What do you see? This mental health test, which was created by a psychiatrist in 1917, is still used today.

The history of the amazing test, which has been used for more than a hundred years, began like this: in 1917, the Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach began to put ink stains on cards to study how our mind works.

“Asking people what they see, he found similarities in the responses of patients prone to schizophrenia. Rorschach suggested that mental health can be judged by how a person interprets visual information.

Ten Rorschach cards were published in his 1921 book, a year before his death. They soon gained worldwide fame as a popular test. In the second half of the 20th century, such methods of psychoanalysis fell out of fashion, and the Rorschach test was no longer perceived as scientific. However, the results of a study published by the American Psychological Association in 2013 showed that the Rorschach test can judge mental disorders much more accurately than previously thought.

2 PHOTOS

1. “The ten Rorschach cards and the order in which they are shown have not changed, but psychologists suggest limiting the use of the test outside of clinics so that the novelty effect remains for the patient. Damion Searles faced this problem when he wrote Rorschach’s biography - “Inkblots” (The Inkblots) He decided to reproduce some of the flashcards, and we followed suit.Whatever scientists think about the Rorschach test, he left his mark - if not in science, then in culture.

The casual style in which Rorschach cards were made became a point of contention in the 1960s. "People didn't understand the simple thing that it's not about what they see, but how they see," Searles explained.

2. The meaning of inkblots

"The Rorschach test helps to understand how a person perceives visual information. There are no wrong answers, but too unusual ones indicate possible mental problems. As a rule, they see in ink spots: a bat (the first card in the gallery above), two four-legged animals (the second card in gallery above), crabs or spiders (third card in the gallery above), two bowing waiters (fourth card in the gallery above)".