Test Developer Profiles

Hermann Rorschach, M.D.

Test Developed:

Rorschach Inkblots

Hermann Rorschach was born on November 8, 1884, in Zurich, Switzerland. According to Ellenberger (1954, p. 175) young Rorschach was raised "in an atmosphere of extraordinary intellectual, artistic, and cultural concentration." He studied medicine in Zurich, Nuremberg, Bern, and Berlin. Specializing in psychiatry, Rorschach came into contact with and was influenced by members of the psychoanalytic community in Switzerland, including Carl Jung. Jung had pioneered the study of word association testing as a means of tapping unconscious material, and Rorschach, too, had experimented with this procedure.

During his studies, Rorschach had met a Russian whom he married. At the end of 1913, Rorschach left his Hermann Rorschach was born on November 8, 1884, in Zurich, Switzerland. According to Ellenberger (1954, p. 175) young Rorschach was raised "in an atmosphere of extraordinary intellectual, artistic, and cultural concentration." He studied medicine in Zurich, Nuremberg, Bern, and Berlin. Specializing in psychiatry, Rorschach came into contact with and was influenced by members of the psychoanalytic community in Switzerland, including Carl Jung. Jung had pioneered the study of word association testing as a means of tapping unconscious material, and Rorschach, too, had experimented with this procedure.

During his studies, Rorschach had met a Russian whom he married. At the end of 1913, Rorschach left his position in a Swiss mental asylum and moved with his wife to Russia, where he worked in a private clinic. But by July 1914, Rorschach had returned to Switzerland, where he served as an assistant director at a regional asylum. Rorschach's wife was detained from leaving the country by a declaration of war and did not rejoin him in Switzerland until the spring of 1915. Mrs. Rorschach's explanation for her husband's return to Switzerland was that "in spite of his interest in Russia and the Russians, he remained a true Swiss, attached to his native land.... He was European and intended to remain so at any price" (cited in Pichot, 1984, p. 591). Also during this time, Rorschach had developed an academic interest in the psychology of Swiss cults.

Complementing Rorschach's interest in psychoanalysis was an interest in art and drawing--an interest that perhaps stemmed from the fact that his father had been a teacher of art and drawing. By 1913, Rorschach had published papers on analyzing mental patients' artwork as a means of learning more about the personality. The potential sources of inspiration for the use of inkblots as a means to study personality were many. Alfred Binet had reported on experimentation with inkblots as a test of creativity in the early twentieth century. Even before that, in Germany, Justinius Kerner had published Kleksographien, a book of inkblot-inspired poems in 1857. Kerner, a physician and "a painter of repute" (Pichot, 1984) had produced inkblots "through chance" by folding a piece of paper on which some ink had been dropped. He then wrote poems inspired by each of the inkblots. The published book was well received in German-speaking countries and was, as Pichot (1984) speculates, known to Rorschach.

Rorschach appreciated how inkblots could be employed to elicit responses "determined by the peculiarities of perception which, in turn, were dependent upon the underlying structure of the personality" (Pichot, 1984, p. 595). His "form interpretation test" was described in Psychodiagnostics (Rorschach, 1942),  a research monograph that described a "form interpretation experiment" with 405 subjects. As Acklin and Oliveira-Berry (1996) have observed, "It seems unlikely that Rorschach's book... is even read" (p. 27). Contemporary readers are likely to find this seminal work "a densely written piece couched in dry, scientific terminology" with an English translation that "reads in a wooden, perhaps overly literal rendering" (Acklin and Oliveira-Berry, 1996, p. 428). Here is a sample of the writing, an excerpt in which apperception is distinguished from perception:

Perceptions arise from the fact that sensations, or groups of sensations, of former groups of sensations within us. This produces in us a complex of memories of sensations, the elements of which, by virtue of their simultaneous occurrence in former experiences, have a particularly fine coherence and are differentiated from other groups of sensations. association. This identification of a homogeneous group of sensations with previously the elements of which, by virtue of their simultaneous occurrence in former experiences, have a particularly fine coherence and are differentiated from other groups of sensations. In perception, therefore, we have three processes: sensation, memory, and acquired analogous complexes, together with all their connections, we designate as apperception. (Rorschach, 1942, pp. 16--17)

In his monograph, Rorschach described only the determinants of movement, color, and form. As evidenced by a posthumously published article, Rorschach described only the determinants of movement, color, and form. As evidenced by a posthumously published article, Rorschach (Rorschach and Oberholzer, 1923) became interested in the shading determinant as the result of what has been described as a "serendipitous printing error" (Kleiger, 1997). Subsequent to the publication of Rorschach's Psychodiagnostics, a number of scoring systems emerged--all more complex than Rorschach's----along with a fair amount of debate over which approach is most useful (see, for example, Acklin, 1995; Aronow et al., 1995; Ritzler, 1995).

Rorschach's monograph had the effect of creating a cottage industry within the mental health field, yet it was not at all a success at the time of its publication. Rorschach died suddenly at the age of 38, one year after his book was published. The impact of Psychodiagnostics a number of scoring systems emerged--all more complex than Rorschach's--along with a fair amount of debate over which approach is most useful (see, for example, Acklin, 1995; Aronow et al., 1995; Ritzler, 1995).

Rorschach's monograph had the effect of creating a cottage industry within the mental health field, yet it was not at all a success at the time of its publication. Rorschach died suddenly at the age of 38, one year one year after his book was published. The impact of Psychodiagnostics continues to capture the imagination as assessment professionals the world over strive to better understand humans' "capacity for experiencing" (Rorschach, 1942, p. 183) through the use of Rorschach's form interpretation test.

References

Acklin, M. W. (1995). Avoiding Rorschach dichotomies: Integrating Rorschach interpretation. Journal of Personality Assessment, 64, 235--238.

Acklin, M. W. and Oliveira-Berry, J. (1996). Return to the source: Rorschach's Psychodiagnostics. Journal of Personality Assessment, 67, 427--433.

Aronow, E., Reznikoff, M., and Moreland, K. L. (1995). The Rorschach: Projective technique or psychometric test? Journal of Personality Assessment, 64, 213--228.

Ellenberger, H. F. (1954). The life and work of Hermann Rorschach (1884--1922). Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 18, 173--213.

Kleiger, J. H. (1997). Rorschach shading responses: From a printer's error to an integrated psychoanalytic paradigm. Journal of Personality Assessment, 69, 342--364.

Pichot, P. (1984). Centenary of the birth of Hermann Rorschach. (S. Rosenzweig and E. Schriber, Trans.). Journal of Personality Assessment, 48, 591--596.

Ritzler, B. (1995). Putting your eggs in the content analysis basket: A response to Aronow, Reznikoff and Moreland. Journal of Personality Assessment, 64, 229--234.

Rorschach, H. (1942). Psychodiagnostics: A diagnostic test based on perception (P. Lemkau and B. Kronenberg, Trans.). Berne, Switzerland: Hans Huber.

Rorschach, H., and Oberholzer, E. (1923). The application of the interpretation of form to psychoanalysis. Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, 60, 225--248, 359--379.

Henry A. Murray, M.D., Ph.D.

Born in New York City, Henry A. Murray had an impressive collection of initials after his name by 1927; he earned an A.B. (with a major in history) from Harvard in 1915, an M.D. from Columbia in 1919, an M.A. in biology from Columbia in 1920, and a Ph.D. from Cambridge in 1927. Murray (1940, pp. 152--153) reminisced about his budding fascination with the mental life of others, including his colleagues and medical patients at Columbia:

During my fourth year at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, while waiting for calls to deliver babies in Hell's Kitchen, I completed a modest study of 25 of my classmates, in which 40 anthropometric measures were later correlated with 30 traits. . . . Later, as an interne [sic] in a hospital, I spent more time than was considered proper for a surgeon, inquisitively seeking psychogenic factors in my patients. Whatever I succeeded in doing for them--the dope fiend, the sword-swallower, the prostitute, the gangster--was more than repaid when, after leaving the hospital, they took me through their haunts in the underworld. This was psychology in the rough, but at least it prepared me to recognize the similarity between downtown doings and uptown dreams.... But it was Jung's book, Psychological Types, which... started me off in earnest toward psychology.

In 1925, Murray visited with Carl Jung in Zurich. Murray wrote that "we talked for hours, sailing down the lake and smoking before the hearth of his Faustian retreat." Murray was profoundly affected by that meeting: he said that he had experienced the unconscious and it was then that he decided to pursue depth psychology as a career.

The Harvard Psychological Clinic had been founded by Morton Prince, and it was at Prince's invitation that Murray was hired there as an instructor. In 1937, Murray was made the director of the clinic--one that was fast gaining a reputation for being an exciting, stimulating, innovative place to work. In 1938, Murray with collaborators published the now classic Explorations in Personality, a work that described, among other techniques, the Thematic Apperception Test.

In 1943, Murray left Harvard for a position in the Army Medical Corps to help with the war effort. He established and directed the Office of Strategic Services, an agency charged in part with selecting men for James Bond--like tasks during the war (see OSS, Assessment of Men, 1948). In 1947, Murray returned to Harvard, where he lectured part-time and helped establish the Psychological Clinic Annex in 1949. In 1962, Murray became emeritus professor at Harvard. He earned the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association and the Gold Medal Award for lifetime achievement from the American Psychological Foundation. Murray died of pneumonia on June 23, 1988, at the age of 95.

References

Murray, H. A. (1940). What should psychologists do about psychoanalysis? Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 35, 150--175.

OSS Assessment Staff. (1948). Assessment of men: Selection of personnel for the Office of Strategic Service. New York: Rinehart.

Christina D. Morgan

Christiana Drummond (née Councilman) Morgan was associated with the Harvard Psychological Clinic during the time that the Thematic Apperception Test was being developed. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 6, 1897, and died in Denis Bay, Saint John, Virgin Islands, on March 14, 1967.

(Guest-authored by Wesley G. Morgan, Ph.D.)

Chris Morgan attended Miss Winsor's school for girls in Boston from 1908 to 1914 and later a boarding school in Farmington, Massachusetts. In 1918 she received a certificate as a nurse's aide after completion of a training program at the YWCA in New York City. She later studied art at the Art Students League in New York from 1921 to 1924 where she studied with Frank DuMond, Guy Pène du Bois, and Leo Lentelli (Douglas, 1993).

She was strongly influenced in her professional and personal life by her analysis with Carl G. Jung and her long association with Henry A. Murray. Her relationship with Jung is described in Douglas (1989, 1993) and Murray (1976). Her complex relationship with Murray has been recently examined by Robinson (1992) and Douglas (1993) in their respective biographies of Murray and Morgan.

Morgan's role in the development of the TAT was described by Murray in an early edition of The TAT Newsletter. There Murray is quoted as stating,

At the beginning [Chris Morgan's] part was to help in the selection of the pictures (looking through magazines, etc.): to redraw a few of the selected pictures; and to administer the test to half our subjects (or half the test to all our subjects, I don't remember which). We wrote the article together rather quickly--in about two weeks, as I remember. (Holt, 1949, p. 492). An earlier version of Morgan and Murray's classic paper titled "A Method for the Investigation of Unconscious Phantasies" was submitted to the International Journal of Psycho-Analysis where it was rejected by its editor, Ernest Jones in November 1934 (E. Jones, personal communication to H. A. Murray, November 9, 1934; Harvard University Archives, Henry A. Murray Papers; Robinson, 1992). The paper was revised taking into account some of Jones's comments, such as his objection to "unconscious phantasies." Its title was slightly changed to "A Method of Investigating Fantasies: The Thematic Apperception Test," and it was published the following year in the Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry (Morgan and Murray, 1935). Murray (1985) attributed the original suggestion for what became the TAT to a Radcliffe undergraduate, Cecilia Roberts, who had been a student in his abnormal psychology courses in 1929 and 1930--31.

Early publications continued to recognize Morgan as senior author of the test (Morgan, 1938, Morgan and Murray, 1938). And as late as 1941 the test was known as the "Morgan-Murray Thematic Apperception Test" (White, Sanford, Murray, and Bellak, 1941). However, when the current version of the test was published by the Harvard University Press in 1943, authorship was attributed to "Henry A. Murray, M.D., and the Staff of the Harvard Psychological Clinic." Because Morgan had been senior author of the earlier publications, a question is raised about why her name came to be removed from the 1943 version. W. Morgan (1995) points out that Chris Morgan's role in the continued development of the test had become diluted over time. She was also suffering from a long-standing problem with high blood pressure and underwent a radical sympathectomy in an attempt to correct the problem. The surgery occurred around the time the latest version of the TAT was published. In addition, according to Murray (1985), Christiana Morgan asked to have her name removed as senior author of the 1943/1971 TAT because she disliked the obligation of making the academic responses required of a senior author. Such a view seems plausible especially in light of her health problems.

References

Douglas, C. (1989). Christiana Morgan's visions reconsidered: A look behind The Visions Seminars. The San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal, 8(4), 5--27.

Douglas, C. (1993). Translate this darkness: The life of Christiana Morgan. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Holt, R. R. (Ed.). (1949). The early history of TAT. The TATNewsletter, 3(3), 492. (mimeograph)

Morgan, C. D. (1938). Thematic Apperception Test. In H. A. Murray (Ed.), Explorations in personality: A clinical and experimental study of fifty men of college age (pp. 673--680). New York: Oxford University Press.

Morgan, C. D., and Murray, H. A. (1935). A method of investigating fantasies: The Thematic Apperception Test. Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, 34, 289--306.

Morgan, C. D., and Murray, H. A. (1938). Thematic Apperception Test. In H. A. Murray (Ed.), Explorations in personality: A clinical and experimental study of fifty men of college age (pp. 530--545). New York: Oxford University Press.

Morgan, W. G. (1995). Origin and history of the Thematic Apperception Test images. Journal of Personality Assessment, 65, 237--252.

Murray, H. A. (1976). Postscript. Morsels of information regarding the extraordinary woman in whose psyche the foregoing visions were begot (pp. 517--521). In C. G. Jung, The Visions Seminars, Vol. 2. Zurich: Spring Publications.

Murray, H. A. (1985). Dr. Henry A. Murray replies (Letter to the editor). Second Century Radcliffe News, 6(1), 2.

Robinson, F. G. (1992). Love's story told: A life of Henry A. Murray. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

White, R. W., Sanford, R. N, Murray, H. A., and Bellak, L. (1941, September). Morgan-Murray Thematic Apperception Test: Manual of directions [mimeograph]. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Psychological Clinic. (Harvard University Archives, HUGFP 97.43.2, Box 5 of 7)