Book Review – Hermann Rorschach’s Psychodiagnostics
Image: Hermann Rorschach’s Psychodiagnostics by Len Lantz (CC BY-NC-ND)
Synopsis: Len's Star Rating: 10 out of 10. A superb translation of Rorschach’s original text, Psychodiagnostics.
BY LEN LANTZ, MD / 6.2.2023; No. 110
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Star Rating – 10 out of 10
Rating guide: 1 = horrible, 5 = average and 10 = wow
Authors
Hermann Rorschach and translators/editors: Philip Keddy, Rita Signer, Philip Erdberg, Arianna Schneider-Stocking
About the authors
Dr. Hermann Rorschach (1884 – 1922) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. He pioneered the use of inkblots to measure unconscious aspects of people’s personalities, and his method, often referred to as the Rorschach test, has continued to be studied and expanded to better understand other conditions, such as psychosis.
Philip Keddy, PhD, earned his Professional/Clinical Psychology at the California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP), and he maintains a private practice in Oakland, CA.
Rita Signer serves as the Director of the Hermann Rorschach Archives and Museum in Bern, Switzerland.
Philip Erdberg, PhD, is a forensic psychologist, researcher, and expert in personality assessment and personality disorders. He earned his doctoral degree from the University of Alabama. Dr. Erdberg is a past president of the Society for Personality Assessment and has served in a variety of other leadership roles, including faculty at the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute, assistant clinical professor at the University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine, assessment/research director at the Masonic Center for Youth and Families in San Francisco, and member of the R-PAS development team.
Arianna Schneider-Stocking is an adjunct faculty member at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. She obtained her MA in Conference Interpretation at the Universität des Saarlandes, Germany. She is also a freelance translator and interpreter with fluencies in German, Italian, and English.
General description
Hermann Rorschach’s Psychodiagnostics is a critical resource as it replaces the 1942 English translation of Rorschach’s only published book, Psychodiagnostics: Methodology and Results of a Perceptual-Diagnostic Experiment, published in 1921. This updated English translation includes introductory chapters on the history of Rorschach and this translation. It also includes drawings and photographs from the Rorschach Archive.
Unique and most important aspects
Hermann Rorschach’s Psychodiagnostics is an updated translation of Rorschach’s groundbreaking work and comes over 80 years after the previous translation! It includes 39 pages of annotations, which alone are worth the cost of this text in how they add depth and rich context to the original work. This translation also includes a 1922 case study lecture that Rorschach gave 6 weeks before his premature death at age 37.
This book is the culmination of a large project and is amazing in how the complexity of Rorschach’s work is made more understandable. The text has the feel of a textbook. Having an updated translation of the original work of a pioneering psychiatrist is critical for comparing current observations of mental illness to historical descriptions and strengthening current clinical diagnostics.
The reader will observe that about a fourth of the way into Hermann Rorschach’s Psychodiagnostics, the text starts to become dense, technical, and jargon-filled as it details inkblot interpretations and diagnostics. The intended audience for this book includes professionals who are currently trained in using Rorschach’s inkblots, historians, and people who are interested in learning more about Rorschach’s methodologies. However, readers without training in Rorschach’s methodologies will find that the information in the main body of the text is hard to grasp.
Best quotes
“But given the extent of the changes we made from the 1942 translation, we think it is more accurate to call our translation a replacement than a revision, following the distinction that Solms made.”
“When [Rorshach] was only 22, he decided to become a psychiatrist because in his own words – ‘the most interesting thing in nature is the human soul,’ and the ‘highest thing a person can do is to heal sick souls’ (Müller and Signer, page 38). With these convictions, he began his important and enduring work as a researcher and clinician.”
“It has long been known that a very close relationship must exist between color and affectivity. The respondent in a gloomy mood is someone who sees everything in black, while the respondent in a cheerful mood sees everything through ‘rose-colored glasses.’”
Who would enjoy this book?
Readers who are interested in an updated English translation of Rorschach’s original book, Psychodiagnostics, are likely to enjoy Hermann Rorschach’s Psychodiagnostics.
Who would not enjoy this book?
People who are interested in an accessible book for lay readers on the history and application of Rorschach’s inkblot methodologies are unlikely to enjoy Hermann Rorschach’s Psychodiagnostics.
Conclusion
Hermann Rorschach’s Psychodiagnostics is a superb translation of Rorschach’s original text, Psychodiagnostics.