From Prophets to Perception: The Origins of Rorschach's Psychology

Relatively little is known about the life and work of Hermann Rorschach (1884-1922), the Swiss psychiatrist who developed the psychodiagnostic inkblot technique that now bears his name. A vice president of the early Zurich-based Swiss Psychoanalytic Association and a gifted scholar, his promising career was cut short at the age of thirty-seven by his sudden death from appendicitis. Although he published more than thirty papers during the single decade of his professional career, only his inkblot test is known to the English-speaking world. His other publications, available in German, have been given little attention even in his native land.

Although the widespread use of the “Rorschach test” justifies in itself a closer examination of Rorschach's life, it must be emphasized that this is not a comprehensive study of the man's life and work. The major focus is on Rorschach's most creative period, the years between 1916 and 1919, during which he accomplished two major projects. He not only produced the manuscript of the form-interpretation test, as he called his study of inkblots and human perception, but he also wrote several little-known articles on sectarian religious groups of Switzerland, including a biographical study of an elderly mystic and founder of a gnostic sect, Johannes Binggeli. This paper examines these two pieces of research, suggesting that the projects are related chronologically, thematically, and psychologically. Thus, it inquires into Rorschach's most productive years, offering some