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Rorschach ink blot
Ethics and morality, History and philosophy

Blot on the landscape?

John Donnelly's Personal Space.

18 May 2003

In 1959 Samuel Beck began his review of the Rorschach inkblot test with the question: ‘To Rorschach? Or not to Rorschach?’ He observed an ‘unresolved ambivalence’ towards the Rorschach test. Universities were uncertain about teaching it and yet they were afraid not to teach it because of the test’s popularity at the time (Beck, 1970/1959). Forty years later Huntsley and Bailey (1999) commented: The Rorschach Ink Blot test has the dubious distinction of being, simultaneously, the most cherished and the most reviled of all psychological assessment tools. (p.266) Although many of the original criticisms of the Rorschach have now been addressed, its use continues to touch a nerve with many psychologists.

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