The Rorschach inkblot test is a subject of some controversy, with some seeing the test as meaningless while others place great store in it. The inkblots used for the test are specific, meaning that not just any inkblot will do. Images of inkblots seen in books and magazines are not the real inkblots used. Those are kept secret, and there are only ten of them. Psychologists do not want the public to see the real inkblots because that might color the results (The Rorschach Test, 2005).

The test was developed by Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach, who was born in 1884 in Zurich. He worked primarily in Switzerland but also in Russia. He published a number of psychoanalytic articles, and by 1911, he had already started experimenting with the interpretation of ink blots. He was not the first to do this, but he made a serious study of the issue and produced a book, Psychodiagnostik, in 1921. This book is now considered one of the great classics of psychiatry and psychology, though Rorschach himself never had any success with it as it was not well-received when it firs

t came out. Rorschach died in 1922 (Who was Hermann Rorschach? Paras. 102).

However, as noted, this view can be argued, and interpretation adds another layer of possibilities to the issue. Studies do show that the test is often invalid, and if it is still being used, it is because so many believe it is useful and are invested in seeing that it is used.

These elements identify the instrument as a cognitive structuring task involving processes of attention, perception, memory, decision making, and logical analysis.

One of the most dearly (expensively) held beliefs of many clinical psychologists is the belief in the validity of Rorschach inkblot interpretation. While this belief may be common in the general American population, it is particularly strong among clinical psychologists, many of whom still give Rorschachs despite the consistent research findings - of literally thousands of published studies - that the Rorschach interpretation is unreliable and invalid (Dawes, 1991, para. 1).

The Rorschach scene is at present a chaos of sights and a cacophony of sounds. With few exceptions, so far as I can judge from published reports of Rorschach test material, everyone using the test does what is right in his own eyes (p. 131).

Rorschach developed his test as an objective way of sampling, codifying, and drawing inferences from individual differences in styles of cognitive structuring. He offered a single set of inkblots for use with every subject and formulated a standard procedure for asking subjects what the inkblots might be. He also provided specific criteria for categorizing resp

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