Rorschachbound: A 50-Year Memoir

Abstract

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Journal of Personality Assessment evokes memories of years past when I participated in its birth. Therefore, in recording what I consider significant events in Rorschach's stormy history, I am placing them within an autobiographical framework. Originally introduced into America by David Levy in the early 1920s, the Rorschach attracted students from many disciplines who revolted against the "trait" psychology that pervaded the psychological scene at the time. For 30 years, we accepted Rorschach enthusiastically as a global method that could study the human personality as a whole and in depth. In the late 1960s, we were challenged because of repeated failures in validating research. Interest declined in its development and application. Since 1970, however, it has emerged with more strength and vigor on firmer theoretical foundations and sounder methodology. Although the method is one of the most frequently required, requested, needed, recommended, and used in many clinical settings, it is still challenged today, chiefly because of overemphasis on the nomothetic approaches in research and failure to consider interactions between personality dynamics, behavior, and situational and sociocultural variables. Those of us whose lives have long been entwined with the history of the Rorschach should step back from the contemporary canvas and contemplate the future of our method, t suggest that we develop alternative conceptual models and greater diversity of research methods and modes of thought. The Journal of Personality Assessment can enhance the future of the Rorschach by giving greater prominence to clinically oriented research, notably to the idiographic and interactional aspects of the method. In so doing, the journal can help the Rorschach reach its real goal of complete scientific validity.