A lot is crammed into this book. I found the biography part of the book more interesting; but not for lack of interesting topics in the second half.

**This was an advanced reader copy won through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.** ( )

Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com

This title immediately interested me, even though I've always been skeptical about the Rorschach test. I've however never taken one, and I hold a degree in neither psychiatry nor psychology. But I'm a scientist, so the parts where Rorschach is optimizing his test (stating he needs many more subjects both healthy and diseases, blind interpretation of tests and a standardized form of scoring good and bad answers) were among my favorites, as it seemed quite far ahead of his time.

The book however, is more of a dual biography of Rorschach but especially his test. I liked the first part (also see above) which focused on Rorschach as he's developing his test. After his untimely death in the 1920s (which is only halfway through the book) the focus changes to what happened to the test afterwards.

This latter part had great trouble to hold my interest. It seemed to contain a series of always new people quarreling about who is the new Rorschach. It is here that the test starts to falter in the hands of people who all want to prove themselves (some trying to standardize it but resulting in over diagnosis of most everyone), although I was quite shocked to find out it can be used as evidence in court (since it is not an unquestioned test). This part is also filled with quite a lot of other test and terms from personality testing, not all of it is explained well enough that it is not confusing.

All in all, I really enjoyed the biography of Rorschach, I didn't quite like the one about his test as much.

Thanks to Blogging for Books and Edelweiss for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! ( )

I read about half of this. It just keeps on going without ever really getting anywhere.

I read this book in German translation. ( )

What a fun and interesting read about an unsung here of psychology. Rorschach.

This is so much more than I anticipated, more intense, in depth. I was not aware that there are “officially” only 10 inkblots used in Rorschach’s tests and that “most of the Rorschach blots we see in everyday life are imitations or remakes,” that “even in academic articles or museum exhibitions , the blots are usually reproduced in outline, blurred, or modified to reveal something about the images but not everything. “ So secretive, sacred were these cards before their copyright expired and the internet took hold. Now, they are as main stream as an emoji. (There are 7 included in this book, along with photos of the dashing Rorschach, his family and some of his other later paintings.)
The belief that “you can manage what you want to say but you can’t manage what you want to see” has negated many an applicants attempt for employment after acing every test but the blots. Fascinating! But what I found most interesting is how such tests can still be referred to everyday life, as in our media reports. You see what YOU see and that is your truth.

And so we go into his early years, his birth in 1884 and events alongside. His father was a painter, his mother, a doting, fun-filled woman with both combined to make their children’s lives enjoyable and successful to adulthood. And we follow him, in great visual and dialogue through to such. His schooling, his early practice, his many successes and earned accolades, some of his cases/patients. This book has so much information, so many elements, that it would take me a book itself to highlight them. Suffice it to say that this is an exceptional biography, spanning (it feels) every day in the life of Rorschach.

When it got into the psychology of the cards, I did get lost a time or two, not knowing the lingo, but none of the book was written in a “scholarly” fashion, more so that anyone could read, enjoy and learn from its contents. We DO have the internet, after all, so look up the “Zipf curve” and read on!

Bravo, Searls. This is a book I will read again and again. ( )