Take a Rorschach Test!
Rorschach tests are used to give more insight on a person's mental state. The subject reviews a series inkblots (10 in total) and responds with what the blot reminds him of. There is a method to evaluate the responses and have quantitative results on the subject's personality traits and their mind processes. It is very useful to evaluate subjects that do not wish to openly talk about these things, or cannot properly express their feelings and sentiments.
These series of images have proven to be very powerful, evoking strong feelings to most viewers, when presented to them. Rorschach pictures are widely used in pop culture and have become very recognizable, probably diminishing the test's reliability since test subjects could have been exposed to the pictures already. (The test contains 10 standard inkblots, they do not change with each test as you might think).
Andy Warhol painted a whole series with rorschach-like patterns, named... well, "Rorschach"! In Alan Moore's seminal super-hero comic Watchmen, one of the protagonists wears a mask with an ever-changing rorschach pattern (it is different in every panel!).
This is a sequence of four rorschach fractals, what do you see in each one? In the end of the post I write what I see, but only read them after you write down your own results!
Card I
Card II
Card III
Card IV
by @nyarlathotep
My choices:
- Card I, Michelen Tyres Fat Guy
- Card II, Our Lord Cthulhu
- Card III, Attacking Viserion
- Card IV, Darth Vader
I believe the general idea is that if you see things that are not human this is regarded as an indication of potential psychopathy... with the idea that this is a projective test, which is supposed to therefore mirror the person projecting... if people only see shapes, islands etc... very bad.... insects are less 'good' to see than mammals and so on... so 'flowers' might be worse than darth vader because they are inanimate etc
The original interpretation has to be evaluated within its own cultural context of course. An adherant of an animist religion might be quite used to viewing and 'communicating' with plant, insectoid and animal 'entities', with the aid of trance, meditation or psychedelic sacrements, and thus for them seeing such entities might be fairly normal and healthy. Indeed, in such a society, being only able to relate to humans might be seen as a blinkered form of mental illness.
Oh, that's good to know, I was thinking that it is bad to see Cthulhu and Vader everywhere!
Of course, I would say that as I saw birds, monkey demons and beetles in the examples above... lol
Oooh, this is fun. Though, after reading @dadaixtab's comment, it may come across as though I'm the next American Psycho, but in South Africa...
I'll take my chances:
Not a single human or animal... that's alarming. And that gown-accessory (#2)... heh, you might get a visit from the-people-in-white-uniforms soon! :)
runs away Then again, a padded room sounds fun to bounce around and mosh in...
never mind, the test is crap anyway.
Card 1. A person putting on a deep sea diving suit
Card 2. A fabulously exotic beetle
Card 3. A strange monkey-like demon meditating in lotus position
Card 4. The heads of two exotic birds in tender courtship with one another
I wish I could evaluate your answers in a formal way! I can only say that after I read the things you describe, I can see them in the cards, too!
I had always been fascinated by Rohrschach, but I did not know that they were standard cards.
I used to create such with thin acrylic color on plastic.
This is one example (I added a gradient bg in Photoshop):
Some I would affix to a painting on wood, like a decal. Then people would wonder how I could fold a wood panel, lol
Yeah, got to keep them confused & wondering!
The Rorschach test was, despite popular, never validated in proper studies. The test has repeatedly failed as a prediction of practical criteria. This says a lot about psychology in general and the tools used by this pseudoscience.
Yes, it is a delicate thing to study the human psyche, and I am sure we have much to learn. It seems very hard to quantify feelings, memories, correlations since every person's brain works in different ways, but perhaps this test is the first step. Anyway, I am more interested in the artistic aspect of the cards, and how they were used in pop culture --the game was meant as a way to engage readers with that. Thanks for the comment, though; it is good to see a subject from several points of view!