The Rorschach Test

So what does this say to you?

As well as being a character in the DC comics Watchmen, Rorschach (after Herman Rorschach) is an inkblot based psychological test which may (says Wikepedia) have been inspired by German doctor Justinus Kerner who, in 1857, had published a popular book of poems, each of which was inspired by an accidental inkblot.

So I ask you again, he says in a pseudo German accent beloved of imitators of Freud: what does it say to you?

The test is controversial and now largely discredited. Some researchers claim it still has validity in studies of people with schizophrenia, hostility or anxiety. I know all of these things from my recent experience of working in the NHS. So if the Department of health are thinking of using it to test NHS managers, it may still be valuable.

Are you still thinking? Have another look at the picture and come to a conclusion about what you see.

Today was another busy day. However there was one very nice interlude. My first proper lunch hour in several weeks. Mrs St Roud and I went to a local Italian where we both had garlic bread followed by risotto. I then had sticky toffee pudding and she had profiteroles. We then washed it down with coffee. How indulgent is that?

Anyway back to the ink blot. Except it's not an inkblot, it's a piece of cellophane that I saw lying on the ground outside my house in the dark. To me this looks like an alien ballet dancer trying to insert an Inter Uterine Device into itself whilst simultaneously looking for a contact lens. That probably makes me even more screwed up than the Steve Buscemi character in Armageddon who, when confronted with the Rorschach test, said "breasts" followed by "even bigger breasts".

Mind you after my endless feline blips of late it's a wonder I'm not saying "Cats" .... "Even bigger cats" ...