BOOK REVIEW
RORSCHACH'S TEST. I. BASIC PROCES-
SES. II. A VARIETY OF PERSONALITY
PICTURES. By Samuel J. Beck. New York:
Grune & Stratton. I: pp. xiii + 223; 1944.
I I : pp. xii + 402; 1945.
These two volumes are a revised and enlarged
edition of Beck's Introduction to the Ror-
schach Method of 1937. They constitute a very
good manual for the use of beginners. The
title, Borschach's Test, apparently has been
chosen advisedly. Beck decided to follow Ror-
schach faithfully, turning a deaf ear to the
innovations and additions of the last quarter
century on the ground that "examination of
the published evidence does not result in con-
viction." Be that as it may, it is not necessarv
to include new developments in a text for be-
ginners since none of the innovations are in-
compatible with any of Rorschach's important
methodological principles. Many of the inno-
vations enable us to infer more, and without a
loss of validity, from a Rorschach record than
Rorschach himself could infer (for example,
from an analysis of the human and animal
movement responses; cf. The Nervous Child,
1945, 4:344). However, this new type of infer-
ence about personality traits hitherto unmen-
tioned in the Rorschach method does not clash
with, and does not invalidate, the inferences
from Rorschach's original method. It should be
added that while Beck is uncompromising and
orthodox in his preface and in a number of
paragraphs, elsewhere he considers and ad-
mits the views of others beside Rorschach.
Since Beck insists on following Rorschach
closely, a comparison of Beck's work with Ror-
sehach's Psychodiagnostics is natural. All
textbooks on the Rorschach method are of
course chiefly a paraphrase of the Psychodiag-
nostics. The latter (available in English since
1942) is written so concisely that it reads like a
summary. It is difficult to use it as a textbook
without the aid of an instructor. Thus the Psy-
chodiagnostics requires amplification; its ideas
must be made explicit and its principles illus-
trated more fully on a larger number of indi-
vidual cases. Beck gives a particularly full ex-
position of the scoring of the subject's respon-
ses. The "basic processes" are the procedures
involved in a consistent system of scoring.
375
None of the blots and none of their parts is
an objectively accurate representation of real
objects. Thus the responses of a subject cannot
fit the blots exactly. When to consider the fit
a poor one is a technical problem. I t is an im-
portant problem because the percentage of
sharply conceived forms or well fitting per-
cepts is perhaps the most significant single
component of the method to be considered in ar-
riving at diagnostic neuropsychiatric conclu-
sions. Rorschach suggested that a list of per-
cepts frequently used by psychiatrically
healthy subjects be the standards for "good
forms." Such a list is brief; all other percepts
are to be compared with those included in the
list: if the new percept fits its respective area
in the blot as well or better than the frequent-
ly used percepts, then it is classified as a "good
form;" otherwise it is a "poor form." An ele-
ment of subjectivity is inevitable in such a pro-
cedure. To aid the beginner 'Beck publishes
long lists of responses he personally classified
as either good or poor forms. This seems to be
the weakest portion of the Basic Processes; its
weakness lies not so much in that it is based
on the judgment of one man, no matter how
experienced, but in its inconsistencies. Beck's
lists seem to be based essentially on the statis-
tical frequencies of the wording of a response
and not on an analysis of the relation between
the shape of the percept and the shape of the
area of which the percept is an interpretation.
Thus, for example, in Plate V "squashed an-
imal," a percept of indeterminate shape, and
for this reason alone not a good form, is scored
by Beck as good form while "beetle" is scored,
as poor form; "insect" however is considered
satisfactory. Certainly "beetle" is not a less
plausible interpretation of Plate V than "in-
sect" and therefore not a worse form than "in-
sect." The emphasis should be placed on the
percept, the visual image, and not on the words
which convey the image. This emphasis upon
the percept is implicit in Rorschach's own con-
cept of the form response. Rorschach himself
called his method a "diagnostic test based on
perception"; his method obviously is not inten-
ded to be a word association test; words are
necessary but merely as a means to a goal, not
as the goal itself of the test procedure. In case
376 JOUBNAL OF CONSULTING PSYCHOLOGY
of doubt, Oberholzer compares a patient's ques-
tionable response with the patient's unques-
tionably good and poor form responses and
thus decides whether to score the questionable
response as good or poor. This procedure is
fraught with less danger than scoring rigidly
according to a table and considering only the
verbal form of the subject's response. In this
connection it may be recalled that even such a
common response as "butterfly" to Plate I can
be a poor form; some patients with a psychosis
or with brain damage "see" the "butterfly" in
I in a very inexact and uncommon manner
that does not resemble the shape of any real
butterfly. The percentage of sharply conceived
forms is a measure of the sense of reality and
not of a verbal agreement with others.
Rorschach's Teat contains special chapters
describing the psychological meaning of the
scoring categories. These chapters are very re-
strained and in them Beck does not follow even
Borschach all the way. This is most noticeable
in Beck's presentation of the shading re-
sponses. However in the long case presentations
(the second volume contains forty-seven com-
plete records and their interpretations) Beck
is far less restrained and much freer. In the
individual case studies a great deal is made of
the symbolic significance of the content, such
as anatomy, of references to depressing hap-
penings, etc The case studies are the most in-
structive part of the textbook. They prove that
the author not only has vast personal exper-
ience in the interpretation of Rorschach re-
cords but also knows and uses the literature
well. There are sample records of healthy,
feeble-minded, neurotic and schizophrenic pa-
tients, including incidental remarks concerning
specific diagnostic criteria. As far as the use
of this method as a diagnostic aid is concerned
Beck's second volume covers much less ground
than Rorschach's book or other textbooks. Beck
might have corrected Rorschach's error that
color shock did not occur in psychosis. Color
shock does occur in the functional psychoses
and frequently is associated with brain dam-
age. The repetition of Rorschach's error may
lead to many clinically wrong diagnostic sug-
gestions.
The individual records are interpreted more
fully than they were in the 1937 edition. In
these interpretations Beck himself deviates
from Rorschach in many points. He utilizes
more than Rorschach ever did the content of
the subject's responses. The case studies show
that a great deal of personal skill is required
in addition to intellectual knowledge in the
practical application of the Rorschach method
in its present phase of development.
The "selected pertinent publications" which
close the second volume are somewhat surpris-
ing. They include Plato's Apologia and several
novels but do not contain any reference to
Guirdham nor to the second of Rorschach's two
long and important individual case studies (see
Zeitschrift Neurologic, 19S7). Ross' brief re-
port on the uses of the Rorschach in the Cana-
dian Army is mentioned but his more significant
"Contribution of the Rorschach Method to Clin-
ical Diagnosis" (Journal of Mental Science,
1941) is omitted.
In spite of his demonstrative emphasis on
orthodoxy Beck actually deviates from Ror-
schach in many instances with benefit to the
reader. Many of these deviations need a fuller
proof before they will be generally accepted.
Beck included them because he had found them
helpful in making individual case analyses.
In conclusion, Beck's volumes cover less
ground than Rorschach's Psychodiagnostics.
However, they cover it in greater detail and in
a manner that is easy to follow for a beginner.
In the reviewer's opinion a careful study of the
individual records and of their interpretations
will be particularly profitable. These con-
scientiously written volumes are a definite con-
tribution to psychological literature.
ZYGMUNT A. PIOTBOWSKI
College of Physicians and Surgeons
Columbia University