It is a projective test administered individually to young people and adults. The test materials consist of 10 psychodiagnostic cards. These cards, called planchets, have figures made of ink blots on them. These 10 cards are the 10 cards that Hermann Rorschach finally assigned from among hundreds of cards. The tester notes the answers given by the participant and then interprets the answers with a specially prepared scoring and reporting method.
The Rorschach test can be given to anyone aged 7-70. However, it should be noted that in tests with children and adolescents, the interpretations are different from adult interpretations and evaluations.
The Rorschach test provides the tester with information about the individual's character and abilities, but it also shows the affective disorders and the type of these disorders.
The Rorschach test should be administered by a trained and experienced psychologist.
Through this test, inferences can be made about the underlying structure of the tested individual's personality, the ongoing ways of participating in and organizing the world, affect, the experience of self and other, as well as the personality dynamics underlying this structure.
Hermann Rorschach, the Swiss psychiatrist who developed the Rorschach test, lived between 1884 and 1992. In 1910, H. Rorschach, who was deeply influenced by Jung, who developed his psychiatric studies in Eugen Bleuer's clinic in Zurich, and who was deeply interested in psychoanalysis, published many psychoanalytic studies and articles. In 1911 he became interested in ink stains. In 1921 he publishes his masterpiece Psychodiagnostics. After his death many researchers tried to differentiate or improve his system.
There are different interpretations of the Rorschach test. One of them is the American school and the other is the French school.
In the American school, the Comprehensive System created by John Exner is based on an empirical basis. The goal is problem solving and the response process is explained in perceptual-cognitive terms. The test is given with standardized instructions and is not based on any personality theory. The test results are descriptive, utilitarian, descriptive and lack the depth provided by personality theories. However, there are psychoanalytically oriented studies on Rorschach in the United States.
In the French school, studies on Rorschach began in 1933-1945. One of the names in the efforts to integrate Rorschach with analytic theory is R.Schafer. Schafer conducted research on transference, countertransference, the relationship between the tester and the patient, the thematic approaches of the test and defense mechanisms. Later in the 1960-70s, Didier Anzieu, Nina Rausch de Traubenberg and Vica Shentoub developed Rorschach studies with a model based on psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychopathology. In the school, which is based on the principle that it is not only the content of the test that is important, but also how it is said, the continuity of discourse and interpretation play a very important role. Just like a dream, the hidden and visible content is handled together to understand the psychological structure.
Psychoanalysis has long chosen the subjective model for data collection. The most important information about the individual is evaluated within the scope of the relationship with the therapist, i.e. transference. This dual relationship in each case is singular and unique. In the positivist mode of explanation, the non-codifiable material is of no importance. While the empirical approach tries to define the personality structure, the analytical model tries to explain the dynamics.
In Turkey, psychology was introduced to the Rorschach test by psychologist Yani Anastasiadis. For Anastasiadis, in his own words, 'Rorschach is the x-ray of the human soul'.