Editorial
While editing the articles contained in this issue of Rorschachiana, I was reminded of some contributions that have previously appeared in this journal. Acklin (2024) offers a novel perspective on the life of H. Rorschach, of his thinking and ideas developed around the time that he created his inkblots, hence complementing the historical part of the answer to “Why does the Rorschach work?” Acklin’s work called to mind a research thread that has recently regenerated interest in the test’s origins aiming to reconstruct the original view that H. Rorschach had of his creation. In this framework, Andronikof (2023) described the perceptual decision-making process as the basic function triggered by the test. This, in turn, reminded me of two other recent articles on the everlasting question about the nature of the test. Recently Meyer and Friston (2022) advanced a novel perspective according to which the brain functioning captured by the Rorschach mirrors the perceptual and meaning-making processes usually displayed in real-life contexts, while Bornstein (2022) stressed the uniqueness of the Rorschach in describing implicit aspects of the personality that – by their nature – evade other types of tests.
In this issue, the article by Dauphin and colleagues (2024), describing how challenging it is for the respondents’ eyes to decipher the 10 cards and supporting the utility of eye-tracking variables in the study of Rorschach properties, brought to mind a couple of recent works “on” the Rorschach and its properties: the essay by De Villemor-Amaral and Yazigi (2022) on how and why seeing and using the colors is linked to sensitivity and reactivity to emotions, and the empirical study by Giromini and colleagues (2022) on the effect of (not) seeing subliminal images on Rorschach responses.
Two other articles represent the research “with” the Rorschach. The contributions by Stivaleti Colombarolli and colleagues (2024) and by Aoki and colleagues (2024) present the utility of the Rorschach assessment with candidates for bariatric surgery and with patients displaying recurrent nonsuicidal self-harm behaviors. These studies reminded me of the recent work by Hwang and colleagues (2023) on the differences between Rorschach protocols of first responders in Korea with and without posttraumatic stress disorder.
The last article in this issue, by Tóth-Vajna and colleagues (2024), provides the latest example of how the Rorschach Test, and the coding of the behaviors that arise from discussions with respondents on “what might this be,” can be used to measure interpersonal processes, following the same research thread of Aschieri and colleagues (2019) and Aschieri and Vetere (2020).
References
(2024). The parallel series – The Behn – Rorschach Inkblot Test. Rorschachiana, 45(1), 104–117. https://doi.org/10.1027/1192-5604/a000175
(2023). The theory of Hermann Rorschach. Rorschachiana, 44(2), 193–213. https://doi.org/10.1027/1192-5604/a000173
(2024). Persistence and cessation of nonsuicidal self-injury under psychotherapy. Rorschachiana, 45(1), 64–82. https://doi.org/10.1027/1192-5604/a000171
(2019). Observing couples discussing about “What might this be?”. Rorschachiana, 40(1), 22–42. https://doi.org/10.1027/1192-5604/a000109
(2020). Using the Rorschach as a group intervention to promote the understanding of adolescents by staff members in inpatient residential programs. Rorschachiana, 41(2), 120–143. https://doi.org/10.1027/1192-5604/a000127
(2022). Toward an integrative perspective on the person: Using Rorschach data to enhance the diagnostic systems. Rorschachiana, 43(2), 103–127. https://doi.org/10.1027/1192-5604/a000160
(2024). Seeing eye-to-eye: Internal consistencies of eye-tracking variables during Rorschach administration. Rorschachiana, 45(1), 4–29. https://doi.org/10.1027/1192-5604/a000169
(2022). Color and affect: A long, never-ending history. Rorschachiana, 43(1), 70–88. https://doi.org/10.1027/1192-5604/a000156
(2022). The effects of subliminal emotional priming on Rorschach responses. Rorschachiana, 43(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1027/1192-5604/a000157
(2023). An analysis of intrusive morbid imagery in Rorschach responses: The cases of traumatized first responders in Korea. Rorschachiana, 44(1), 3–22. https://doi.org/10.1027/1192-5604/a000164
(2022). The active Bayesian brain and the Rorschach task. Rorschachiana, 43(2), 128–150. https://doi.org/10.1027/1192-5604/a000158
(2024). Exploring the utility of the Rorschach Test in predicting weight loss after bariatric surgery. Rorschachiana, 45(1), 30–63. https://doi.org/10.1027/1192-5604/a000170
(2024). The processometric Consensus Rorschach Test (pCRT-II). Rorschachiana, 45(1), 83–103. https://doi.org/10.1027/1192-5604/a000176
