Unravel the secrets of your psyche: Your view of these ink blots could reveal your deepest desires - and darkest fears

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1 Click here to print Monday, Mar 7th PM 57 F 7PM 50 F 5-Day Forecast Unravel the secrets of your psyche: Your view of these ink blots could reveal your deepest desires - and darkest fears By John Naish Updated: 19:44 EST, 20 December 2010 Look at the third image on the right do you see a strong man flexing his muscles? That could mean you are highly capable and always rise to a challenge. What about the second does it look like two emus wearing feather boas? If so, you could be prone to mood swings. But if you see sunglasses or a beard, you worry too much about what other people think. These diagnoses are part of a new personality test that revives one of the most controversial methods ever used in psychiatry the Rorschach Inkblot test. 1 An X-ray image of a chest, showing red heart, lungs, blood? 2 An eccentric professor with fringes of white hair, a top-knot and big nose? 3 A stingray or skate? 1 X-ray: this suggests you have things welling up inside you that you want to express, but you'd prefer to suffer in silence and not rock the boat. You find it hard to say no in general. 2 Professor: You are benevolent, self-effacing, and a very good friend and thinker. 3 Stingray or skate: You tend to put yourself second, and are familiar, though not necessarily comfortable, with being elbowed aside by more powerful characters. As a result you can sometimes be apologetic to a fault.

2 During the last century, professionals used it on everyone from neurotic housewives to Nazi war criminals, in the belief that it allowed them to fathom the hidden undercurrents that drive people s actions and emotions, and assess their mental wellbeing. The inkblot test is rather like staring at clouds: when you see a meaningless shape, your brain tries to make sense of it by organising it into a picture. Such pictures, proponents argue, can speak volumes about your thought patterns. 1 A pair of emus facing one another, wearing feather boas? 2 A beetle or scarab, possibly with crab's claws? 3 Sunglasses, bra or beard? 1 emus: You feel the pull of the highlife - though, sometimes, you don't like how you feel the next day;; you waver between extreme moods, taking yourself too seriously or just not caring. 2 Beetle: You are very hard-working;; success comes naturally to you. You lay your plans, and follow them through. 3 sunglasses, bra or beard: You like dressing up, although you can worry excessively about what people think of you and seek external solutions - a new car, new clothes - to internal problems.

3 The original inkblot shapes were drawn by the test s inventor, Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach. When he was a boy, Rorschach wanted to be an artist. Instead, he trained in psychiatry, but used his artist s eye to develop the inkblot test as a way of delving into the subconscious, testing it out on 405 people to check his theories. Rorschach struggled to get his idea accepted as a therapeutic method. When he finally persuaded an - academic publisher to turn it into a book in 1921, not one copy was sold. The publisher went bust and - Rorschach died three months later of peritonitis aged A strong man, flexing his muscles? 2 a scorpion? 3 fallopian tubes? 1 Strong man: this suggests you are highly capable, mastering everything you turn your hand to. You are naturally gifted and extremely determined. You pride yourself on always being equal to the challenge. 2 Scorpion: You are highly tuned, like a gymnast, so diet and sleeping can be problematic, since you are physically very sensitive, but not emotionally;; anything that smacks of therapy gets on your nerves.

4 3 Fallopian tubes: You have a sense of stalled potential, of putting an enormous amount into life, yet still waiting for it to start. Your idea of how things should be - for instance, whom you should be with, what you should be doing - is very vivid, and if reality falls short of expectations, your considerable achievements provide little consolation. Word of the method spread to the U.S., however, where it rapidly took off. By 1939, the Rorschach test had its own institute in New York. Everybody took the test, including Albert Einstein and President Roosevelt. The Rorschach test fell from grace in the Sixties, when researchers demanded rigorous scientific evidence of its effectiveness. Critics said it was unscientific and even dangerous because it relies on the therapist s interpretation of patients answers. In the journal Psychological Assessment, the test was recently described as the most cherished and the most reviled of all psychological assessment instruments. 1 Clown with a runny nose, melting face or someone sticking out their tongue? 2 A lady in a dress holding her skirts above a pair of jumping dolphins? 3 A long-lost cuddly toy?

5 1 Clown, face or someone sticking out their tongue: this suggests that you're social and seek out company - no one could cal l you a recluse. However, you do have aloof tendencies, a habit that will cause your friends concern. 2 Lady above dolphins: You are charismatic, often in a darkly brooding way. this draws attention to you, which is good for your ego, but it does not necessarily add much to your self-esteem. 3 Cuddly toy: sometimes, when things are difficult, you tend to dwell on your past, a time when you felt you belonged in the world and didn't have to fight constantly to prove yourself. But many professionals still swear by it, because it asks a fascinating question: what does your imagination reveal about your personality and mental health? In the Eighties, U.S. psychologist Dr John Exner led teams examining the results of thousands of patients tests to give the system more solid scientific foundations and now the Exner system of scoring is the standard method for interpreting the inkblot test. Dr Justine McCarthy Woods, the president of the British Rorschach Society, says: The Rorschach is a psychological tool which serves a vital function in mitigating human suffering and helping people identify the sources of their mental confusion and emotional pain. 1 A mouth, with tongue, tonsils and throat?

6 2 A pair of yellow fledglings pecking? 3 A red cat with whiskers or paws, possibly eating a butterfly, or a viper's mouth? 1 Mouth: You are a real force - your strength of character, accomplishments and expansiveness cause rooms (and lives) to rearrange themselves around you when you walk in. 2 Fledglings pecking: You are very nurturing, lavishing such care on others that it sometimes seems you don't need any in return. You're not entirely sure you deserve to be loved at all. 3 Cat or viper's mouth: Sometimes your relationships can seem like a bicycle tyre with a slow puncture;; you can give a huge amount, but still it's not clear that it's working for you. You feel inadequate, though you don't know why. Now the test has been revived publicly by the Redstone Inkblot Test a parlour game that uses 12 inkblots close in style to the ten original Rorschach pictures. Here, we publish a few of these images as a light-hearted way to assess your personality. The test s basics are simple: look through the inkblots and choose the one that attracts your imagination most. Then look at the descriptions and see which you agree with most and read what this suggests about you. Adapted from The Redstone Inkblot Test, by Will Hobson, 11.95,

7 Adapted from The Redstone Inkblot Test, by Will Hobson, 11.95, Comments (64) Newest Oldest Best rated Worst rated View all Share what you think karen, medway kent, 5 years ago I thought the first picture was a squashed moth,i could not see any of the things suggested LuLu, Arlington, VA, USA, 5 years ago Well that was fun! Do some more! 26 2 Yve, UK, 5 years ago The ink blot test described me perfectly BUT now what do I look at for the therapy I obviously need. Oh I wish I hadn't looked! 22 0 Jenn, USA, 5 years ago oh balony. the second one looks like two squirrel playing paddy cake and two faces kissing. what i saw the statements directly contradicted themselves sheryl, Washington, 5 years ago Sue from USA... don't fret. psychology does not and cannot provide a cookie cutter results like actual medicine does. that's why exact science still don't accept psychology as that, an exact science because of the fact that for every conducted psychological tests produces very vast results Monty Magpie, Newcastle, 5 years ago I saw nothing in the 4th, the 2nd one I saw doves flying. 1st one I saw chest and lungs, spine upper torso. 5th one I saw tonsils. 3th one scorpion or lobster Nell, Kent, 5 years ago I saw absolutely nothing in any of them!

8 13 1 Sue, USA, 5 years ago First one - I saw it as a chest x-ray with lungs and blood, second one - none of those options;; kind of reminded me of the pelvic bone area on a skeleton, third one - fallopian tubes, fourth one - none of those, I couldn't figure out what it looked like, fifth one - tonsils. Some of these "results" are accurate for me (first, third), but some are definitely not at all accurate for me (fifth). I wonder what it means when what you see is not one of the options, like the second and fourth blots, for me? 16 0 Rach, Aberdeen, 5 years ago Another one for the teddy bear! Maybe that means we're all soft and huggable? 21 1 June, Medway, 5 years ago A dead rabbit, pigeons, scorpion, brain and vampire bat. That's what travelling on southeastern trains does to you! 21 0 View all The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. Who is this week's top commenter? Find out now Find this story at Published by Associated Newspapers Ltd Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group Associated Newspapers Ltd