She-Ra's Castle in the Ink Blot

What exactly are the benefits of the ink blot test? Back when I was a wayward student falling off the path of decency, I was recommended for some testing to see if I had developed any "learning disabilities". This involved some testing that all seemed to make sense, auditory, IQ, attention span. All things one would assume make sense to explore in order to determine if there was a learning disorder.


I did brilliantly, and so fucked my get out of jail free card. Well, all except the Rorscache test.

Apparently, you can fail at those. Did you know it? They found the results unsatisfactory because my responses to were "too immature" and "too humorous".


You're thinking I said penis. I totally did not say penis! They more often look like vaginas anyway. Honestly I can't remember what I said they looked like other than distinctly remembering one looked like She-ra's castle. It really did! I was taking it seriously, it just fucking looked like She-Ra's castle. I loved that castle, how does that mean I'm not taking your Rorsache test seriously? If you want to aske me what sorts of issues are fucking up my life, why don't you ask me what's eating me inside? "Oh my dad's always gone, I hate myself, I'm failing at everything, I have no friends, I have a horrible secret case of sexual masochism, I'm a perpetual disapointment and have no relationship with my parents..." I could have rambled on about any number of things for you to analyze, but no you ask me what a blot of ink looks like and expect that to unravel my psyche. Well, there you have it. You discovered that I think She-Ra's castle is fucking awesome. What more did you want?

So does the Rorscache test really work? It makes sense that surely one could make vague assumptions by studying the various ways that ink blot responses match up to known psychological or neurological conditions and as one can imagine there are people who get REALLY INTO this field of study. However, is it really a good basis to make a diagnosis? Someone comes in with a case of mild depression and does a Rorschache test and the Doc says, "I'm sorry to let you know but you actually have schizophrenia. So says the Rorsasche test. Let me just write up a prescription for some high doses of anti-psychotics before you get yourself into some trouble now."


I don't have any more problem with people using the Rorsasche test as a fun way to explore their answers and find out trends in other people's responses, any more than I have a problem with people getting Tarot card readings. (TAROT CARDS ARE FUN SHIT!) But I wouldn't recommend Tarot card readings for mental health diagnosis despite that I am certain you could do research on trends in Tarot cards for various disorders and conditions and probably find results that looked like usable results. That doesn't mean psychologists should pull out their tarot cards as a diagnostic tool:

It looks like you're schizo-effective sir.



More on problems in Rorsasche research to come. But seriously, it really does fucking look like She-Ra's castle.