The Rorschach Test

Frederick Crews wrote in 2004: Both dreams and Rorschach responses can be “explored” with disastrous effect; think of the role played by dream analysis in recovered memory therapy, and think of Robert Lindner’s suggestion that shock treatment may be indicated when Rorschach answers reveal a desperate mental state. The story told with admirable patience and logic in What’s Wrong with the Rorschach? speaks more clearly than its authors do here at the end. This test is a ludicrous but still dangerous relic of the previous century’s histrionic love affair with “depth,” and the only useful purpose it can serve now is as a caution against related follies.