Hermann Rorschach (1884–1922)

It’s rare that I pick up some inconspicuous seeming little book like this one, and find that it is in fact an amazing read. Rorschach isn’t as popular that he once was (though his test is being a used a whole lot more than the aforementioned fact could lead you to believe), so I infer from the complete lack of even potential readers here on Goodreads (except for my good self) that it simply isn’t hip anymore to be seen reading Rorschack on (say) the subway, it’s obviously much more compelling to pick something like genetic studies about gorilla twins in Tanzania or some such exotic place, but here we are in cuckoo clock country and the author/subject is this Irrenarzt, with about a century old ideas. And ink blots? Primitive stuff, seemingly on par with steam ships and velocipedes... For a generation that has been taught that they can be anything, stuff like that clearly belong in Pop culture and on t-shirts, ironicly exhibited in the same way as a contemporary Schnurrbart. - Of course, it doesn’t help that no English translation exists. On the other hand it has been translated into Japanese, where there has been a kind of Rorschach wave lately. Just sayin.

It is interesting though, especially since Rorschach was so “big” in the US for so long, that almost nothing except Psychodiagnostics appear to be available in English translation – while on the other hand, seemingly at least, every comma penned by Freud, Jung, and even Wilhelm Reich, is readibly available in several different editions. Admittedly this isn’t as sexy as Freud’s cigar, or as alluring as Jung’s archetypes, but still... I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that for the longest time there were in fact 5 different versions/variants of the Rorschach test in the US (until Exner cut through the crap and took what he deemed the most applicable from each of them, maybe too generously) – anyway, for a long time there was perhaps too much quarreling going on for any of those in an obvious position to do the translation to actually take the time to do it.

While Rorschach is the author of most of the material collected in this book, there are also a few other very useful contributions: a biographical essay by H. Ellenberger, Ludwig Binswanger’s Bemerkungen zu Hermann Rorschachs "Psychodiagnostik", and finally an intriguing essay by K. W. Bash, with the very esoteric sounding title of Tabula undecima seu smaragdina. To crank up the coolness factor further the book includes Rorchach's Zwei schweizerische Sektenstifter (Binggeli-Unternährer), which is highly recommended if you are even a least bit interested in western esoterism, religious studies or psychology (or all of those.) I’ve been doing a bit of reading about the Reformation lately, and naively gathered this was going to be simply a variation on a theme, if still a bit more odd than usual, but these Swiss sects are really far out there - as far as it can possibly get with at least one of the sect founders being (most likely, at least) schizophrenic. Rorschach had meant to expand on this study, and at one point he even wrote that he thought it would be his life’s work. I can see why -- and if he had gathered more material like this and worked through it, it could possibly have become a classic (even if for a select readership.)

He died all too early, but before that he created his ink blot test (mind you, they are not really ink blots, nor entirely symmetrical, but were painted with ink and watercolour), and the works gathered in this book can be seen as precursors to that, e.g. his inaugural dissertation, Über "Reflexhalluzinationen" und verwandte Erscheinungen. The quotation marks around Reflexhalluzinationen are there because this is also a critique of the psychiatrist K.L. Kahlbaum’s earlier theory – and it is a lot more interesting than the title could lead one to believe, at least seen in conjuction with his later work with the ink blots. - I’m not going to comment on all of the works in here, but I’ll touch on some of them in light of the final one – so, for the sake of convenience, here follows the more or less complete contents of the book:
Henri Ellenberger: Leben und Werk Hermann Rorschachs --- Über "Reflexhalluzinationen" und verwandte Erscheinungen --- Ein Beispiel von mißlungener Sublimierung und ein Fall von Namenvergessen --- Pferdediebstahl im Dämmerzustand --- Analytische Bemerkungen über das Gemälde eines Schizophrenen --- Über die Wahl des Freundes beim Neurotiker --- Analyse einer schizophrenen Zeichnung --- Assoziationsexperiment, freies Assoziieren und Hypnose im Dienst der Hebung einer Amnesie --- Einiges über schweizerische Sekten und Sektengründer --- Weiteres über schweizerische Sektenbildungen --- Über ein wahrnehmungsdiagnostisches Experiment --- Ludwig Binswanger: Bemerkungen zu Hermann Rorschachs "Psychodiagnostik" --- Zwei schweizerische Sektenstifter (Binggeli-Unternährer) --- K.W. Bash: Tabula undecima seu smaragdina...

Most of these do help to throw some light on Rorschach, his ink blots, psychology in the early part of last century, and of course the general atmosphere in Switzerland. And did I mention Swiss sects? Two lectures on that topic, given at the Sweizerischen Verein für Psychiatrie, are also included. The contribution by Binswanger gives some idea of how Rorschach’s experiment with the ink blots were being greeted at the time, and shows not the least how highly he was held in esteem: “Nichts verrät die schöpferische Natur eines Forschers mehr, als wenn es ihm gelingt, mit einfachen Mitteln komplizierte Zusammenhänge aufzudecken und neue Probleme zu erschließen. Rorschach war eine solche Natur. Nicht nur einfach, geradezu primitiv ist das Rüstzeug, mit dem er experimentiert und mit dem er die Resultate denkend verarbeitet. Ein paar grobe assoziationspsychologische und mechanistisch-materialistische Begriffe und Schemata dienen ihm zur Grundlage für sein ganzes Gebäude. Keine Anregung und Anleitung von außen, keine Literaturkenntnis steht ihm zur Verfügung. Dafür ist aber sein ganzes Werk gekennzeichnet durch eine eiserne Konsequenz im Festhalten und Weiterverarbeiten des einmal Erreichten und durch eine dauernde strenge Rückbeziehung desselben auf die durch das Experiment sowohl als durch das Leben gewonnene Erfahrung. Rorschach verliert sich nie in den Wolken, er bleibt der anschaulichen Wirklichkeit immer auf den Fersen. Diese Wirklichkeit aber, das ist die menschliche Person, deren Kenntnis ihm wie wenigen zur Verfügung stand, und in deren Wesen sich einfühlen zu können, ihm wie wenigen vergönnt war. Wo andere nur Zahlen und „Symptome" sehen, da standen ihm sofort innere seelische Beziehungen und Zusammenhänge vor Augen. Schopenhauer hat einmal gesagt, „wo das Rechnen anfängt, hört das Verstehen auf"; Rorschach hat immer noch verstanden, wo andere nur zu rechnen vermögen.” (p. 103)
Towards the end, he almost waxes lyrical: “Das psychodiagnostische Werk Rorschachs ist ein wissenschaftlicher Mikrokosmos, gleichsam eine wissenschaftliche „Monade", die immer und überall den Makrokosmos, das wissenschaftliche Universum widerspiegelt, dem sie entstammt, nämlich die medizinisch-, speziell psychiatrisch-psychologische Denkrichtung. Deswegen gibt es kaum ein lehrreicheres Mittel, die praktische Leistungsfähigkeit jenes Makro-„kosmos" zu veranschaulichen, aber auch das wissenschaftlich Problematische und Fragwürdige an ihm aufzudecken, als die nähere Zergliederung dieses Versuches und seiner Grundlagen.” (p. 114)

That’s all the quotes you get – because the Binswanger-text is the only one I also found available online except the Binggeli-Unternährer book, where the material is simply so rich that it’s hard to pick a good representative quote – and I am also too sated with it right now. (Take my word for it, there is a lot to digest in it...) Besides, you can check for yourself – it’s a fairly quick and easy read. (A link to archive.org can be found in a comment below.)

The editor, Kenower Weimar Bash, starts out extravagantly by quoting from the Tabula Smaragdina, and approaches the different works collected in this book with a focus on how they contribute to an understanding of the development of the ink blot experiment - which was just what I was after in the first place. For Rorschach, of course, the experiment and the publication of his findings was only a beginning, and he had already revised some of his views when the book appeared. In dealing with the genesis of the test, Bash provides some useful insights of the sort that wasn’t completely apparent (at least not to me) at a first read. He really has scrutinized the material, and adds some from other soures as well. In this connection he also discusses how Rorschach could have come up with the colour part of Movement / Form/ Colour determinants. Both Bash and Ellenberger suggests that Ernst Fankhauser, whom Rorschach met in Waldau, had some influence on him through his work on affectivity (Affektivität; a Bleulerian term) and the sensory impressions of light and colour - though to a degree it must as well have been an empirical finding on Rorschach’s part as he first started using colour in his own experiments, and which again influenced the way he gradually developed the cards. That Rorschach’s starting point was movement, as both Bash and the selections in this book demonstrates, there can be no doubt about. What I found most intriguing in his essay however, was his analytical approach to Rorschach himself, assessed through his writings.

Rorschach never underwent psychoanalysis (in the sense of a so-called training analysis), he deemed it “not necessary” – whatever he meant by that. This clearly bugs Bash quite a bit, so he attempts a sort of post mortem psychoanalysis, based on Rorschach’s choice of themes/topics in his written work on the one hand, and his biography on the other. Interesting things appear. Though certainly best taken with the proverbial pinch of salt, I thought he made sense for the most part, and I liked his dogged approach. In question in particular are four cases, among them the two reports Rorschach wrote in a couple of cases of amnesia. Both were also criminal cases. One involved a horse theft “in Dämmerzustand” and the other a soldier who failed to report back after leave, and who had, apparently, instead wandered around in a stupor for several days after a bike accident. What struck me about those reports were their very matter-of-factness as well as Rorschach’s high degree of conscientousness in his approach, which was possibly influenced by the fact that they were also intended for the police and military respectively. Rorschach was reluctant to give a specific diagnosis to one of them, and Bash questions his motivation: Was he perhaps being judgemental? Was there something he hadn’t worked through in himself? The same questions about diagnosis appears in connection with the Binggeli-Unternährer material. It is quite possible that Bash is right. I am not going to go into Rorschach’s biography in connection with this, but I also took note that he in some of these cases seemed to arrive at his diagnoses by a logic I couldn’t quite follow, but saw no reason to expect that for my part either. However, with the criminal cases, I thought perhaps that he considered it possible that one of them was bluffing (am I being judgemental?) and anyway it’s understandable that Rorschach didn’t want to give a diagnosis he wasn’t completely certain of. It’s different with Binggeli and Unternährer – here he appears absolutely certain in both cases, and builds further on his diagnoses in his elaboration of the material. Rorschach had met and interviewed Binggeli, and you do in fact get a clear impression that he didn’t like him, so it is definitely possible that Bash is right in this case at least.

Bash also brings two other cases into his discussion: “Analytische Bemerkungen über das Gemälde eines Schizophrenen” and “Analyse einer schizophrenen Zeichnung” – I found both cases highly fascinating and I enjoyed both Rorschach’s and Bash’s approach to the material, as it was done here from widely different angles. Bash only had access to a small part of Rorschach’s correspondence, but he does a remarkably good job in working with what he had available at that time. He doesn’t provide a whole lot that one couldn’t already infer from his biography alone, but having articulated it in the thoughtful way that he does here, makes it possible to reflect on it all in a more direct way. Bash was one of the founders as well as President of the International Rorschach Society, and (just to have said that) has clearly no interest in criticizing Rorschach, but is rather wanting to get a clearer picture of him. Which was, by the way, also part of my own motivation for picking up this book. Rorschach, whichever way you look at it, simply had just the kind of personality and degree of ingeniousness to come up with his test and develop it further. - Often an aura of mystery will surround someone who dies both suddenly and early in life - Rorschach very much included, and on top of that he died just as his career was starting to accelerate. In addition he was a really fascinating guy even to start with. The very originality of idea with his ink blot experiment is one thing, and his sect-studies, hardly any less original, is another – and there’s plenty more. For example: How often do you come across a psychologist who can actually draw really well? Or who has lived and worked for a period in tsarist Russia? (Here one possible correct answer would be: A whole bunch of Russian shrinks of course. You don't get any points for correct answers in just this quiz though, only for original answers.) – Enough rambling, but I hope you get my drift. With this book, I got a whole lot more than I thought I had reason to expect, and it was nothing less than a great read.



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