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Unravel the secrets of your psyche: Your view ofthese ink blots could reveal your deepestdesires -­ and darkest fearsBy John Naish Updated: 19:44 EST, 20 December 2010

Look at the third image on the right — do you see a strong man flexing his muscles? That could mean youare 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 tomood 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 everused in psychiatry — the Rorschach Inkblot test.

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 silenceand 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 beingelbowed 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, inthe 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 makesense of it by organising it into a picture. Such pictures, proponents argue, can speak volumes about yourthought patterns.

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 nextday;; 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 followthem through.

3 sunglasses, bra or beard: You like dressing up, although you can worry excessively about whatpeople 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.

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. Youare naturally gifted and extremely determined. You pride yourself on always being equal to thechallenge.

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

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

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

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

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.

But many professionals still swear by it, because it asks a fascinating question: what does your imaginationreveal 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 thestandard method for interpreting the inkblot test.

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

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 expansivenesscause 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 seemsyou 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 slowpuncture;; you can give a huge amount, but still it's not clear that it's working for you. You feelinadequate, though you don't know why.

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.

Here, we publish a few of these images as a light-­hearted way to assess your personality. The test’s basics

are simple: look through the inkblots and choose the one that attracts your imagination most.

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, www.theredstoneshop.co

Adapted from The Redstone Inkblot Test, by Will Hobson, £11.95, www.theredstoneshop.co

Comments (64)

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karen, medway kent, 5 years ago

I thought the first picture was a squashed moth,i could not see any of the things suggested.

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LuLu, Arlington, VA, USA, 5 years ago

Well that was fun! Do some more!

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Yve, UK, 5 years ago

The ink blot test described me perfectly BUT now what do I look at for the therapy I obviously need. Oh I wish I

hadn't looked !

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Jenn, USA, 5 years ago

oh balony. the second one looks like two squirrel playing paddy cake and two faces kissing. what i saw the

statements directly contradicted themselves.

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sheryl, Washington, 5 years ago

Sue from USA.... don't fret. psychology does not and cannot provide a cookie cutter results like actual medicine

does. that's why exact science still don't accept psychology as that, an exact science because of the fact that for

every conducted psychological tests produces very vast results.

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Monty Magpie, Newcastle, 5 years ago

I saw nothing in the 4th, the 2nd one I saw doves flying. 1st one I saw chest and lungs, spine upper torso. 5th one I

saw tonsils. 3th one scorpion or lobster.

110

Nell, Kent, 5 years ago

I saw absolutely nothing in any of them!

Find this story at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-­1340368/Unravel-­secrets-­psyche-­Your-­view-­ink-­blots-­reveal-­deepest-­

desires-­-­darkest-­fears.html

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Sue, USA, 5 years ago

First one -­ I saw it as a chest x-­ray with lungs and blood, second one -­ none of those options;; kind of reminded me ofthe pelvic bone area on a skeleton, third one -­ fallopian tubes, fourth one -­ none of those, I couldn't figure out what itlooked like, fifth one -­ tonsils. Some of these "results" are accurate for me (first, third), but some are definitely not atall accurate for me (fifth). I wonder what it means when what you see is not one of the options, like the second andfourth blots, for me?

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Rach, Aberdeen, 5 years ago

Another one for the teddy bear! Maybe that means we're all soft and huggable?

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June, Medway, 5 years ago

A dead rabbit, pigeons, scorpion, brain and vampire bat. That's what travelling on southeastern trains does to you!

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