Hermann Rorschach

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Hermann Rorschach

Hermann Rorschach [IPA: heɐman ʁoɐʃax] (8 November 1884 Zurich - 2 April 1922 Herisau) was a Swiss Freudian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, best known for developing a projective test known, from his name, as the Rorschach inkblot test.

When he was in high school, Rorschach was called Klecks, or "inkblot," by his friends. Like many other young people in his native Switzerland, he enjoyed Klecksography, the making of fanciful inkblot "pictures." However, unlike other young people, Rorschach would make inkblots his life's work.

An art teacher like his father, Rorschach showed great talent at painting and drawing conventional pictures. When it was time for him to graduate from high school, he could not decide between a career in art and one in science. He wrote a letter to the famous German biologist Ernst Hackel to ask his advice. The scientist suggested science, and Rorschach enrolled in medical school at the University of Zurich.

Rorschach studied under eminent psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler, who had taught Carl Jung. The excitement in intellectual circles over psychoanalysis constantly reminded Rorschach of his childhood inkblots. He wondered why different people often see entirely different things in the same inkblots. While still a medical student, he began showing inkblots to schoolchildren and analyzing their results.