ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 maps out the basis for the book in its entirety. To begin it establishes what the Rorschach ink blot test is via descriptions of the test and the meanings behind some of the things ‘seen’ in the ink blots. It then develops a longer section which identifies why a queer feminist history of the Rorschach is interesting and revealing. Specifically, it considers the background feminist history and the history of psychoanalysis in explaining how projective tests like the Rorschach emerged. Not only this, but it highlights why women were often the ones using such tests and what the Rorschach has to do with queer history. Following from these descriptions it then delves into the substantial issues of conducting queer histories. Here considerations of issues around literally ‘projecting’ identities onto people who used projective tests is considered. Finally, the book’s overall approach is introduced and some solutions are offered. The structure of the book is also outlined. This includes how the book works mostly chronologically from the 1920s to the 1970s and begins in Psychology as a discipline but bleeds out into activism and Sociology in the later chapters.
