometric instrument ever envisioned,”[3] the Rorschach is psychology’s second most popular personality test and is regularly used in mental health clinics, schools, and legal cases.[4] [Please say more, right here at the outset, in more dramatic terms, about how powerful this test is: it determines which parent a child will live with, how someone is treated by the adult or juvenile justice system, school placement, whether an employee is hired or fired – whatever is the truth about this. But please give us a brief list of the applications of this test, right here, not later. Also tell us how many, actually, are administered each year: ONE MILLION! That is not the kind of incredible detail which should be buried in a footnote. We need this kind of dramatic detail to set the scene, right away, in this Introduction.]

The Rorschach results in front of me reveal a deeply disturbed individual. I will begin by interpreting the findings, then discuss how they reflect this man’s inner and outer reality. After reading this discussion, you will have a deeper understanding of the nature and depth of his disturbance and of how the Rorschach works and what its report reveals about the test itself..

A Blind Analysis of Rorschach Results

from a “Deeply Disturbed” 50-year-old Man

Rorschach experts sometimes engage in “blind analysis,” interpreting the test results without any information about the patient except age and gender. A blind analysis is the acid test of the expert’s skill because all the interpretations are based on the inkblot results alone. The following report section provides something very similar. The interpretations are taken directly from two recent books by the most influential contemporary authorities on the Rorschach, John Exner and his colleagues. In a sense, this is a blind analysis conducted by these experts. I am simply the clerk transcribing their thoughts from the very specific directions they have provided in their manual of interpretation.[You should say more about these books and their system, explaining that they provide specific manualized procedures and interpretations which allow this kind of concrete results without even knowing the subject.]

Here, therefore, are the characteristics revealed by the blind analysis of this individual.:

Impaired thinking.

First, the test results indicate [Why? Please don’t jump into the interpretation without telling us what it was that the subject said about the inkblots that indicated these characteristics. Start with what he says, give examples of his interpretation of specific ink-blots, then explain how you’ve looked it up in Exner’s books and made the official interpretation according to his strict manual. We need an indication of how that works here, at the beginning, rather than only later in this chapter.]that this man suffers from moderately impaired thinking and a significantly distorted view of reality. [5] It is likely that he misinterprets events and the actions of people in several significant areas of his life. Despite this impairment, he is unusually cautious and thoughtful, preferring to gather information and reflect on it before he acts.[6] He habitually approaches problem solving in an analytic way.

Severe depression.

The Rorschach also clearly indicates the presence of severe depression. This e man’s score on the Rorschach Depression Index. is very high.[7][Again, give us a few examples of what he has said in reaction to the inkblots which lead to this unalterable conclusion. This link between the inkblots, the subject’s statements and the interpretation is crucial to establish in this early discussion.] He has probably been suffering from extreme sadness and feelings of hopelessness for several weeks. The physical signs of depression are also likely, such as disrupted sleep, loss of appetite, and fatigue. His Rorschach contains two “Morbid” responses ([This is not clear and should in any case appear earlier above, where indicated. Are you saying that he saw an inkblot and described it as “a Georgia O’Keefe…etc.? Please clarify.]for example “a Georgia O’Keefe painting of a cow skull”), which suggests a depressive, pessimistic view of himself.[8] Furthermore, a disproportionate number of his responses focus on the black or gray features of the blots, indicating – according to the manual -- that he is holding back his emotions.[9]

Interpersonal problems.

The Rorschach results indicate not only that this e man is depressed, but also that he has persistent difficulty relating with other people. He tends to be overly preoccupied with himself, dependent, guarded, angry, and somewhat withdrawn.[10] Many of his responses involve fictional or fantasy figures (He describes one inkblot as “Tiger Lily from Peter Pan,” and another as “Two laughing gargoyles”), indicating that his relationships with other people are based largely on his own imagination rather than reality[11] He is also highly concerned about other people, relates to them effectively, and is probably regarded as likeable and outgoing.[12]

The Accuracy of this e Rorschach Interpretation Test

This blind analysis was ese Rorschach interpretations are based on the best current books and authorities. I also double-checked them by running the scores through a popular computer interpretation program for the Rorschach. But is this interpretation blind analysis really accurate? Does it truly provide deep insight about the 50-year-old man?

I can say with considerable confidence that it does not, since . Did I forget to mention that I am 50 years old? tThe subject of test was me, and the results are my own, based on a Rorschach recently administered to me by a well-qualified clinical psychologist who is trained and experienced in the official methods of administration and interpretation for the test. with the Rorschach.

Here are my own interpretations of the test results:

Impaired Thinking

Let’s begin with my supposedly impaired thinking and distorted view of reality. If the Rorschach is correct then I deserve a great deal of credit for having overcome my mental disabilities. My undergraduate degree was from Harvard. I received a master’s degree from the Yale Divinity School and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Arizona. I have published over 30 articles and book chapters, including several during the past year It’s true that I’ll never win the Nobel Prize, but aside from my Rorschach results there’s little to suggest that my thinking is unusually impaired or that my view of reality is more distorted than average.

Severe Depression

Next is my “depression,” which shows up as a high score on the Rorschach Depression Index, some “Morbid” images, and several responses based on the black and gray aspects of the inkblots.

A depressed person is persistently sad, has little interest in normal activities, feels fatigued and is low on energy. He feels hopeless and may have thoughts of death or suicide. He has difficulty concentrating on things even so simple as reading a book or watching a television program. Sleep and appetite are usually disrupted.

I have none of these problems. My mood is normal, even a little cheerful. I am interested in many activities, such as writing this book, taking care of small home improvement projects, and spending time with my family. My energy level is about average. My concentration is fine and so is my appetite. I sleep soundly, though my wife complains about my snoring. If I am depressed, I haven’t noticed it. Maybe my wife is depressed about the snoring, but that doesn’t count.

How can it be that the Depression Index (usually called the DEPI) shows that I’m depressed even though I’m not? In fact, the large majority of studies over the past decade have found that the DEPI bears little or no relationship to depression. Despite these studies, the books of leading Rorschach experts continue to claim that a high score on the DEPI indicates depression. Many clinical psychologists read the books and ignore the research.

What about the Morbid images that I saw in some blots, such as the cow skull from a Georgia O’Keefe painting? As it happens, there are some ambiguous research findings [Can you cite these? Not in parenthesis but with a superscript, as elsewhere.] which suggest that Morbid responses may be more common among depressed patients than non-depressed people. However, the difference (if it exists at all) is not large enough to be clinically useful, and many non-depressed individuals give Morbid responses for a variety of reasons. For example, I lived many years in Arizona and New Mexico and own a book of Georgia O’Keefe’s paintings. When I see one of her cow skulls in an inkblot, it probably has more to do with my Southwestern heritage and interest in art than with depression.

Similarly, the fact that I saw several gray and black objects in the blots probably has nothing to do with depression. In the 1930s, a small group of European psychiatrists advanced the theory that people who comment on the black or gray tones of the Rorschach inkblots are “holding back” negative feelings, such as anxiety and depression. As I will explain later in this book, there was no good scientific evidence to substantiate the theory in the 1930s, nor has any compelling evidence turned up in the intervening 70 years. Nevertheless, Rorschach experts routinely interpret such responses as evidence of repressed or suppressed negative emotion.

Interpersonal Problems

Finally, according to the Rorschach results I am an interpersonal disaster -- self-centered, dependent, guarded and angry. When I took the test I fully expected this finding because practically everyone looks “sick” on the Rorschach. For instance, in a study conducted in the early 1980s, psychologists were asked to evaluate the Rorschach scores from a group of mental patients. Unbeknownst to the psychologists, the Rorschach results of some normal individuals were also included with the patients’ scores. The findings of the study were stunning: The psychologists classified nearly 80% of the normal individuals as having serious character flaws or being depressed..[13]

Because 4 out of 5 normal people look disturbed on the Rorschach, I consider myself to be in good company. Besides, most Rorschach interpretations regarding character problems lack any good scientific support and are probably no more valid than the advice of a palm-reader. For example, consider the Rorschach finding that I am “guarded.” When I took the test I saw several images in the blots that involved clothing, such as a man wearing a pointed medieval hat and women in high heels. A leading contemporary authority on the Rorschach has warned that such “Clothing responses” can indicate guardedness and a desire to “conceal” something.[14][This response should have appeared earlier, during the first round of results.] However, he does not cite any research to sustain this idea, which is supported by little more than his opinion.

The same is true regarding the finding that I am “dependent.” It so happens that I saw a popsicle in one of the colored blots. According to the Rorschach books, even a single “Food response” of this kind indicates a high degree of dependency.[15][Again it would be far better to include this response of yours at the outset. It can then be repeated, as can the one above, in this discussion of how ludicrous and unsubstantiated are these interpretations.] However, this interpretation is nothing more than opinion, unsupported by any good scientific evidence.[16] Interestingly, there is one study that supports an alternative interpretation (which I prefer), that when someone gives a Food response to the Rorschach, it may be because he or she missed lunch.[17]

Contradictions and Direct Hits

Before setting aside my Rorschach, I’d like to emphasize two other points that are especially interesting. First, as you may have noticed, several of my Rorschach results contradict each other. For instance even though my thinking is supposedly distorted, my Rorschach scores also indicate that I’m reflective and analytic in my approach to problem solving. Apparently my thinking is distorted and analytic all at the same time. [That is possible.] As another example, even though the Rorschach indicates that I’m self-centered, guarded and angry in my interpersonal relationships, it also says that I relate well to other people and am well-liked.

Psychologists who use the Rorschach are well aware that it often generates self-contradictory statements about patients. There are several strategies for dealing with these anomalies when they crop up. Usually the inconsistencies can be smoothed over or simply ignored when the final test report is written up. Some psychologists actually argue that the contradictions are a proof of the Rorschach’s value: Human personality is complex and self-contradictory, they say, and the Rorschach results accurately reflect this fact.

One psychologist who uses the test in legal cases told me how an attorney had once subpoenaed a computerized Rorschach interpretation from her and then pointed out its inconsistencies in court. To avoid further embarrassments of this kind, the psychologist stopped using computerized interpretations in her court cases. In this way, the contradictions could be kept safely out of sight from overly inquisitive lawyers.

Nevertheless, a few ofThe second point I’d like to emphasize about my Rorschach results is that a few of them are “direct hits” that describe me quite well. For instance consider the Rorschach finding that I am unusually thoughtful and reflective, and that I prefer to gather information and analyze situations before acting. I can vouch that the Rorschach is right: As might be expected with a professor, I tend to be more reflective and analytic than most people.

When I viewed the inkblots, I repeatedly saw people engaged in movement (“two dancing dervishes,” “dwarves spraying each other with water”). According to the Rorschach books, such “Human Movement” responses often indicate a thoughtful, reflective personality. In this case, the books are correct and the research supports them. A large number of studies have shown that Human Movement responses tend to be related to reflectiveness and self-restraint.

The Rorschach could be easily dismissed if it were all wrong. But the situation is more complicated. Although the large majority of Rorschach scores are useless, a few can provide accurate information about a patient who has taken the test. If clinical psychologists had tossed away the “chaff” of the test 50 years ago while keeping its few kernels of “wheat,” the Rorschach might now be a modestly successful psychological tool with a legitimate if narrow use..

Unfortunately, the history of the Rorschach has gone in a different direction. In its current form, the few worthwhile scores of the Rorschach are lost among the many scores and interpretations that are pure tripe. The situation would be humorous if it did not regularly result in harm to innocent people. Psychologists using this test can and do cause serious damage in people’s lives. Let me tell you the story that first made me “deeply disturbed” about the Rorschach.

The Rorschach and Child Sexual Abuse Allegations:

The Story of Rose Vygotsky and her Children

Rose Vygotsky was blonde, softly pretty, and a little off-beat. When she was in her 20s she’d become involved in New Age religion and worked for a bookstore that sold Tarot cards and crystals. Then in her 30s she took a 180 degree turn toward Christianity. Re-joining the Catholic Church, the faith of her childhood, she also attended services at fundamentalist Christian churches and mailed in money to television evangelists.

Although Rose sang in the choir at St Leo’s, her Catholic parish, she never completely fit in. With her habit of reading the Bible each night for guidance and her enthusiastic references to “The Lord” as if he were a personal friend, she seemed more like a born-again Christian than a Catholic. Furthermore, as a welfare mother Rose was out of place in St. Leo’s middle class congregation. Living in subsidized housing with her teenaged daughter and young son, Rose attended a junior college and only worked part-time at a low-paying job.

Allegations of Abuse

Despite her heavy involvement in religion, Rose had been divorced three times. Her last marriage had been to an evangelical minister, which perhaps explained her religious mannerisms. She had been pregnant when she left him after only six months of marriage. When the baby was born, a boy named Noah, a fierce court battle had ensued over custody and visitation. Rose alleged that Donald River, her ex-husband, had been violent during their marriage and tried to kill her. Then a week before the case was scheduled for trial, Rose’s 8-year-old daughter by a previous marriage suddenly “remembered” that Donald had sexually abused her when she was five.