Google doodle on Rorschach..... ink-blot test...

Ever heard of ‘klecksography’ ?!?!?!

We spend so many hours on Computer and not a single day passes by without searching something [not the searches of vehicle keys, purse, mobile and more material things when we start for office !] –  ~ ~ doing a google ‘google, google panni paaru !’

~ and today’s search presented me something strange… yesterday we saw the great doodle on Sir CV Raman.  Google puts special doodles marking special occasions and days.  Google doodles on homepage of the search engine has made it more fun and enjoyable for the users and nobody ever anticipated that it would become so popular.  Nowadays, many users excitedly anticipate the release of each new doodle and some even collect them!  Here is what it was today ….. !!!!

Human mind is very complex …. that explains the songs like ‘aaru athu aazham ille – athu serum kadalum aazham ille’ [river is not deep; the sea that it reaches is also not deep ~ if one were to ask which is deep – it is the heart of a woman………’  - tinseldom has been exploring this for too long….

That is human psychology…. Psychology is an academic and applied discipline that involves the scientific study of mental functions and behaviors. Psychology has the immediate goal of understanding individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases.  Psychologists attempt to understand the role of mental functions in individual and social behavior, while also exploring the physiological and neurobiological processes that underlie certain cognitive functions and behaviors. Ordinary people like us may never understand the concepts like :  perception, cognition, attention, emotion, phenomenology, motivation, brain functioning, personality, behavior, and interpersonal relationships.

Then there is ‘psychopathology’ , also called abnormal psychology,  the study of mental disorders and unusual or maladaptive behaviours. An understanding of the genesis of mental disorders is critical to mental health professionals in psychiatry, psychology, and social work.

Hermann Rorschach (1884 – 1922) was a Swiss Freudian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, best known for developing a projective test known as the Rorschach inkblot test. This test was reportedly designed to reflect unconscious parts of the personality that "project" onto the stimuli. In the test, individuals are shown 10 inkblots – one at a time – and asked to report what objects or figures they see in each of them ~ and you are infact seeing one of them in today’s google doodle.

Rorschach was born in Zürich and spent his childhood and youth in Schaffhausen, in northern Switzerland. He was known to his school friends as Klecks, or "inkblot" since he enjoyed klecksography, the making of fanciful inkblot "pictures". Unlike his classmates, however, Rorschach went on to make inkblots his life's work. Rorschach's father, an art teacher, encouraged him to express himself creatively through painting and drawing conventional pictures. Rorschach graduated in medicine at Zurich in 1909 and lived in Russia.

The Rorschach test (alsoRorschach inkblot test) is a psychological test in which subjects' perceptions of inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using psychological interpretation, complex algorithms, or both. Some psychologists use this test to examine a person's personality characteristics and emotional functioning. It has been employed to detect underlying thought disorder, especially in cases where patients are reluctant to describe their thinking processes openly. The tester and subject typically sit next to each other at a table, with the tester slightly behind the subject. This is to facilitate a “relaxed but controlled atmosphere”.

So, today’s Google doodle is clever, social, good sense of humour representation of its maker – Rorschach. It pays homage to Hermann Rorschach on his 129^th birthday. In between perfectly ordinary looking ink blots you will find many images depending on your mood and what you want to see…….. the inkblot analogy was great success putting Rorschach in limelight thought there have been some psychologists who feel that it was not scientifically worthy……..

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

8^th Nov. 2013.