"Oh Those Crazy Cards Again": A History of the Debate on the Nazi Rorschachs, 1946-2001
In: Political psychology: journal of the International Society of Political Psychology, Band 22, Heft 2, S. 233-261
ISSN: 0162-895X
This essay provides a critical history of the debate on the Rorschach inkblot tests administered to 22 leading figures of the Third Reich who were imprisoned in Nuremberg in 1945/1946. This debate occurred in two stages. The question at the heart of the first stage was whether the Nazi leaders were sane or psychopaths. Despite a strong disagreement concerning the use of these diagnostic labels, there was a surprisingly broad agreement on the actual substance of the discrepant diagnoses. Divisions of opinion, however, arose from political dissension in two areas: the nature of liberal democracies & authoritarian regimes, & the possibility of trust in any political leadership. The second stage was marked by an ideology of convergence aimed at establishing a consensual "scientific truth" on the Nazi Rorschachs. Thus, the polities of the second phase were motivated by interest & ambitions internal to the field of Rorschach expertise, rather than by extraneous political anxieties. 58 References. Adapted from the source document.