Hermann Rorschach

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Hermann Rorschach (approx. 1910)

Hermann Rorschach (born November 8, 1884 in Zurich , † April 2, 1922 in Herisau ) was a Freudian Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst . He developed a form interpretation method ("ink blot test"), which became known as the Rorschach test . This is still used today, u. a. as an aid for differential diagnostic examinations when taking anamnesis of psychopathological clinical pictures .

Life

Hermann Rorschach, who was born in Zurich in 1884 and grew up in Schaffhausen, initially wanted to be an artist. Finally, he studied in Zurich but medicine with the aim of psychiatrists to be. He heard u. a. Lectures with Eugen Bleuler on general and special psychiatry and psychiatric clinic and with Carl Gustav Jung on the psychopathology of hysteria . After semesters in Zurich , Bern and Berlin , Rorschach completed his studies in 1909 with the medical state examination. A year later he married his Russian colleague Olga Stempelin, with whom he had two children. The attempt to establish an existence as a couple of doctors in Russia in 1913 failed. Then he worked a. a. at the psychiatric institutions in Münsterlingen , Bern (Waldau) and Herisau .

For many years his main interest was psychoanalysis . He became a proponent of the then new psychoanalytic technique in medical circles in Switzerland. In 1919 he was appointed Vice President of the Swiss Society for Psychoanalysis. His work Psychodiagnostik was published in 1921.

After appendicitis was treated too late, he died on April 2, 1922 in Herisau at the age of 37 of peritonitis .

Rorschach test

Rorschach discovered the work of Szymon Hens in 1917 , who studied the imagination of his subjects using inkblot cards. A year later he started his own experiments with 15 random ink blots. In his opinion, the subjective answers made it possible to draw conclusions about the perceptual abilities, intelligence and emotional characteristics of the people examined.

The Rorschach test is based on a human tendency, claimed by Rorschach, to project interpretations and feelings onto ambiguous stimuli , in this case ink blots. Experienced observers are said to be able to precisely determine deeper personal traits and impulses of the test subjects. Rorschach published the results of his studies on 300 mental patients and 100 "normal" test persons in psychodiagnostics . His method has since been used as a tool for psychological assessment and diagnosis.

The Rorschach test is controversial. Its proponents see it as a high-quality test procedure that allows a deep assessment of the overall personality. His critics hold the test against the lack of reliability .

Trivia

  • In Schaffhausen , where he spent his childhood and youth, Hermann-Rorschach-Strasse was named after him.
  • His family name served as a template for one of the heroes in the graphic novel Watchmen . This is also subjected to a Rorschach test in the course of the action.

Fonts

items

  • About "reflex hallucinations" and related phenomena , magazine for the entire neurology and psychiatry 13, 1912, pp 357-400
  • Reflex hallucinations and symbolism , Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse 3, 1912, pp. 121–128
  • Horse theft in the twilight state , Archive for Criminal Anthropology and Criminology 49, 1912, pp. 175–180
  • An example of unsuccessful sublimation and a case of forgetting names , Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse 2, 1912, pp. 403-406
  • On the pathology and operability of tumors of the pineal gland , contributions to clinical surgery 83, 1913, pp. 451–474
  • About the choice of a friend in the neurotic , Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse und Psychotherapie 3, 1913, pp. 524-527
  • Analysis of a schizophrenic drawing , Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse und Psychotherapie 4, 1913, pp. 53-58
  • Analytical remarks on the painting of a schizophrenic , Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse und Psychotherapie 3, 1913, pp. 270–272
  • Association experiment, free association and hypnosis in the service of lifting an amnesia , Correspondenz-Blatt für Schweizer Ärzte 47, 1917, pp. 898–905
  • Something about Swiss sects and sect founders , Swiss Archive for Neurology and Psychiatry 1, 1917, pp. 254–258
  • More on the formation of Swiss sects , Swiss Archive for Neurology and Psychiatry 2, 1919, pp. 385–388
  • A murder out of superstition , Schweizer Volkskunde 10, 1920, pp. 39–43
  • About a perception diagnostic experiment , Swiss Archive for Neurology and Psychiatry 6, 1920, pp. 360–361

monograph

  • About reflex hallucinations and related phenomena. From the cantonal mental hospital Münsterlingen (Director: Dr. U. Brauchli) . Julius Springer, Berlin 1912, OCLC 604386455 (dissertation, University of Zurich, medical faculty 1912/1913).
  • Psychodiagnostics: methodology and results of a perceptual diagnostic experiment; (Allowing random forms to be interpreted); with the associated tests consisting of ten multicolored panels Textbd. , Ernst Bircher, Bern / Leipzig 1921, OCLC 831762276 .

estate

  • Emil Oberholzer (Ed.): For the evaluation of the German form experiment for psychoanalysis , magazine for the entire neurology and psychiatry 82, 1923, pp. 240-274
  • Two Swiss sect donors (Binggeli and Unternährer) , Imago 13 (special issue), 1927, pp. 395–441
  • Christian Müller , Rita Signer (ed.): Briefwechsel , Hans Huber , Bern 2004, ISBN 978-3-456-84044-4

literature

Web links

Commons : Hermann Rorschach  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rorschach test: Tell me what you see - and I'll tell you who you are, Tages-Anzeiger dated December 29, 2007
personal data
SURNAME Rorschach, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst
DATE OF BIRTH November 8, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich
DATE OF DEATH April 2, 1922
Place of death Herisau