ABSTRACT
The richness as well as the complexity of the data elicited by Rorschach’s test is due to the many processes set in motion in the testee when he reacts to the task posed by the test. These processes comprise his reactions to the total test situation, including the personality and the behavior of the tester, and to the real or imagined expectations of the tester as to what the testee is to do; they comprise the testee’s thoughts and phantasies as to what conclusions the tester, and other people significant to the testee, may arrive at on the basis of his test performance, or his indifference to these conclusions; the expectations the testee has with regard to himself, his thoughts about the impression he would like to create, impulses deriving from his self-image that are mobilized by the test situation; they usually comprise both attempts to realize some self-ideal and attempts to counteract, to conceal, or—sometimes— defiantly to express what might be called his negative self-image, which —like the self-ideal—maybe closely (realistically) or distantly (unrealistically) related to his basic personality. These are examples of some of the processes that enter into and make up the testee’s subjective definition of the Rorschach test situation, which is never fully conscious and articulate, is different in each testee, and is a major factor influencing the test performance and the test “results.” 1
