Article
ID: CBB431658253

Blots and All: A History of the Rorschach Ink Blot Test in Britain (2016)

unapi
Testing Psychology 20th century, early Great Britain

Despite the easily recognizable nature of the Rorschach ink blot test very little is known about the history of the test in Britain. We attend to the oft-ignored history of the Rorschach test in Britain and compare it to its history in the US. Prior to the Second World War, Rorschach testing in Britain had attracted advocates and critiques. Afterward, the British Rorschach Forum, a network with a high proportion of women, developed around the Tavistock Institute in London and The Rorschach Newsletter. In 1968, the International Rorschach Congress was held in London but soon after the group became less exclusive, and fell into decline. A comparative account of the Rorschach in Britain demonstrates how different national institutions invested in the ‘projective hypothesis’ according to the influence of psychoanalysis, the adoption of a nationalized health system, and the social positioning of ‘others’ throughout the twentieth century. In comparing and contrasting the history of the Rorschach in Britain and the US, we decentralize and particularize the history of North American Psychology.

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Authors & Contributors
Valentine, Elisabeth R.
Bamji, Andrew
Hubbard, Katherine
Palter, David
Bakman, Nina
van der Horst, Frank C. P.
Journals
Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences
History of the Human Sciences
History of Psychology
Twentieth-Century British History
Science in Context
Psychoanalysis and History
Publishers
University of Surrey (United Kingdom)
Helion & Company
Palgrave Macmillan
Nova Science Publishers
University of California, Santa Cruz
Cambridge University Press
Concepts
Psychology
Testing
Medicine and the military; medicine in war
Medicine
Psychoanalysis
World War I
People
Harold Gillies
Suttie, Ian Dishart
Rorschach, Hermann
Murray, Jessie Margaret
Malinowski, Bronislaw
Froude, William
Time Periods
20th century, early
19th century
20th century
Places
Great Britain
United States
Kenya
Germany
California (U.S.)
Institutions
Medico-Psychological Clinic
British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology
Stanford University
University of Michigan
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