November 8 - Hermann Rorschach
November 8, 2024
“Hold tight to the conviction that a woman is a human being too, who can be independent…Also realize that equality must exist between men and women.” — Hermann Rorschach.
I’m choosing my photo “Inkblot” to talk about Hermann Rorschach, the famous Swiss psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst known for his method known as the Rorschach Test, since there are many shapes one can make out in this photo.
He was born on November 8, 1884, in Zürich, Switzerland, and passed on April 2, 1922, at age 37 in Harisau, Switzerland. His nickname growing up since he loved Klecksography (making the inkblot “pictures”) was “inkblot.” His father was an art teacher and encouraged him to be creative. He had difficulty choosing between science and the arts when nearing college. He wrote the German biologist Ernst Haeckel for advice and suggested science. One deciding factor may have been that his father died at a young age when he was trying to decide.
After medical school, he traveled extensively. His first job was as an assistant at Cantonal Mental Hospital, where he worked while finishing his doctoral dissertation under the tutelage of Eugen Bieuler (he taught Carl Jung). He was very interested in psychoanalysis, which made him think of his inkblots, which he used to do, and made him question why, when people see an inkblot, they can each see different things in the same inkblot. He thought this could tell him about people’s minds.
He was interested in Russian culture and even had a fellowship opportunity there in 1913. He returned to Bern in 1914, working at Waldau University Hospital, then took the assistant director at the Herisau Regional Psychiatric Hospital. He wrote Psychodiagnostik in 1921, the basis of the inkblot test.
While in Russia, he fell in love with Olga Stempelin, and they had two children. One year after writing Psychodiagnostik, he died from peritonitis (they believe from a ruptured appendix).
And when he was passing - ‘He said to me (his wife): “Tell me, what kind of person was I? You know when you’re living your life you don’t think much about the soul, about your self. But when you’re dying, that’s what you want to know.” I told him: “You were a noble, faithful, honest, gifted man.”
Legacy: 2001: The Inkblot test was considered pseudoscience and controversial by Scientific American, but in 2013 and 2015, two different reviews and analyses were published, and the criticism was lifted. November 2013: Google Doodle celebrated Rorschach with an inkblot as their doodle.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Rorschach and https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hermann-Rorschach.
Photo: “Inkblot 2” - Black and White images from Death Valley National Park always remind me of Rorschach Inkblot tests. What about you? Do you see any patterns? Timbisha Shoshone & Newe Sogobia Ancestral Homeland. Taken with my Nikon D850 and Nikon 70-200 lens. Made black and white in Lightroom.