History Main / InkblotTest

* Creator/BrianDavidGilbert and Music/TomCardy's "Beautiful Mind" centers around all the weird shapes a patient can see in the inkblots while his psychiatrist enthusiastically listens in. The psychiatrist participates too, with both men quickly discovering they have similar thought patterns, ''liking'' that, and getting their collective minds blown by the experience.

The inkblot test, commonly known as the "Rorschach test" after its most famous iteration, is a [[TheShrink psychiatric tool]] where a patient looks at a blot of ink and says what he sees. This will supposedly reveal the workings of the patient's subconscious and show the audience what they're ''really'' thinking. Almost all inkblot tests will be symmetrical, meant to imitate (if not actually ''be'') a puddle of ink on a folded sheet of paper, replicating the pattern on each side.

->''"He said pepul see things in the ink. I said show me where. He said think. I told him I think a inkblot but that wasnt rite eather. He said what does it remind you—pretend something. I closd my eyes for a long time to pretend. I told him I pretned a fowntan pen with ink leeking all over a table cloth."''

[[caption-width-right:350:[-What do you see? And no, [[ComicBook/{{Watchmen}} Rorschach]] is not the answer.-] ]]

* Webcomic/DrFrost has the Rorschach Test in "The Empty Man," the very first episode. A man's date sees the ink blots as a mask, which leads Frost to believe she's being deceptive.
* Done for [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog Dr. Eggman]] in ''Webcomic/Level30Psychiatry''. All he sees is Sonic and friends being injured or a good evil scheme. For bonus points the [[http://lvl30psy.thecomicseries.com/comics/pl/184268 title]] and the rant refer to Watchmen.
* ''WebComic/PennyArcade'': In [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/08/29 this strip]], a psychiatrist tells Raikoh from ''VideoGame/OtogiMythOfDemons'' that he has an obsession with demons after he sees them in every inkblot… and the water cooler.

* ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal:'' A woman is [[https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/pseudoscience asked]] what she sees, and replies "I see a pseudoscientic 'testing' method with no empirical validity!" This is the correct answer, as the blot resembles someone using a DowsingDevice.

* ''[[Literature/BastardOperatorFromHell BOFH]]'' and his assistant got some ''analyst'' estimating them for ''security'' purposes. Naturally, they [[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/11/07/bofh_and_the_government_contract/ could not leave this insult unmocked]].
--> And what does this picture remind you of?
--> [[ShapedLikeItself A symmetrical ink blot card, as designed by Rorschach]]?
--> Yes, but what does that Ink Blot LOOK like?
--> [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Some spilt paint]]?

* An early weekend strip of the South African comic ''ComicStrip/MadamAndEve'' had the two titular characters watching a television interview with white supremacist spree killer [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barend_Strydom Barend Strydom]] after he was released from prison as part of F. W. De Klerk's 1992 amnesty:
-->'''Interviewer:''' I have here some Rorschach ink-blot tests. Would you mind taking a look and tell me what you see?
-->'''Strydom:''' For sure. No problem. Let me see... I've got it! It's a picture of a white man beating up a black man.
-->'''Interviewer:''' Uh-huh... and this one?
-->'''Strydom:''' ...I would say this is a black man flattened by a steamroller... and this one is a dead black man surrounded by butterflies... Got any more?
-->'''Interviewer:''' Well, Barend, I think you have a serious problem...
-->'''Strydom:''' ''ME?!! You're'' the one showing me all these racist pictures!!

* An early weekend strip of the South African comic ''Madam & Eve'' had the two titular characters watching a television interview with white supremacist spree killer [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barend_Strydom Barend Strydom]] after he was released from prison as part of F. W. De Klerk's 1992 amnesty:

* ''[[Literature/BastardOperatorFromHell BOFH]]'' and his assistant got some ''[[AcceptableTargets analyst]]'' estimating them for ''security'' purposes. Naturally, they [[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/11/07/bofh_and_the_government_contract/ could not leave this insult unmocked]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'' episode "Diarrhea of a Poopy Kid", during one of Tina, Gene and Louise's stories, Courtney has the "astronauts" take an inkblot test and three out of five of them sees Pierce Brosnan.

* ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal:'' A woman is asked what she sees, and replies "I see a pseudoscientic 'testing' method with no empirical validity!" This is the correct answer, as the blot resembles someone using a DowsingDevice.

* Early on in ''ComicBook/DoomsdayClock'', it's revealed that Bruce Wayne has been forced to take one every year by his board of directors due to his eccentric behavior (the board, not realizing he's Batman, think he's just unstable and have taken out Critical Personnel Insurance on him in case he checks out of reality). He uses the opportunity to polish up his RichIdiotWithNoDayJob persona by [[ObfuscatingStupidity saying that each and every blot looks to him like a yacht]].

-->-- '''Charlie Gordon''', ''Literature/FlowersForAlgernon'' (sic)

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'', where a test of this kind is applied to Xandir. All the things he says he sees are homosexual innuendo, but all the "blots" of ink are also figurative representations of those {{Double Entendre}}s.

** Rorschach is given an inkblot test at one point, though not with the normal Rorschach images. What the cards suggest to him is revealed by flashbacks, and it is ''wildly'' divergent from the lighthearted carefree images he ''tells'' the psychiatrist he sees (example: the image that causes him to flash back to the severed head of a dead dog is said to be "a butterfly"). It's implied that the psychiatrist knows Rorschach is lying but is playing along in the hopes that Rorschach will eventually open up towards him.

* In the tutorial/character creation part of ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', inkblots are one of the tests Doc Mitchell gives the player character in order to determine your tag skills, along with a word association test.

[[caption-width-right:350:[-What do you see? And no, [[Comicbook/{{Watchmen}} Rorschach]] is not the answer.-] ]]

In RealLife, the Rorschach test is considered kind of outdated and limited in value. Unlike on TV, psychiatrists who administer the test aren't looking for ''what'' the patient sees so much as ''how'' they see it -- how long did it take them to come up with something, how novel or common is their interpretation, how much does the inkblot actually resemble it, are they focusing on the colour or the shape of the inkblot, is the patient [[AskAStupidQuestion deliberately being obtuse]] -- things like that. Psychiatrists also rely on something called the "Exner scoring system" so that they don't have to use their personal judgment to interpret the results, unlike what you'd see on TV. And even with all of this, the Rorschach test is only about 66% accurate, which further explains why it's kind of disfavoured.

* The roughnecks in ''Film/{{Armageddon}}'' receive one of these to see if they are mentally stable enough to fly into space. Instead it proves that Rockhound sees breasts everywhere and A.J. constantly sees Harry Stamper's disapproval of him.

* In the end credits of one episode of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'', Spud is given an inkblot test as part of his enrollment into a prestigious school. He sees the first two images as a monkey riding a unicycle, but when the third image looks exactly like one, he's stumped.

[[folder:Film]]

* In ''Film/MagicInTheWater'', Wanda shows Jack a piece of paper and asks what he sees. Jack says that he sees thousands of children and that one of them is missing, and asks Wanda, "Did you draw this yourself? Because this is really good." The paper shows only a tiny ink dot.