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Hermann Rorschach. Photo sourced from

Top 10 Facts about Hermann Rorschach

Hermann Rorschach was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. His education in art helped to spur the development of a set of inkblots. The inkblots were used experimentally to measure various unconscious parts of the subject鈥檚 personality.

Hermann’s method came to be referred to as the Rorschach Test, which continued to be used over the years to help identify personality, neurological disorders, and psychotic. He then continued refining the test until he died in 1922.

Learn more about Hermann Rorschach in these top 10 facts. 

1. Hermann Rorschach Was Born in 1884

Hermann Rorschach was born in Zurich, Switzerland, on November 8, 1884. He was the eldest of three children born to Ulrich and Philippine Rorschach, and he had one sister, Anna, and one brother, Paul.

He spent his childhood and youth in Schaffhausen in northern Switzerland. His father was an art teacher, encouraging him to express himself creatively through painting and drawing conventional pictures.

When he was about to graduate high school, he couldn’t choose between an art career and one in science. He sought advice from German biologist Ernst Haeckel. This influenced him to differ from his father and not pursue art.

2. Hermann Educational Background

Hermann Rorschach. Photo sourced from

In his early years, he attended Schaffhausen Cantonal School in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. He then attended Academie de Neuchatel in 1904, studying geology and botany. After a single term, he transferred to the Universite de Dijon to take French classes.

Still, in 1904, Hermann enrolled in medical school at the University of Zurich. While studying, he began learning Russian, and in 1906 while studying in Berlin, he traveled to Russia for a holiday.

In 1912, Hermann finished his doctoral dissertation under psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler, who had taught Carl Jung.

3. Hermann Got a Fellowship Opportunity in Russia

He loved traveling and met a man on a trip to France who taught him about Russian culture. Afterward, he remained fascinated by Russian Culture.

In 1913, Hermann obtained a fellowship in Russia, where he continued studying contemporary psychiatric methods. He spent some time in the village of Kryukovo outside of Moscow.

He returned to Switzerland in 1914 to work at the Waldau University Hospital in Bern. In 1915 he took the position of assistant director at the regional psychiatric hospital at Herisau, and he wrote his book Psychodiagnostik, which was to form the basis of the inkblot test.

4. While at School, His Friends Nicknamed Him as 鈥淜lex鈥� or 鈥淚nkblot鈥�

Hermann was known to his school friends as Klex or inkblot since he enjoyed klecksography, making fanciful inkblot 鈥減ictures and images.鈥� By the time of his youth, the consideration of the projective significance of inkblots already had some historical context.

The excitement in intellectual circles over psychoanalysis constantly reminded Hermann of his childhood inkblots. He wondered why different people often saw entirely different things in the same inkblots.

He began about inkblots while still a medical student showing inkblots to schoolchildren and analyzing their responses. His dissertation contained the origins of his inkblot experiment.

5. Hermann Rorschach Was Married to Olga Stempelin

Olga and Hermann Rorschach. Photo sourced from

In 1909, he graduated in medicine at Zurich and, at the same time, became engaged to Olga Stempelin, a girl from Kazan (presently the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia). In 1913 they got married and lived in Russia until their relocation back to Switzerland for Hermann鈥檚 work in 1915.

The couple was blessed with two children, a daughter Elizabeth and a son Ulrich Wadin. Neither of their children had their children.

6. Hermann Rorschach Left a Legacy of Inkblot

In 2001 the inkblot test received criticism as pseudoscience and its use was declared controversial by Scientific American, as different psychologists drew different findings from the same data. The findings suggested their results were subjective rather than objective.

In 2013 and 2015, two systematic reviews and meta-analyses were published that resulted in the criticism of pseudoscience being lifted. Google celebrated the 129th anniversary of Hermann’s birth in November 2013 and Google Doodle showed an interpretation of his inkblot test.

Apart from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, the Hermann Inkblot method has generated more published research than any other psychological personality measure.

The cover of The Essentials of Psycho-analysis by Sigmund Freud, published in the Vintage Freud series by Vintage Books in 2005, features artwork by Michael Salu based on a Rorschach Inkblot.

7. He Invented Rorschach Test

The Rorschach test is a projective psychological test in which subjects’ perspectives of inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using psychological interpretation, complex algorithms, or both.

Some psychologists use this test to examine a person鈥檚 personality characteristics and emotional functioning. It has been employed to detect underlying thought disorders, especially in cases where patients are reluctant to describe their thinking processes openly.

The Rorschach can be considered a psychometric examination of pareidolia, the active pattern of perceiving objects, scenery, and shapes as meaningful to the observer’s experience. The most common are faces or other pattern forms that are not present during the observation.

Exner Scoring System claims to have addressed and often refuted many critics of the initial testing with extensive research, and some researchers continue to raise questions. The areas of dispute include the objectivity of testers, inter-rater reliability, general validity of the test, and verifiability.

8. Hermann Rorschach Worked at Swiss Psychoanalytic Society

Doctor Hermann Rorschach. The father of psychological Rorschach test. Photo sourced by

One important professional office was that of vice-president in 1919 of the newly founded Swiss Psychoanalytic Society by Emil Oberholzer. Hermann’s correspondence with Morgenthaler shows how strenuously he promoted psychoanalysis in Swiss medical circles.

Emil Oberholzer helped Hermann develop shape interpretation tests and later trained American psychiatrists who introduced the Rorschach test in the United States.

9. Eugen Bleuler Greatly influenced Hermann

Eugen Bleuler was a Swiss psychiatrist and humanist. He is well known for his contribution to the understanding of mental illness.

Hermann finished his doctoral dissertation in 1912 under Eugen Bleuler’s guidance.

10. He Died in 1922

A year after he wrote Psychodiagnostik, Rorschach died of peritonitis, probably resulting from a ruptured appendix. At the time of his death, he was still an associate director of the Herisau Hospital. He died at the age of 37 on April 2, 1922.