Mountain View, California: Google has marked Swiss Freudian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Hermann Rorschach’s 129th birth anniversary with an interactive inkblot doodle.

Rorschach is pictured sitting on a chair with a pen and notepad in the background while a pair of hands is seen holding a paper containing an inkblot in front of the screen.

Users can click on the arrow tabs on either side of the paper to see different inkblots and share their interpretation on Google Plus, Facebook or Twitter.

Born in Zurich, Switzerland on 8 November 1884, Rorschach grew up in Schaffhausen and was known to his friends as Klecks, or "inkblot" for his love of klecksography, the making of inkblot "pictures".

Rorschach enrolled in medical school at the University of Zurich after high school on the advice of German biologist Ernst Haeckel to whom he had written about his predicament of choosing between a career in art and one in science.

While studying medicine, Rorschach started using inkblots as a tool of psychoanalysis as he was intrigued by the differing responses when people are shown the same inkblots.

In 1921, Rorschach published a book called Psychodiagnostik which form the basis of his inkblot test. Although the inkblots were considered scientifically worthless by several psychologists, they were a huge success with the public due to the seemingly astounding behaviour readings they provided.

Rorschach died of peritonitis on 1 April 1922.

First Published: Friday, November 08, 2013, 09:53

Source: Zee News