# data[].attributes.body
Perhaps to compensate for their lack of happiness, we have turned to consumerism. Maybe the American dream is no longer attainable, or it is failed us. Either way, maybe we fill the void with meaningless stuff.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Life in America keeps getting more miserable, according to the latest data from the General Social Survey, one of the longest-running and most highly regarded public opinion research projects in the nation.

On a scale of 1 to 3, where 1 represents "not too happy" and 3 means "very happy," Americans on average give themselves a 2.18 - just a hair above "pretty happy." That's a significant decline from the nation's peak happiness, as measured by the survey, of the early 1990s.

The change is driven by the number of people who say they're not too happy: 13% in 2018 compared with 8% in 1990. That's a more than 50% increase in unhappy people.

Other recent research confirms this trend. The latest World Happiness Report, released this week, finds that a separate measure of overall life satisfaction fell by 6% in the United States between 2007 and 2018.

"Even as the United States economy improved after the end of the Great Recession in 2009," that report noted, "happiness among adults did not rebound to the higher levels of the 1990s, continuing a slow decline ongoing since at least 2000."

Economists have become more interested in happiness in recent years, partly because of the growing realization that traditional economic measures - such as unemployment or gross domestic product - are incapable of fully capturing the state of human welfare.
Happiness should be a top government priority, expert says "
Happiness research is "a useful antidote to the tendency of economists to focus exclusively on material determinants of social welfare," as then-Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke put it in a commencement address in 2010. "GDP is not itself the final objective of policy."

There are many determinants of happiness in the United States. This year's World Happiness Report, for instance, focuses on the role of digital media, noting that many of the activities correlated with unhappiness among young Americans - spending time on the internet, listening to music alone, using social media - typically happen on a computer or cellphone.

That study also cites the opioid epidemic, and the poor state of American health in general, as both drivers and symptoms of American unhappiness.
Sad news: Scientists say happiness won't extend your life after all "
Breaking out General Social Survey data among different demographic groups also offers some clues about the changing nature of American happiness.

Republicans, for instance, have maintained a consistent happiness edge over Democrats since the 1970s. The two trend lines generally move in tandem and don't appear to show much response to changes in the occupancy of the White House.

One potential explanation is Republicans' greater religiosity, which other research has linked to happiness and life satisfaction.

Similarly, the data show that white Americans are usually happier than black Americans, although that gap has narrowed in recent years.

The differences could hinge on their economic situations - white families, on average, make more money and are much wealthier than black ones, and research shows that money does indeed buy happiness. The financial differences are largely attributed to the discrimination black families face, and inequity has a direct effect on the well-being of black Americans.
Science proves it: Money really can buy happiness "
The urban-rural happiness gradient also is shrinking. In the 1970s, the residents of rural areas were about 10% happier in absolute terms than their big-city counterparts. But the two groups are very close now, and some researchers suspect that the strong preference for urban life among millennials is a factor.

Looking at responses by self-reported economic class offers a complicated picture of happiness.

Americans identifying as lower or middle class report a modest decline in happiness since the 1990s. But the picture is drastically different among the upper class, for whom happiness plateaued in the 1990s, dropped steeply around 2008, and has been rising steadily ever since.
Rich people experience happiness in a more self-centered way than poor people, study suggests "
One of the largest drivers of happiness in the General Social Survey is health. As of 2018, the happiness gap between those who say their health is "poor" and those who say it's "good" or "excellent" is about one-quarter of the entire scale in absolute terms. Rendered on a happiness scale from 0 to 100, for instance, the least healthy would rate their well-being at about a 38, while the healthiest would be somewhere near 65.

Perhaps more concerning than the absolute gap between the two is the fact that it has grown over the years, fueled chiefly by a decline in happiness among those who say their health is poor. This suggests that illness in America is becoming more difficult to deal with and exerting a greater toll on the well-being of patients. The potential culprits here are numerous: Soaring medical expenses probably play a role, as do the frustrations of dealing with private insurance companies that have a great deal of power in determining which treatments get covered and paid for.

This last finding echoes data presented in the World Happiness Report: Our current state of national well-being is tied, in large part, to various public health challenges.

The most daunting indicator in this regard may be the ongoing decline in life expectancy. The United States is in the midst of the longest ongoing decline in average life expectancy since World War I, fueled in large part by rising rates of suicide and fatal drug overdoses. This despite the fact that the nation is also in one of the longest economic expansions in its history.

The declining life expectancy and happiness numbers suggest that the fruits of that expansion are not being distributed equally among the Americans who are making it happen.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Americans are becoming less happy, and there's research to prove it

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Life in America keeps getting more miserable, according to the latest data from the General Social Survey, one of the longest-running and most highly regarded public opinion research projects in the nation. On a scale of 1 to 3, where 1 represents "not too happy" and 3 means "very happy," Americans on average give themselves a 2.18 - just a hair above "pretty happy."

# data[].attributes.body
Americans consume a ridiculous amount of resources. This leads credence to this theory, but I got to ask why people are consuming much.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
With 7.5 billion people currently occupying our planet, it's almost crazy to think how much visibility is afforded to the culture and lifestyle of just 323 million Americans. But what would the world be like if everyone lived like that?

Well, we totally have data to find out. From having loads more sex to spending an insane amount of time in cars, a recent AsapSCIENCE video delves into some stats to show what it would be like if everyone lived like Americans do.

As a global superpower, the United States not only have a huge influence worldwide, but also stands out in several areas, as the video below clearly shows:

It appears that people in the US generally have a pretty good lifespan despite being a bit older on average, but they have some pretty staggering statistics in terms of consumption, including the fact Americans eat double the meat than the world average.

In fact, in terms of diet, Americans really do knock it out of the ballpark, with the highest intake of calories, sugars, and fats amongst 16 other wealthiest countries in the world.

On top of that, Americans are also by far the biggest consumers of Coca Cola products, with the average person drinking 403 of these a year (that's more than one a day), in contrast to the worldwide average of just 92 products.

And then there's the issue of waste - even though the US contains just roughly 5 percent of the world's population, it produces 40 percent of the world's waste, and the number of yearly kilograms of trash attributed to the average person is pretty stunning.

At 10 litres (2.6 gallons) per day, the American lifestyle also relies heavily on oil, although surprisingly, AsapSCIENCE found that the average Canadian actually uses a tiny bit more oil every day than the average American.

But can we really take a bunch of statistics and turn them into an estimate of what would happen if everyone else lived just like that?

As AsapSCIENCE explains in the video, there's actually a measurement called the 'global hectare', a unit which allows us to compare the use of natural resources to their consumption in a globally standardised way.

Global hectares are used to express the Ecological Footprint, which measures whether our lifestyle is at risk of overblowing the biocapacity of where we live. (Annually, the Global Footprint Network marks the date of Earth Overshoot Day, which indicates when we've used up all the resources our planet can regenerate in a year.)

It turns out that the average person worldwide uses roughly 2.7 of these global hectares per year, whereas the average American clocks in at 6.8 global hectares.

"You can imagine, if we all lived like Americans, it would be catastrophic," AsapSCIENCE's team concludes in the video.

"In fact, we would need 4.2 Earths in order to sustain everyone living like an American."

Yikes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Watch: Here's How The American Lifestyle Really Compares to The Rest of The World

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
With 7.5 billion people currently occupying our planet, it's almost crazy to think how much visibility is afforded to the culture and lifestyle of just 323 million Americans. But what would the world be like if everyone lived like that?

# data[].attributes.body
Consumerism is a theme widely explored in the film. Starting after WW2, modern appliances help Americans modernize. However, this quickly backfired.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Americans spent their money on cars, televisions and other modern appliance, Library of Congress

At the end of World War II, American soldiers returned home to a country quite different from the one they had left four years earlier. Wartime production had helped pull America's economy out of depression, and from the late 1940s on, young adults saw a remarkable rise in their spending power. Jobs were plentiful, wages were higher, and because of the lack of consumer goods during the war, Americans were eager to spend. During the same years, young couples were marrying and having children at unprecedented rates. New and expanded federal programs, including the G.I. Bill of Rights, allowed many young families to purchase their own homes, often located in rapidly expanding suburbs.

More, Newer, Better
After World War II, consumer spending no longer meant just satisfying an indulgent material desire. In fact, the American consumer was praised as a patriotic citizen in the 1950s, contributing to the ultimate success of the American way of life. "The good purchaser devoted to 'more, newer and better' was the good citizen," historian Lizabeth Cohen explained, "since economic recovery after a decade and a half of depression and war depended on a dynamic mass consumption economy."

Pragmatic Spending
Americans invested in items based around home and family life. At war's end, the items people most desired included televisions, cars, washing machines, refrigerators, toasters, and vacuum cleaners: the machines that would help them modernize their lives. Between 1945 and 1949, Americans purchased 20 million refrigerators, 21.4 million cars, and 5.5 million stoves, a trend that continued well into the 1950s. Historian Elaine Tyler May noted, "The values associated with domestic spending upheld traditional American concerns with pragmatism and morality, rather than opulence and luxury. Purchasing for the home helped alleviate traditional American uneasiness with consumption: the fear that spending would lead to decadence."

Cars and TVs
Television and automobile sales skyrocketed in the 1950s.

With the massive growth in suburban populations, automobiles were needed more than ever, and were within reach for many first-time buyers. Families of all income brackets were buying televisions at a rate of five million a year. Some TV shows, like The Goldbergs and The Honeymooners, catered to working- and middle-class viewers with storylines about ethnic families. In addition, television provided a potent medium for advertisers to reach inside American homes, creating desires for other products.

"The Good Life"
Historian Elained Tyler May believes that the federal government and the American people saw the new consumerism as a way to deemphasize class differences while stressing traditional gender roles. With the things that defined "the good life" within economic reach, working-class people could achieve the upward mobility they craved.

Selling in Order to Buy
In many ways, Tupperware reinforced the ideal of the efficient home and kitchen. After all, Tupperware was meant to help housewives maintain freshness and cleanliness in food storage and preparation. Tupperware also helped fulfill the postwar desire for consumer goods. When asked how she recruited new dealers to her Tupperware distributorship, Jean Conlogue noted, "We tried to fill a need for something that they wanted, like new carpet, or a new refrigerator, and then we would map out for them how many parties they would have to hold." The company further reinforced consumption with their promotions and prizes. As rewards for their high sales, Tupperware dealers were rewarded with top-of-the-line appliances, from washing machines to double boilers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Rise of American Consumerism | American Experience | PBS

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Postwar consumerism was praised as a patriotic contribution to the ultimate success of the American way of life.

# data[].attributes.body
Quote from Jung: "a kind of mask, designed on the one hand to make a definite impression upon others, and on the other to conceal the true nature of the individual"

Is our core that rotten. Has consumerism taken it's hold on us.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The persona, for Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, was the social face the individual presented to the world-"a kind of mask, designed on the one hand to make a definite impression upon others, and on the other to conceal the true nature of the individual".

Jung's persona

The development of a viable social persona is a vital part of adapting to, and preparing for, adult life in the external social world.[citation needed ] "A strong ego relates to the outside world through a flexible persona; identifications with a specific persona (doctor, scholar, artist, etc.) inhibits psychological development. Thus for Jung "the danger is that [people] become identical with their personas-the professor with his textbook, the tenor with his voice." The result could be "the shallow, brittle, conformist kind of personality which is 'all persona', with its excessive concern for 'what people think'"-an unreflecting state of mind 'in which people are utterly unconscious of any distinction between themselves and the world in which they live. They have little or no concept of themselves as beings distinct from what society expects of them'. The stage was set thereby for what Jung termed enantiodromia -the emergence of the repressed individuality from beneath the persona later in life: 'the individual will either be completely smothered under an empty persona or an enantiodromia into the buried opposites will occur'.

"The breakdown of the persona constitutes the typically Jungian moment both in therapy and in development"-the "moment" when "that excessive commitment to collective ideals masking deeper individuality-the persona-breaks down... disintegrates." Given Jung's view that "the persona is a semblance... the dissolution of the persona is therefore absolutely necessary for individuation." Nevertheless, its disintegration may well lead initially to a state of chaos in the individual: "one result of the dissolution of the persona is the release of fantasy... disorientation." As the individuation process gets under way, "the situation has thrown off the conventional husk and developed into a stark encounter with reality, with no false veils or adornments of any kind."

One possible reaction to the resulting experience of archetypal chaos was what Jung called "the regressive restoration of the persona", whereby the protagonist "laboriously tries to patch up his social reputation within the confines of a much more limited personality... pretending that he is as he was before the crucial experience." Similarly in treatment there can be "the persona-restoring phase, which is an effort to maintain superficiality"; or even a longer phase designed not to promote individuation but to bring about what Jung caricatured as "the negative restoration of the persona"-that is to say, a reversion to the status quo.

The alternative is to endure living with the absence of the persona-and for Jung "the man with no persona... is blind to the reality of the world, which for him has merely the value of an amusing or fantastic playground." Inevitably, the result of "the streaming in of the unconscious into the conscious realm, simultaneously with the dissolution of the 'persona' and the reduction of the directive force of consciousness, is a state of disturbed psychic equilibrium." Those trapped at such a stage remain "blind to the world, hopeless dreamers... spectral Cassandras dreaded for their tactlessness, eternally misunderstood."

Recovery, the aim of individuation, "is not only achieved by work on the inside figures but also, as conditio sine qua non, by a readaptation in outer life"-including the recreation of a new and more viable persona. To "develop a stronger persona... might feel inauthentic, like learning to "play a role"... but if one cannot perform a social role then one will suffer". Thus one goal for individuation is for people to "develop a more realistic, flexible persona that helps them navigate in society but does not collide with nor hide their true self". Eventually, "in the best case, the persona is appropriate and tasteful, a true reflection of our inner individuality and our outward sense of self."

Later developments

The persona has become one of the most widely adopted aspects of Jungian terminology, passing into almost common parlance: "a mask or shield which the person places between himself and the people around him, called by some psychiatrists the persona." For Eric Berne, "the persona is formed during the years from six to twelve, when most children first go out on their own... to avoid unwanted entanglements or promote wanted ones." He was interested in "the relationship between ego states and the Jungian persona", and considered that "as an ad hoc attitude, persona is differentiated also from the more autonomous identity of Erikson." Perhaps more contentiously, in terms of life scripts, he distinguished "the Archetypes (corresponding to the magic figures in a script) and the Persona (which is the style the script is played in)".

Post-Jungians would loosely call the persona "the social archetype of the conformity archetype", though Jung himself was always concerned to distinguish the persona as an external function from those images of the unconscious he called archetypes. Thus whereas Jung recommended conversing with archetypes as a therapeutic technique he himself had employed-"For decades I always turned to the anima when I felt my emotional behavior was disturbed, and I would speak with the anima about the images she communicated to me"-he stressed that "It would indeed be the height of absurdity if a man tried to have a conversation with his persona, which he recognized merely as a psychological means of relationship."

References

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The persona, for Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, was the social face the individual presented to the world-"a kind of mask, designed on the one hand to make a definite impression upon others, and on the other to conceal the true nature of the individual".

# data[].attributes.body
This image shows that beneath the mask is the  shadow. The Persona is also a concept in Jungian psychology that is the mask we where when we interact with society.

# data[].attributes.body
These are the Rorschach Tests. Simply put, the symmetry allows for the creation of a whole scene. Perhaps this image wouldn't work if it weren't for the duality of the doppelgangers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Rorschach 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 test is named after its creator, Swiss psychologist Hermann Rorschach. In the 1960s, the Rorschach was the most widely used projective test.

Although the Exner Scoring System (developed since the 1960s) claims to have addressed and often refuted many criticisms of the original testing system with an extensive body of research, some researchers continue to raise questions. The areas of dispute include the objectivity of testers, inter-rater reliability, the verifiability and general validity of the test, bias of the test's pathology scales towards greater numbers of responses, the limited number of psychological conditions which it accurately diagnoses, the inability to replicate the test's norms, its use in court-ordered evaluations, and the proliferation of the ten inkblot images, potentially invalidating the test for those who have been exposed to them.

Using interpretation of "ambiguous designs" to assess an individual's personality is an idea that goes back to Leonardo da Vinci and Botticelli. Interpretation of inkblots was central to a game, , from the late 19th century. Rorschach's, however, was the first systematic approach of this kind. The ink blots were hand drawn by Rorschach.

It has been suggested that Rorschach's use of inkblots may have been inspired by German doctor Justinus Kerner who, in 1857, had published a popular book of poems, each of which was inspired by an accidental inkblot. French psychologist Alfred Binet had also experimented with inkblots as a creativity test, and, after the turn of the century, psychological experiments where inkblots were utilized multiplied, with aims such as studying imagination and consciousness.

After studying 300 mental patients and 100 control subjects, in 1921 Rorschach wrote his book Psychodiagnostik, which was to form the basis of the inkblot test (after experimenting with several hundred inkblots, he selected a set of ten for their diagnostic value), but he died the following year. Although he had served as Vice President of the Swiss Psychoanalytic Society, Rorschach had difficulty in publishing the book and it attracted little attention when it first appeared.

In 1927, the newly founded Hans Huber publishing house purchased Rorschach's book Psychodiagnostik from the inventory of Ernst Bircher. Huber has remained the publisher of the test and related book, with Rorschach a registered trademark of Swiss publisher Verlag Hans Huber, Hogrefe AG. The work has been described as "a densely written piece couched in dry, scientific terminology".

After Rorschach's death, the original test scoring system was improved by Samuel Beck, Bruno Klopfer and others. John E. Exner summarized some of these later developments in the comprehensive system, at the same time trying to make the scoring more statistically rigorous. Some systems are based on the psychoanalytic concept of object relations. The Exner system remains very popular in the United States, while in Europe other methods sometimes dominate, such as that described in the textbook by Evald Bohm, which is closer to the original Rorschach system and rooted more deeply in the original psychoanalysis principles.[citation needed ]

Rorschach never intended the inkblots to be used as a general personality test, but developed them as a tool for the diagnosis of schizophrenia. It was not until 1939 that the test was used as a projective test of personality, a use of which Rorschach had always been skeptical. Interviewed in 2012 for a BBC Radio 4 documentary, Rita Signer, curator of the Rorschach Archives in Bern, Switzerland, suggested that far from being random or chance designs, each of the blots selected by Rorschach for his test had been meticulously designed to be as ambiguous and "conflicted" as possible.

The Rorschach test is appropriate for subjects from the age of five to adulthood. The administrator and subject typically sit next to each other at a table, with the administrator slightly behind the subject. Side-by-side seating of the examiner and the subject is used to reduce any effects of inadvertent cues from the examiner to the subject. In other words, side-by-side seating mitigates the possibility that the examiner will accidentally influence the subject's responses. This is to facilitate a "relaxed but controlled atmosphere". There are ten official inkblots, each printed on a separate white card, approximately 18 by 24 cm in size. Each of the blots has near perfect bilateral symmetry. Five inkblots are of black ink, two are of black and red ink and three are multicolored, on a white background. After the test subject has seen and responded to all of the inkblots ( free association phase), the tester then presents them again one at a time in a set sequence for the subject to study: the subject is asked to note where they see what they originally saw and what makes it look like that ( inquiry phase). The subject is usually asked to hold the cards and may rotate them. Whether the cards are rotated, and other related factors such as whether permission to rotate them is asked, may expose personality traits and normally contributes to the assessment. As the subject is examining the inkblots, the psychologist writes down everything the subject says or does, no matter how trivial. Analysis of responses is recorded by the test administrator using a tabulation and scoring sheet and, if required, a separate location chart.

The general goal of the test is to provide data about cognition and personality variables such as motivations, response tendencies, cognitive operations, affectivity, and personal/interpersonal perceptions. The underlying assumption is that an individual will class external stimuli based on person-specific perceptual sets, and including needs, base motives, conflicts, and that this clustering process is representative of the process used in real-life situations. Methods of interpretation differ. Rorschach scoring systems have been described as a system of pegs on which to hang one's knowledge of personality. The most widely used method in the United States is based on the work of Exner.

Administration of the test to a group of subjects, by means of projected images, has also occasionally been performed, but mainly for research rather than diagnostic purposes.

Test administration is not to be confused with test interpretation:

The interpretation of a Rorschach record is a complex process. It requires a wealth of knowledge concerning personality dynamics generally as well as considerable experience with the Rorschach method specifically. Proficiency as a Rorschach administrator can be gained within a few months. However, even those who are able and qualified to become Rorschach interpreters usually remain in a "learning stage" for a number of years.

Features or categories

The interpretation of the Rorschach test is not based primarily on the contents of the response, i.e., what the individual sees in the inkblot (the content). In fact, the contents of the response are only a comparatively small portion of a broader cluster of variables that are used to interpret the Rorschach data: for instance, information is provided by the time taken before providing a response for a card can be significant (taking a long time can indicate "shock" on the card). as well as by any comments the subject may make in addition to providing a direct response.

In particular, information about determinants (the aspects of the inkblots that triggered the response, such as form and color) and location (which details of the inkblots triggered the response) is often considered more important than content, although there is contrasting evidence. "Popularity" and "originality" of responses can also be considered as basic dimensions in the analysis.

The goal in coding content of the Rorschach is to categorize the objects that the subject describes in response to the inkblot. There are 27 established codes for identifying the name of the descriptive object. The codes are classified and include terms such as "human", "nature", "animal", "abstract", "clothing", "fire", and "x-ray", to name a few. Content described that does not have a code already established should be coded using the code "idiographic contents" with the shorthand code being "Idio." Items are also coded for statistical popularity (or, conversely, originality).

More than any other feature in the test, content response can be controlled consciously by the subject, and may be elicited by very disparate factors, which makes it difficult to use content alone to draw any conclusions about the subject's personality; with certain individuals, content responses may potentially be interpreted directly, and some information can at times be obtained by analyzing thematic trends in the whole set of content responses (which is only feasible when several responses are available), but in general content cannot be analyzed outside of the context of the entire test record.

Identifying the location of the subject's response is another element scored in the Rorschach system. Location refers to how much of the inkblot was used to answer the question. Administrators score the response "W" if the whole inkblot was used to answer the question, "D" if a commonly described part of the blot was used, "Dd" if an uncommonly described or unusual detail was used, or "S" if the white space in the background was used. A score of W is typically associated with the subject's motivation to interact with his or her surrounding environment. D is interpreted as one having efficient or adequate functioning. A high frequency of responses coded Dd indicate some maladjustment within the individual. Responses coded S indicate an oppositional or uncooperative test subject.

Determinants

Systems for Rorschach scoring generally include a concept of "determinants": These are the factors that contribute to establishing the similarity between the inkblot and the subject's content response about it. They can also represent certain basic experiential-perceptual attitudes, showing aspects of the way a subject perceives the world. Rorschach's original work used only form, color and movement as determinants. However currently, another major determinant considered is shading, which was inadvertently introduced by poor printing quality of the inkblots. Rorschach initially disregarded shading, since the inkblots originally featured uniform saturation, but later recognized it as a significant factor.

Form is the most common determinant, and is related to intellectual processes. Color responses often provide direct insight into one's emotional life. Movement and shading have been considered more ambiguously, both in definition and interpretation. Rorschach considered movement only as the experiencing of actual motion, while others have widened the scope of this determinant, taking it to mean that the subject sees something "going on".

More than one determinant can contribute to the formation of the subject's perception. Fusion of two determinants is taken into account, while also assessing which of the two constituted the primary contributor. For example, " form- color" implies a more refined control of impulse than " color- form". It is, indeed, from the relation and balance among determinants that personality can be most readily inferred.

Symmetry of the test items

A striking characteristic of the Rorschach inkblots is their symmetry. Many unquestionably accept this aspect of the nature of the images but Rorschach, as well as other researchers, certainly did not. Rorschach experimented with both asymmetric and symmetric images before finally opting for the latter.

He gives this explanation for the decision:

Asymmetric figures are rejected by many subjects; symmetry supplied part of the necessary artistic composition. It has a disadvantage in that it tends to make answers somewhat stereotyped. On the other hand, symmetry makes conditions the same for right and left handed subjects; furthermore, it facilitates interpretation for certain blocked subjects. Finally, symmetry makes possible the interpretation of whole scenes.

The impact of symmetry in the Rorschach inkblot's has also been investigated further by other researchers.

Exner scoring system

The Exner scoring system, also known as the Rorschach Comprehensive System (RCS), is the standard method for interpreting the Rorschach test. It was developed in the 1960s by Dr. John E. Exner, as a more rigorous system of analysis. It has been extensively validated and shows high inter-rater reliability. In 1969, Exner published The Rorschach Systems, a concise description of what would be later called "the Exner system". He later published a study in multiple volumes called The Rorschach: A Comprehensive system, the most accepted full description of his system.

Creation of the new system was prompted by the realization that at least five related, but ultimately different methods were in common use at the time, with a sizeable minority of examiners not employing any recognized method at all, basing instead their judgment on subjective assessment, or arbitrarily mixing characteristics of the various standardized systems.

The key components of the Exner system are the clusterization of Rorschach variables and a sequential search strategy to determine the order in which to analyze them, framed in the context of standardized administration, objective, reliable coding and a representative normative database. The system places a lot of emphasis on a cognitive triad of information processing, related to how the subject processes input data, cognitive mediation, referring to the way information is transformed and identified, and .

In the system, responses are scored with reference to their level of vagueness or synthesis of multiple images in the blot, the location of the response, which of a variety of determinants is used to produce the response (i.e., what makes the inkblot look like what it is said to resemble), the form quality of the response (to what extent a response is faithful to how the actual inkblot looks), the contents of the response (what the respondent actually sees in the blot), the degree of mental organizing activity that is involved in producing the response, and any illogical, incongruous, or incoherent aspects of responses. It has been reported that popular responses on the first card include bat, badge and coat of arms.

Using the scores for these categories, the examiner then performs a series of calculations producing a structural summary of the test data. The results of the structural summary are interpreted using existing research data on personality characteristics that have been demonstrated to be associated with different kinds of responses.

With the Rorschach plates (the ten inkblots), the area of each blot which is distinguished by the client is noted and coded-typically as "commonly selected" or "uncommonly selected". There were many different methods for coding the areas of the blots. Exner settled upon the area coding system promoted by S. J. Beck (1944 and 1961). This system was in turn based upon Klopfer's (1942) work.

As pertains to response form, a concept of "form quality" was present from the earliest of Rorschach's works, as a subjective judgment of how well the form of the subject's response matched the inkblots (Rorschach would give a higher form score to more "original" yet good form responses), and this concept was followed by other methods, especially in Europe; in contrast, the Exner system solely defines "good form" as a matter of word occurrence frequency, reducing it to a measure of the subject's distance to the population average.

Performance assessment system

Rorschach performance assessment system (R-PAS) is a scoring method created by several members of the Rorschach Research Council. They believed that the Exner scoring system was in need of an update, but after Exner's death, the Exner family forbade any changes to be made to the Comprehensive System. Therefore, they established a new system: the R-PAS. It is an attempt at creating a current, empirically based, and internationally focused scoring system that is easier to use than Exner's Comprehensive System. The R-PAS manual is intended to be a comprehensive tool for administering, scoring, and interpreting the Rorschach. The manual consists of two chapters that are basics of scoring and interpretation, aimed for use for novice Rorschach users, followed by numerous chapters containing more detailed and technical information.

In terms of updated scoring, the authors only selected variables that have been empirically supported in the literature. To note, the authors did not create new variables or indices to be coded, but systematically reviewed variables that had been used in past systems. While all of these codes have been used in the past, many have been renamed to be more face valid and readily understood. Scoring of the indices has been updated (e.g. utilizing percentiles and standard scores) to make the Rorschach more in line with other popular personality measures.

In addition to providing coding guidelines to score examinee responses, the R-PAS provides a system to code an examinee's behavior during Rorschach administration. These behavioral codes are included as it is believed that the behaviors exhibited during testing are a reflection of someone's task performance and supplements the actual responses given. This allows generalizations to be made between someone's responses to the cards and their actual behavior.

The R-PAS also recognized that scoring on many of the Rorschach variables differed across countries. Therefore, starting in 1997, Rorschach protocols from researchers around the world were compiled. After compiling protocols for over a decade, a total of 15 adult samples were used to provide a normative basis for the R-PAS. The protocols represent data gathered in the United States, Europe, Israel, Argentina and Brazil.

Cultural differences

Comparing North American Exner normative data with data from European and South American subjects showed marked differences in some features, some of which impact important variables, while others (such as the average number of responses) coincide. For instance, texture response is typically zero in European subjects (if interpreted as a need for closeness, in accordance with the system, a European would seem to express it only when it reaches the level of a craving for closeness), and there are fewer "good form" responses, to the point where schizophrenia may be suspected if data were correlated to the North American norms. Form is also often the only determinant expressed by European subjects; while color is less frequent than in American subjects, color-form responses are comparatively frequent in opposition to form-color responses; since the latter tend to be interpreted as indicators of a defensive attitude in processing affect, this difference could stem from a higher value attributed to spontaneous expression of emotions.

The differences in form quality are attributable to purely cultural aspects: different cultures will exhibit different "common" objects (French subjects often identify a chameleon in card VIII, which is normally classed as an "unusual" response, as opposed to other animals like cats and dogs; in Scandinavia, "Christmas elves" (nisser) is a popular response for card II, and "musical instrument" on card VI is popular for Japanese people), and different languages will exhibit semantic differences in naming the same object (the figure of card IV is often called a troll by Scandinavians and an ogre by French people). Many of Exner's "popular" responses (those given by at least one third of the North American sample used) seem to be universally popular, as shown by samples in Europe, Japan and South America, while specifically card IX's "human" response, the crab or spider in card X and one of either the butterfly or the bat in card I appear to be characteristic of North America.

Form quality, popular content responses and locations are the only coded variables in the Exner systems that are based on frequency of occurrence, and thus immediately subject to cultural influences; therefore, cultural-dependent interpretation of test data may not necessarily need to extend beyond these components.

The cited language differences mean that it's imperative for the test to be administered in the subject's native language or a very well mastered second language, and, conversely, the examiner should master the language used in the test. Test responses should also not be translated into another language prior to analysis except possibly by a clinician mastering both languages. For example, a bow tie is a frequent response for the center detail of card III, but since the equivalent term in French translates to "butterfly tie", an examiner not appreciating this language nuance may code the response differently from what is expected.

Below are the ten inkblots of the Rorschach test printed in Rorschach's Rorschach Test - Psychodiagnostic Plates, together with the most frequent responses for either the whole image or the most prominent details according to various authors.

United States

The Rorschach test is used almost exclusively by psychologists. Forensic psychologists use the Rorschach 36% of the time. In custody cases, 23% of psychologists use the Rorschach to examine a child. Another survey found that 124 out of 161 (77%) of clinical psychologists engaging in assessment services utilize the Rorschach, and 80% of psychology graduate programs teach its use. Another study found that its use by clinical psychologists was only 43%, while it was used less than 24% of the time by school psychologists.

During World War II, United States Army Medical Corps chief psychiatrist Dr. Douglas Kelley and psychologist Gustave Gilbert administered the Rorschach test to the 22 defendants in the Nazi leadership group prior to the first Nuremberg trials.

United Kingdom

Many psychologists in the United Kingdom do not trust its efficacy and it is rarely used. Although skeptical about its scientific validity, some psychologists use it in therapy and coaching "as a way of encouraging self-reflection and starting a conversation about the person's internal world." It is still used, however, by some mental health organisations such as the Tavistock Clinic. In a survey done in the year 2000, 20% of psychologists in correctional facilities used the Rorschach while 80% used the MMPI.

Shortly after publication of Rorschach's book, a copy found its way to Japan where it was discovered by one of the country's leading psychiatrists in a second-hand book store. He was so impressed that he started a craze for the test that has never diminished. The Japanese Rorschach Society is by far the largest in the world and the test is "routinely put to a wide range of purposes". In 2012 the test was described, by presenter Jo Fidgen, for BBC Radio 4's programme Dr Inkblot, as "more popular than ever" in Japan.

Controversy

Some skeptics consider the Rorschach inkblot test pseudoscience, as several studies suggested that conclusions reached by test administrators since the 1950s were akin to cold reading. In the 1959 edition of Mental Measurement Yearbook, Lee Cronbach (former President of the Psychometric Society and American Psychological Association) is quoted in a review: "The test has repeatedly failed as a prediction of practical criteria. There is nothing in the literature to encourage reliance on Rorschach interpretations." In addition, major reviewer Raymond J. McCall writes (p. 154): "Though tens of thousands of Rorschach tests have been administered by hundreds of trained professionals since that time (of a previous review), and while many relationships to personality dynamics and behavior have been hypothesized, the vast majority of these relationships have never been validated empirically, despite the appearance of more than 2,000 publications about the test." A moratorium on its use was called for in 1999.

A 2003 report by Wood and colleagues had more mixed views: "More than 50 years of research have confirmed Lee J. Cronbach's (1970) final verdict: that some Rorschach scores, though falling woefully short of the claims made by proponents, nevertheless possess 'validity greater than chance' (p. 636). [...] Its value as a measure of thought disorder in schizophrenia research is well accepted. It is also used regularly in research on dependency, and, less often, in studies on hostility and anxiety. Furthermore, substantial evidence justifies the use of the Rorschach as a clinical measure of intelligence and thought disorder."

Test materials

The basic premise of the test is that objective meaning can be extracted from responses to blots of ink which are supposedly meaningless. Supporters of the Rorschach inkblot test believe that the subject's response to an ambiguous and meaningless stimulus can provide insight into their thought processes, but it is not clear how this occurs. Also, recent research shows that the blots are not entirely meaningless, and that a patient typically responds to meaningful as well as ambiguous aspects of the blots. Reber (1985) describes the blots as merely ".. the vehicle for the interaction .." between client and therapist, concluding: ".. the usefulness of the Rorschach will depend upon the sensitivity, empathy and insightfulness of the tester totally independently of the Rorschach itself. An intense dialogue about the wallpaper or the rug would do as well provided that both parties believe."

Illusory and invisible correlations

In the 1960s, research by psychologists Loren and Jean Chapman showed that at least some of the apparent validity of the Rorschach was due to an illusion. At that time, the five signs most often interpreted as diagnostic of homosexuality were 1) buttocks and anuses; 2) feminine clothing; 3) male or female sex organs; 4) human figures without male or female features; and 5) human figures with both male and female features. The Chapmans surveyed 32 experienced testers about their use of the Rorschach to diagnose homosexuality. At this time homosexuality was regarded as a psychopathology, and the Rorschach was the most popular projective test. The testers reported that homosexual men had shown the five signs more frequently than heterosexual men. Despite these beliefs, analysis of the results showed that heterosexual men were just as likely to report these signs, which were therefore totally ineffective for determining homosexuality. The five signs did, however, match the guesses students made about which imagery would be associated with homosexuality.

The Chapmans investigated the source of the testers' false confidence. In one experiment, students read through a stack of cards, each with a Rorschach blot, a sign and a pair of "conditions" (which might include homosexuality). The information on the cards was fictional, although subjects were told it came from case studies of real patients. The students reported that the five invalid signs were associated with homosexuality, even though the cards had been constructed so there was no association at all. The Chapmans repeated this experiment with another set of cards, in which the association was negative; the five signs were never reported by homosexuals. The students still reported seeing a strong positive correlation. These experiments showed that the testers' prejudices could result in them "seeing" non-existent relationships in the data. The Chapmans called this phenomenon " illusory correlation" and it has since been demonstrated in many other contexts.

A related phenomenon called "invisible correlation" applies when people fail to see a strong association between two events because it does not match their expectations. This was also found in clinicians' interpretations of the Rorschach. Homosexual men are more likely to see a monster on Card IV or a part-animal, part-human figure in Card V. Almost all of the experienced clinicians in the Chapmans' survey missed these valid signs. The Chapmans ran an experiment with fake Rorschach responses in which these valid signs were always associated with homosexuality. The subjects missed these perfect associations and instead reported that invalid signs, such as buttocks or feminine clothing, were better indicators.

In 1992, the psychologist Stuart Sutherland argued that these artificial experiments are easier than the real-world use of the Rorschach, and hence they probably underestimated the errors that testers were susceptible to. He described the continuing popularity of the Rorschach after the Chapmans' research as a "glaring example of irrationality among psychologists".

Tester projection

Some critics argue that the testing psychologist must also project onto the patterns. A possible example sometimes attributed to the psychologist's subjective judgement is that responses are coded (among many other things), for "Form Quality": in essence, whether the subject's response fits with how the blot actually looks. Superficially this might be considered a subjective judgment, depending on how the examiner has internalized the categories involved. But with the Exner system of scoring, much of the subjectivity is eliminated or reduced by use of frequency tables that indicate how often a particular response is given by the population in general. Another example is that the response "bra" was considered a "sex" response by male psychologists, but a "clothing" response by females. In Exner's system, however, such a response is always coded as "clothing" unless there is a clear sexual reference in the response.

Third parties could be used to avoid this problem, but the Rorschach's inter-rater reliability has been questioned. That is, in some studies the scores obtained by two independent scorers do not match with great consistency. This conclusion was challenged in studies using large samples reported in 2002.

When interpreted as a projective test, results are poorly verifiable. The Exner system of scoring (also known as the "Comprehensive System") is meant to address this, and has all but displaced many earlier (and less consistent) scoring systems. It makes heavy use of what factor (shading, color, outline, etc.) of the inkblot leads to each of the tested person's comments. Disagreements about test validity remain: while the Exner proposed a rigorous scoring system, latitude remained in the actual interpretation, and the clinician's write-up of the test record is still partly subjective. Reber (1985) comments ".. there is essentially no evidence whatsoever that the test has even a shred of validity."

Nevertheless, there is substantial research indicating the utility of the measure for a few scores. Several scores correlate well with general intelligence. One such scale is R, the total number of responses; this reveals the questionable side-effect that more intelligent people tend to be elevated on many pathology scales, since many scales do not correct for high R: if a subject gives twice as many responses overall, it is more likely that some of these will seem "pathological". Also correlated with intelligence are the scales for Organizational Activity, Complexity, Form Quality, and Human Figure responses. The same source reports that validity has also been shown for detecting such conditions as schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders; thought disorders; and personality disorders (including borderline personality disorder). There is some evidence that the Deviant Verbalizations scale relates to bipolar disorder. The authors conclude that "Otherwise, the Comprehensive System doesn't appear to bear a consistent relationship to psychological disorders or symptoms, personality characteristics, potential for violence, or such health problems as cancer". (Cancer is mentioned because a small minority of Rorschach enthusiasts have claimed the test can predict cancer.)

Reliability

It is also thought that the test's reliability can depend substantially on details of the testing procedure, such as where the tester and subject are seated, any introductory words, verbal and nonverbal responses to subjects' questions or comments, and how responses are recorded. Exner has published detailed instructions, but Wood et al. cites many court cases where these had not been followed. Similarly, the procedures for coding responses are fairly well specified but extremely time-consuming leaving them very subject to the author's style and the publisher to the quality of the instructions (such as was noted with one of Bohm's textbooks in the 1950s) as well as clinic workers (which would include examiners) being encouraged to cut corners.

United States courts have challenged the Rorschach as well. Jones v Apfel (1997) stated (quoting from Attorney's Textbook of Medicine) that Rorschach "results do not meet the requirements of standardization, reliability, or validity of clinical diagnostic tests, and interpretation thus is often controversial". In State ex rel H.H. (1999) where under cross-examination Dr. Bogacki stated under oath "many psychologists do not believe much in the validity or effectiveness of the Rorschach test" and US v Battle (2001) ruled that the Rorschach "does not have an objective scoring system."

Population norms

Another controversial aspect of the test is its statistical norms. Exner's system was thought to possess normative scores for various populations. But, beginning in the mid-1990s others began to try to replicate or update these norms and failed. In particular, discrepancies seemed to focus on indices measuring narcissism, disordered thinking, and discomfort in close relationships. Lilienfeld and colleagues, who are critical of the Rorschach, have stated that this proves that the Rorschach tends to "overpathologise normals". Although Rorschach proponents, such as Hibbard, suggest that high rates of pathology detected by the Rorschach accurately reflect increasing psychopathology in society, the Rorschach also identifies half of all test-takers as possessing "distorted thinking", a false positive rate unexplained by current research.

The accusation of "over-pathologising" has also been considered by Meyer et al. (2007). They presented an international collaborative study of 4704 Rorschach protocols, obtained in 21 different samples, across 17 different countries, with only 2% showing significant elevations on the index of perceptual and thinking disorder, 12% elevated on indices of depression and hyper-vigilance and 13% elevated on persistent stress overload-all in line with expected frequencies among non-patient populations.

Applications

The test is also controversial because of its common use in court-ordered evaluations.[citation needed ] This controversy stems, in part, from the limitations of the Rorschach, with no additional data, in making official diagnoses from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ( DSM-IV). Irving B. Weiner (co-developer with John Exner of the Comprehensive system) has stated that the Rorschach "is a measure of personality functioning, and it provides information concerning aspects of personality structure and dynamics that make people the kind of people they are. Sometimes such information about personality characteristics is helpful in arriving at a differential diagnosis, if the alternative diagnoses being considered have been well conceptualized with respect to specific or defining personality characteristics". In the vast majority of cases, anyway, the Rorschach test wasn't singled out but used as one of several in a battery of tests, and despite the criticism of usage of the Rorschach in the courts, out of 8,000 cases in which forensic psychologists used Rorschach-based testimony, the appropriateness of the instrument was challenged only six times, and the testimony was ruled inadmissible in only one of those cases. One study has found that use of the test in courts has increased by three times in the decade between 1996 and 2005, compared to the previous fifty years. Others however have found that its usage by forensic psychologists has decreased.

Exner and others have claimed that the Rorschach test is capable of detecting suicidality.

Protection of test items and ethics

Psychologists object to the publication of psychological test material out of concerns that a patient's test responses will be influenced ("") by previous exposure. The Canadian Psychological Association takes the position that, "Publishing the questions and answers to any psychological test compromises its usefulness" and calls for "keeping psychological tests out of the public domain." The same statement quotes their president as saying, "The CPA's concern is not with the publication of the cards and responses to the Rorschach test per se, for which there is some controversy in the psychological literature and disagreement among experts, but with the larger issue of the publication and dissemination of psychological test content".

From a legal standpoint, the Rorschach test images have been in the public domain for many years in most countries, particularly those with a copyright term of up to 70 years post mortem auctoris. They have been in the public domain in Hermann Rorschach's native Switzerland since 1992 (70 years after the author's death, or 50 years after the cut-off date of 1942), according to Swiss copyright law. They are also in the public domain under United States copyright law where all works published before 1923 are considered to be in the public domain. This means that the Rorschach images may be used by anyone for any purpose. William Poundstone was, perhaps, first to make them public in his 1983 book Big Secrets, where he also described the method of administering the test.[citation needed ]

The American Psychological Association (APA) has a code of ethics that supports "freedom of inquiry and expression" and helping "the public in developing informed judgments". It claims that its goals include "the welfare and protection of the individuals and groups with whom psychologists work", and it requires that psychologists "make reasonable efforts to maintain the integrity and security of test materials". The APA has also raised concerns that the dissemination of test materials might impose "very concrete harm to the general public". It has not taken a position on publication of the Rorschach plates but noted "there are a limited number of standardized psychological tests considered appropriate for a given purpose". A public statement by the British Psychological Society expresses similar concerns about psychological tests (without mentioning any test by name) and considers the "release of [test] materials to unqualified individuals" to be misuse if it is against the wishes of the test publisher. In his 1998 book Ethics in Psychology, Gerald Koocher notes that some believe "reprinting copies of the Rorschach plates ... and listing common responses represents a serious unethical act" for psychologists and is indicative of "questionable professional judgment". Other professional associations, such as the Italian Association of Strategic Psychotherapy, recommend that even information about the purpose of the test or any detail of its administration should be kept from the public, even though "cheating" the test is held to be practically impossible.

On September 9, 2008, Hogrefe attempted to claim copyright over the Rorschach ink blots during filings of a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization against the Brazilian psychologist Ney Limonge. These complaints were denied. Further complaints were sent to two other websites that contained information similar to the Rorschach test in May 2009 by legal firm Schluep and Degen of Switzerland.

Psychologists have sometimes refused to disclose tests and test data to courts when asked to do so by the parties citing ethical reasons; it is argued that such refusals may hinder full understanding of the process by the attorneys, and impede cross-examination of the experts. APA ethical standard 1.23(b) states that the psychologist has a responsibility to document processes in detail and of adequate quality to allow reasonable scrutiny by the court.

Controversy ensued in the psychological community in 2009 when the original Rorschach plates and research results on interpretations were published in the "Rorschach test" article on Wikipedia. Hogrefe & Huber Publishing, a German company that sells editions of the plates, called the publication "unbelievably reckless and even cynical of Wikipedia" and said it was investigating the possibility of legal action. Due to this controversy an edit filter was temporarily established on Wikipedia to prevent the removal of the plates.

James Heilman, an emergency room physician involved in the debate, compared it to the publication of the eye test chart: though people are likewise free to memorize the eye chart before an eye test, its general usefulness as a diagnostic tool for eyesight has not diminished. For those opposed to exposure, publication of the inkblots is described as a "particularly painful development", given the tens of thousands of research papers which have, over many years, "tried to link a patient's responses to certain psychological conditions." Controversy over Wikipedia's publication of the inkblots has resulted in the blots being published in other locations, such as The Guardian and The Globe and Mail. Later that year[when? ] two psychologists filed a complaint against Heilman with the Saskatchewan medical licensing board, arguing that his uploading of the images constituted unprofessional behavior. In 2012 two articles were published showing consequences of the publication of the images in Wikipedia. The first one studied negative attitudes towards the test generated during the Wikipedia-Rorschach debate, while the second suggested that reading the Wikipedia article could help to fake "good" results in the test.

Publication of the Rorschach images is also welcomed by critics who consider the test to be pseudoscience. Benjamin Radford, editor of Skeptical Inquirer magazine, stated that the Rorschach "has remained in use more out of tradition than good evidence" and was hopeful that publication of the test might finally hasten its demise.

1. Exner, John E. (2002). The Rorschach: Basic Foundations and Principles of Interpretation: Volume 1. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-471-38672-8.[page needed ]

2. Scott O. Lilienfeld, James M- Wood and Howard N. Garb: What's wrong with this picture? Scientific American, May 2001

3. ^ Tibon-Czopp, Shira; Weiner, Irving B. (2016). Rorschach Assessment of Adolescents: Theory, Research, and Practice. Springer. p. 3. ISBN 9781493931514.

4. ^ a cura di Franco Del Corno, Margherita Lang (1989). Psicologia clinica. Milano: F. Angeli. p. 302. ISBN 978-88-204-9876-4. Nonostante il Sistema Comprensivo di J.E. Exner rappresenti ai nostri giorni il Metodo Rorschach più diffuso a livello mondiale, in Italia è ancora non molto utilizzato. Although J. E. Exner's Comprehensive Systems nowadays represents the most widely adopted method worldwide, it is not yet very widespread in Italy.

5. ^ Harry Bakwin; Ruth Mae Morris Bakwin (1960). Clinical management of behavior disorders in children. Saunders. p. 249. The Rorschach Test consists of 10 inkblots, printed on a white background and mounted on cardboard 7 by 9 inches

6. ^ Alfred M. Freedman; Harold I. Kaplan; Benjamin J. Sadock (1972). Modern synopsis of Comprehensive textbook of psychiatry. Williams & Wilkins. p. 168. The Rorschach test [...] consists of 10 symmetrical inkblots printed on a white background

7. ^ Gardner Murphy; Lois Barclay Murphy; Theodore Mead Newcomb (1931). Experimental social psychology: an interpretation of research upon the socialization of the individual. Harper & Brothers. It consists of ten irregular but symmetrical ink blots, five of them in blacks and grays, and five partially in colors, on a white background.

8. Mons, W. (1950). Principles and Practice Of the Rorschach Personality Test (2nd ed.). Faber. pp. 30-31.

9. Exner, J. E. (1986). The Rorschach: A comprehensive system, Volume 1: Basic Foundations (2nd ed.). Wiley & Sons, Inc.

10. ^ Edward Aronow; Marvin Reznikoff (1976). Rorschach content interpretation. Grune and Stratton. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-8089-0961-3. The printer also reduced the blot cards in size and altered their colors. In addition an imperfect printing process resulted in varieties of shading that were not originally intended by Rorschach (Ellenberger, 1954).

11. ^ Leichtman, Martin (1996). The Rorschach: a developmental perspective. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-88163-138-8. "[...] the printing of the cards was more than unsatisfactory. The cards were reduced in size, the colors changed and the original uniformity of the black areas was reproduced in a variety of shades, delineating all kinds of vague forms. The printer probably did not expect congratulations for his slovenly work, but as soon as Rorschach had seen the proofs he was seized by a renewed enthusiasm, and understood at once the new possibilities the prints offered." (Ellenberger 1954, p. 206) Far from being outraged that the integrity of his experiment was violated, Rorschach appreciated immediately that shading enriched the test by further increasing the creative possibilities the cards afforded.

12. Justine Sergent & Yitzchak M. Binik, "On the Use of Symmetry in the Rorschach Test". Journal of Personality Assessment, Volume 43, Issue 4, 1979. pp. 355-359.[1]

13. ^ Rorschach. H., Psychodiagnostics; a diagnostic test based on perception : including Rorschach's paper, The application of the form interpretation test (published posthumously by Dr. Emil Oberholzer). Grune & Stratton inc, New York (1942). p15.

14. Meyer, G. J., & Eblin, J. J. (2012) An overview of the Rorschach Performance Assessment System (R-PAS). Psychological Inj. and Law, 5, 107-121.

15. Shaffer, T. W., Erdberg, P., & Meyer, G. J. (2007). Introduction to the JPA special supplement on international reference samples for the Rorschach Comprehensive System. ^ Journal of Personality Assessment, 89, S2-S6.

16. Hughes; Gacono, Carl B.; Owen, Patrick F. (2007). "Current status of Rorschach assessment: implications for the school psychologist". Psychology in the Schools. 44 (3): 281. doi:10.1002/pits.20223.

17. ^ Camara; Nathan, Julie S.; Puente, Anthony E.; et al. (2000). "Psychological Test Usage: Implications in Professional Psychology". Professional Psychology: Research and Practice. 31 (2): 131-154. doi:10.1037/0735-7028.31.2.141.

18. ^ Sorai, Kenzo; Ohnuki, Keiichi (1 January 2008). "The Development of the Rorschach in Japan". Rorschachiana. 29 (1): 38-63. doi:10.1027/1192-5604.29.1.38.

19. ^ Pieter J.D., Drenth (2003). ""Growing Anti-intellectualism in Europe: A Menace to Science" Annual Report 2003" (PDF). ALLEA (All European Academies). PDF. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-16

20. James M. Wood, M. Teresa Nezworski, Scott O. Lilienfeld, & Howard N. Garb:^ The Rorschach Inkblot Test, Fortune Tellers, and Cold Reading. Skeptical Inquirer magazine, Jul 2003.

21. ^ Robyn M, Dawes (1991). "Giving up Cherished Ideas: The Rorschach Ink Blot Test". Institute for Psychological Therapies Journal. 3 (4)

22. ^ Wood, James M.; Nezworski, M. Teresa; Garb, Howard N. (2003). "What's Right with the Rorschach?". The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice. 2 (2)

23. Arthur S. Reber (1985). Penguin Dictionary of Psychology. Penguin Books. p. 653. ISBN 978-0-14-051079-9.

24. Sutherland 2007, pp. 117-120

25. ^ Meyer G. J.; Hilsenroth M. J.; Baxter D.; Exner J. E.; Fowler J. C.; Piers C. C.; Resnick J. (2002). "An examination of interrater reliability for scoring the Rorschach comprehensive system in eight data sets". Journal of Personality Assessment. 78 (2): 219-274. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.559.6551. doi:10.1207/S15327752JPA7802_03. PMID 12067192.

26. ^ Graves P.L.; Thomas C.B.; Mead L.A. (1991). "The Rorschach Interaction Scale as a potential predictor of cancer" (PDF). Psychosomatic Medicine. 48 (8): 549-563. doi:10.1097/00006842-198611000-00002. PMID 3809367.

27. (1958) ^ Journal of personality assessment Volumes 22-23; Page 462

28. Lowrey, Lawson Gentry (1946) ^ American journal of orthopsychiatry, Volume 16 American Orthopsychiatric Association pg 732

29. Buros, Oscar Krisen (1975) ^ Personality tests and reviews: including an index to The mental measurements yearbooks, Volume 1. Gryphon Press, pg Page 411

30. ^ Gacono, Carl B., F. Barton Evans (2007) "The Handbook of Forensic Rorschach Assessment" pg 83

31. Lilienfeld, S.O., Wood, J.M., Garb, H.N. "The scientific status of projective techniques, Psychological Science in the Public Interest v. 1, pp. 27-66, 2000".

32. ^ Hibbard, S. "A Critique of Lilienfeld et al.'s (2000) The Scientific status of Projective Techniques, Journal of Personality Assessment v. 80, pp. 260-271, 2003".

33. ^ Meyer, G.J., Erdberg, P., & Shaffer, T.W. "Toward international normative reference data for the Comprehensive System, Journal of Personality Assessment v. 89(S1), S201-S206, 2007".

34. ^ American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC.

35. ^ Garb HN, Wood JM, Lilienfeld SO, Nezworski MT (January 2005). "Roots of the Rorschach controversy". Clin Psychol Rev. 25 (1): 97-118. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2004.09.002. PMID 15596082.

36. ^ Viglione D (1999). "A review of recent research addressing the utility of the Rorschach". Psychological Assessment. 11 (3): 251-265. doi:10.1037/1040-3590.11.3.251.

37. Fowler, J. C., Piers, C., Hilsenroth, M. J., Holdwick, D. J., & Padawer, J. R. The Rorschach suicide constellation: Assessing various degrees of lethality. ^ Journal of Personality Assessment, 76 (2), 333-351.

38. ^ "Canadian Psychological Association Position on Publication and Dissemination of Psychological Tests" (PDF). Canadian Psychological Association. August 4, 2009. Publishing the questions and answers to any psychological test compromises its usefulness.

39. ^ "Copyright Durations Worldwide - EU Copyright". Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property.

40. ^ "Copyrights - Terms of Protection". Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property.

41. ^ Carol Forsloff (30 July 2009). "Rorschach Personality Test: Did Wikipedia Leak a 'Cheat Sheet'". Digital Journal.

42. ^ Noam Cohen (28 July 2009). "Has Wikipedia Created a Rorschach Cheat Sheet? Analyze That". New York Times. Because the Rorschach plates were created nearly 90 years ago, they have lost their copyright protection in the United States.

43. ^ "Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States". Cornell Copyright Information Center. 1 January 2009.

44. ^ "Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct". American Psychological Association. 2003-06-01.

45. ^ "Rorschach Test". Associazione Italiana di Psicoterapia Strategica Integrata. 21 July 2009. Infatti il Rorschach porta con sé (dovrebbe portare) il riserbo assoluto su come si somministra, sul suo significato generale e su quello delle tavole in particolare. [...] Tuttavia, al contrario di quanto si possa credere, "mentire" al Rorschach è praticamente impossibile [...]

46. ^ A Rorschach Cheat Sheet on Wikipedia?, The New York Times, July 28, 2009

47. ^ Heilman JM, Kemmann E, Bonert M, et al. (2011). "Wikipedia: a key tool for global public health promotion". Journal of Medical Internet Research. 13 (1): e14. doi:10.2196/jmir.1589. PMC . PMID 21282098.

48. ^ Ian Simple (29 July 2009). "Testing times for Wikipedia after doctor posts secrets of the Rorschach inkblots". The Guardian.

49. (^ Patrick White (31 July 2009). "Rorschach and Wikipedia: The battle of the inkblots". The Globe and Mail. registration required)

References

Dana, Richard H. (2000). Handbook of cross-cultural and multicultural personality assessment. Lawrence Erlbaum. ISBN 978-0-8058-2789-7.

Fine, Cordelia (2006). A Mind of its Own: how your brain distorts and deceives. Cambridge, UK: Icon books. ISBN 978-1-84046-678-2. OCLC 60668289.

Groth-Marnat, Gary (2003). Handbook of psychological assessment. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-471-41979-2.

Plous, Scott (1993). The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0-07-050477-6. OCLC 26931106.

Sutherland, Stuart (2007). Irrationality (2nd ed.). London: Pinter and Martin. ISBN 978-1-905177-07-3. OCLC 72151566.

Wood, Jim; Nezworski, M. Teresa; Lilienfeld, Scott O.; Garb, Howard N. (2003). What's Wrong with the Rorschach?. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-7879-6056-8.

External links

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Rorschach 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.

# data[].attributes.body
This promo art is remonstrant of a Rorschach test. This test is used to determine the personality. Perhaps, the duality of this image suggest that they are mirrors of each other. Or maybe it ties it alludes to the psychological appeal of this film.

# data[].attributes.body
Maybe the tunnels are representative of the Unconscious. If this realm is home to our darkest and more primal desires, maybe it is home to the Shadow as well.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
However, empirical research in psychology has revealed the limits of the Freudian theory of the unconscious mind, and the modern notion of an 'adaptive unconscious' (Wilson, 2004) is not the same as the psychoanalytic one. Indeed, Freud (1915) has underestimated the importance of the unconscious, and in terms of the iceberg analogy there is a much larger portion of the mind under the water.

# data[].attributes.body
Maybe there is a link between the subconscious, the Shadow, and the Underground Tunnels. Simply put, I think to uncover this psychological mess, we out to look at both of them.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung had very different approaches to psychology, but both are considered to be the founders of the modern psychoanalytic movement. Their efforts in a dynamic field has made psychology school a popular choice of study-and students are getting online psychology degrees in record numbers.

Because of Freud and Jung's different points of view, most of us assume that the two disparate pioneers were enemies, or at least unfriendly toward each other; in truth, they were close friends for quite some time.

In April, 1906 Freud began a correspondence with the young psychiatrist, Carl Jung. They later met in person when Jung traveled to Vienna in 1907 and the two men became fast friends. Their first meeting alone lasted twelve hours. Jung thought of Freud as "extremely intelligent, shrewd and altogether remarkable," and Freud considered Jung his peer, even calling him "my eldest son," and deeming him heir to his psychoanalytic process.

Two Influential Psychology Schools of Thought

Over time, cracks in the relationship began to occur. Though Freud had viewed Jung as the most innovative of his many followers, he was unhappy with Jung's dismissal of some of his basic psychoanalytic tenets. Jung felt Freud's concept of the unconscious was limited and instead of simply being a reservoir of repressed thoughts and motivations, as Freud believed, Jung argued that the unconscious could also be a source of creativity.

Though theoretical differences defined the ultimate breaking point of their friendship, they both acknowledged that the other man's respective theories influenced their own ideas. Jung ultimately formed his own influential psychology school of thought known as analytical psychology, while much of Freudian psychoanalytic concepts grew directly out of his work with his patients. As Freud tried to understand and explain their symptoms, he became increasingly interested in the role of the unconscious mind in the development of mental illness.

Read some of the basic principles of the psychoanalytic theories devised by Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung and decide who you most agree with.

Major Freudian Concepts

Oedipal Conflict-This occurs between the ages of three and five, and the Freudian Oedipus complex has two parts: hatred and a death wish for the parent of the same sex, and love and attachment towards the parent of the opposite sex.

Transference and Countertransference-Transference is the technical term used to describe an unconscious transferring of experiences from one personal situation to another. This happens frequently between a patient and therapist. Countertransference happens when the therapist responds to the patient's transference issues with transference issues of his or her own.

The Three Aspects of Personality

Id-The unconscious, the home of our instincts and impulses and repressed material.

Ego-The organized part of the personality structure which includes defensive, perceptual, intellectual-cognitive, and executive functions. Conscious awareness resides in the ego, although not all of the operations of the ego are conscious.

Superego-Develops from the Oedipal Complex. The moral part of our personality, composed of the ego-ideal, the standard of good behavior we aspire to, and the conscience, that inner voice that tells us when we have misbehave.

Major Jungian Concepts

Oedipal Conflict-For Jung, the Oedipus complex tended to refer only to the experience of male children. Female children experienced the Electra complex in which they regard their mothers as the competition for the exclusive love of their fathers.

Collective Unconscious-The unconscious of a person is comprised of both a personal unconscious (coming from the experiences of the individual) and a collective unconscious (issuing from the inherited makeup of the brain and common to humanity). This can be thought of as how we are due to our life experience versus how we are based upon our genetic makeup and external forces like societal mores and conditions.

Theory of Meaningful Coincidence or Synchronicity-Jung's notion of synchronicity is that there is a principle that links events that have a similar meaning by their coincidence in time rather than linear direction or sequence. He claimed that there is synchronicity between the mind and the phenomenal world of perception.

Psychological Development Theory-Jung taught that growth toward the realization of an individual's true potential which continues throughout an entire lifetime rather than being, as Freud thought, limited only to childhood.

Sources: chowk.com; psychology.about.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Psychology School Lessons | Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung had very different approaches to psychology, but both are considered to be the founders of the modern psychoanalytic movement. Their efforts in a dynamic field has made psychology school a popular choice of study-and students are getting online psychology degrees in record numbers.

# data[].attributes.body
This is from the popular Youtube channel film Theory. This is one of many theories related to this film that comes to this conclusion. However, simply put, while I agree with it, I think it is surface level, and there is more to dig into.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Film Theory:  What Is Us REALLY About? (Jordan Peele's Us)

# data[].attributes.body
This is the message first given to the view, meaning that it has significant thematic meaning. Despite the fact there are literal people living in sewer, many also state that this represents the meaninglessness of consumerism. However, I more intercept it as the depths of the unconscious. Once again, the Tethered are described as shadows, so many the tunnels are a psychological space instead of a physical one.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"There are thousands of miles of tunnels beneath the United States ... Abandoned subway systems, unused service routes, and deserted mine shafts ... Many have no known purpose at all."

And with this ominous foreword, Jordan Peele's record-breaking horror film "Us" begins.

Peele's latest masterpiece tells the story of a family engaged in a battle for their lives after their doppelgängers emerge. As the apocalyptic narrative unfolds, we're told that the evil doubles emerged from the sewers, having lived their wretched lives in a vast underground network of clandestine tunnels existing just below our society. And although the situation is clearly a metaphor for class and identity, Peele's initial claims about the existence of an American subterranean world is a terrifying one. Could it be true?

As it turns out, Peele's assertions about America's underground tunnels are far less far-fetched than it might seem at first glance.

The idea of massive underground tunnel networks has been the basis for plenty of conspiracies, with theorists engaging in endless debates about the existence of such tunnels, as well as the extent to which these passages were or are used for drug and human trafficking or by the government for nefarious military reasons.

Many seem obsessed with the notion that many of the entrances exist beneath abandoned Walmart facilities. Snopes, a site that debunks urban legends, explored the myths around a series of Walmart closures due to pipe problems in 2015, which had some conspiracists postulating about the existence of "deep underground military bases" (DUMBS) being built beneath the big box stores. Snopes ultimately couldn't prove or disprove anything on the matter, but concluded that "the most plausible theory from this bunch is that the closed Walmart stores all had really bad plumbing problems."

Theories about smuggle tunnels have a bit more validity. In fact, earlier this year, a series of small passages were found to exist along the U.S.-Mexico border, with experts claiming they were used to import and export illegal materials, according to The Washington Post.

Long before that, bootleggers were known to have used an 11-mile long series of tunnels in downtown Los Angeles to transport liquor to (literally) underground speakeasies, according to Atlas Obscura.

Confusingly, tunnels sometimes mistaken as smuggle tunnels actually served other purposes. A brick-lined system of passageways in Ybor City, Florida that historians had assumed was used for illicit trading was recently discovered to have actually been part of a larger 19th-century sewage system, according to local outlet TampaBay.com.

But the reality of these tunnels beyond drugs, Walmart, and cesspools is even more surreal.

Will Hunt, the author of the just-published book " Underground: A Human History of the Worlds Beneath Our Feet," recently explored the subject with The Wrap.

"There are way more tunnels underground wherever you are in the United States than you would imagine," said Hunt. "There are just crazy layers of infrastructure, whether they be active or abandoned transportation tunnels, sewer lines, aqueducts or even military or government infrastructure hidden underground. Wherever you go, there's something under your feet that people don't think about."

Much of New York's underground world came into being as the result of abandoned subway extension projects.

"After World War II, prices had gone up substantially and it became obvious that it was not going to be possible to build all of the lines they would've like to have built," Subway historian Joe Cunningham told local radio station WNYC.

But do people actually inhabit these abandoned shafts? Hunt says the answer is yes.

"In the deeper strata of New York City, you find mole people, you find people who have made homes for themselves in deep hidden nooks and alcoves under the city," he continued. "They're these marginalized, forgotten people who are living completely out of sight in essentially a separate reality."

Although the actual mole people are not inventions of a government brainwashing experiment like in "Us," Hunt emphasizes that this population can be understood as a metonym for national identity.

"The underground has always been the unconscious," Hunt said. "When we're talking about the unconscious of a culture, of the United States, a good place to explore those forces is beneath the surface ... Basically, any city of any size that has like a stratified society where there are people who are struggling, you're going to find these communities who have gathered in hidden places. And they say something about the society on the surface. They're a reflection of our darknesses, the injustices of our society on the surface."

Anthony Taille of The Week explored New York's "mole people" population in a 2016 investigation. A homeless man identified only as Jon explained what existence in this society is actually like - and it's pretty far from the shadow world of the Tethered.

"I'm good here," he told Taille. "No taxes, no rent, no nothing. There's no hassle compared to the streets, you know what I'm saying? Here I don't get bugged by kids. It's a safe place. I can do what I wanna and I don't have to take nothing from nobody."

"People don't want to speak to me when they come here," Jon continued. "I don't know, man. They're scared or something. I can get why, it's a spooky place when you don't know it. But people, they like it when it's scary. They like it when it's dirty, right? It makes them feel alive. That's why they make up these stories about cannibalism and stuff. Like alligators in the sewers."

Ultimately, although the conceit of "Us" is richly fantastical, it's actually not as surreal as the film would have audiences believes. Those underground tunnels probably aren't populated by your scissor-brandishing double - but if they're as vast as they seem to be, we can't make any promises.

Searching for the best true crime podcasts? Subscribe to Martinis & Murder and join hosts Daryn Carp and John Thrasher as they chat about creepy crimes and unsolved mysteries... while sipping on killer drinks from our murderous mixologist Matt the Bartender. Each episode will focus on a new true crime, with all the gory details, and a cocktail recipe to get you through.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Here's The Truth About The Unexplained Tunnels In Jordan Peele's 'Us'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Warning: Spoilers throughout "There are thousands of miles of tunnels beneath the United States ... Abandoned subway systems, unused service routes, and deserted mine shafts ... Many have no known purpose at all." And with this ominous foreword, Jordan Peele's record-breaking horror film "Us" begins.

# data[].attributes.body
The Tethered do this after the end of the movie. Perhaps this is some false attempt at unity, or maybe this is another ploy to show the ill effects of materialism

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Hands Across America was a public event on Sunday, May 25, 1986, in which approximately 6.5 million people held hands for fifteen minutes in an attempt to form a continuous human chain across the contiguous United States.

Many participants donated ten dollars to reserve their place in line. The proceeds were donated to local charities to fight hunger and homelessness and help those in poverty.

The event raised about $15 million for charities after operating costs.

Cities along the route included the following:

New York, New York with Brooke Shields as well as Liza Minnelli, Cardinal John O'Connor, Susan Anton, Gregory Hines, and Edward James Olmos, Yoko Ono, and Harry Belafonte anchoring the George Washington Bridge.

Trenton, New Jersey (with Dionne Warwick and Tony Danza)

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (with Jerry Lewis and Scott Baio)

Baltimore, Maryland (with R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) and Emmanuel Lewis.) The first break in the chain west of New York was reported to be in Maryland.

Washington, D.C. (with President Ronald Reagan at the White House and Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill at the United States Capitol)

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (with Fred Rogers and the Pittsburgh Pirates Parrot)

Youngstown, Ohio (with Michael Jackson)

Cleveland, Ohio (with David Copperfield)

Toledo, Ohio (with Jamie Farr)

Columbus, Ohio (with Michael J. Fox)

Cincinnati, Ohio (with Chewbacca the Wookiee)

Indianapolis, Indiana (occurred in the rain, scheduled side-by-side with the Indy 500, which was rained-out that day[citation needed ])

Champaign, Illinois (with Walter Payton)

Chebanse, Illinois: A cornfield in central Illinois served as center-point of the nation with 16,000 people in attendance along with the Silver Nickel Band and DJ Gerald Welch.

Springfield, Illinois (with 50 Abraham Lincoln impersonators)

St. Louis, Missouri (with Kathleen Turner under the St. Louis Arch)

Memphis, Tennessee (with 54 Elvis Presley impersonators)

Little Rock, Arkansas (with Governor Bill Clinton)

Amarillo, Texas (with Kenny Rogers, Renegade, Lee Greenwood and Tony Dorsett at the TX-NM border)

Albuquerque, New Mexico (with Don Johnson)

Phoenix, Arizona (with Ed Begley, Jr., however desert areas were mostly empty, dotted with one-mile (1.6 km)-long chains of people. Truck drivers sounded their horns during the appointed time.)

San Bernardino, California (with Bob Seger and Charlene Tilton)

Santa Monica, California (with George Burns, Jack Youngblood, Dudley Moore, Richard Dreyfuss, and Donna Mills)

Long Beach, California (with Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Reverend Robert Schuller, Kenny Loggins, Joan Van Ark, John Stamos, Robin Williams, and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) backed by Papa Doo Run Run.)

The event was conceived and organized by Ken Kragen. Event implementation was through USA for Africa under the direction of Marty Rogol, the founding Executive Director. A theme song, titled "Hands Across America," was played simultaneously on hundreds of radio stations at 3:00 p.m. Eastern time (noon Pacific time). The song was written by Marc Blatte, John Carney, and Larry Gottlieb (the Spanish version was written by the composer Marcia Bell), and featured lead vocals by session singers Joe Cerisano and Sandy Farina, and the band Toto. The song peaked at #65 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1986.

Hands Across America was a project of USA for Africa. USA for Africa produced " We Are the World" and the combined revenues raised by both events raised almost $100 million to fight famine in Africa and hunger and homelessness in the United States.

The date and time chosen for the event inadvertently conflicted with another charity fundraiser, Sport Aid, which was organized by USA for Africa on the same day. Since Hands Across America was much better publicized in the United States, only 4000 runners participated in New York City for Sport Aid.

In order to allow the maximum number of people to participate, the path linked major cities and meandered back and forth within the cities.[citation needed ] Just as there were sections where the "line" was six to ten people deep, there were also undoubtedly many breaks in the chain. However, enough people participated that if an average of all the participants had been taken and spread evenly along the route standing four feet (1.2 m) apart, an unbroken chain across the 48 contiguous states would have been able to be formed.[citation needed ]

Hands Across America raised $34 million. According to The New York Times, only about $15 million was distributed after deducting operating costs.

In the 2006 episode "Dad's Car" of American sitcom My Name Is Earl, Earl gives his mother a Mother's Day coupon to participate in Hands Across America, when the event had been over for nearly twenty years.

In the 1986 episode of , Thanksgiving Orphans, Cliff Clavin said he participated in Hands Across America, and therefore did not need to help his mother at the rescue mission during Thanksgiving.

In a 1986 episode of The Golden Girls, Rose Nylund stated that she volunteered to hold hands with Bert Parks at Hands Across America.

In the 1989 film Troop Beverly Hills, Phyllis Nefler (Shelley Long) referred to Hands Across America as being "more important" as her reasoning for quitting the PTA during a heated argument with her husband Freddy (Craig T. Nelson), from whom she had just separated.

In The Simpsons episode "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?" Marge, Lisa, Bart, the Flanders family, and other characters are holding hands through the Simpsons' living room, while Homer schlumpily sits on the couch watching the event on TV. An unknown television announcer is heard reporting that "except for huge gaps in the Western states, Hands Across America was a complete success!"

A Sunday strip of the newspaper comic "Doonesbury" had some of its characters in a chain. Said characters are singing the song of the same name, with the exception of Zonker Harris who sings "I'm Just a Gigolo."

In "Angst for the Memories", an episode of the American sitcom Murphy Brown, Corky Sherwood (Faith Ford) remembers having participated in this campaign.

In American History X, the character of Derek Vinyard, played by Edward Norton, in the midst of a heated debate with his mother and her boyfriend about the recent Rodney King riots, argues that after King's initial arrest, public attitudes amounted to "hands across America" for King, a reference to what he perceives as undeserved public sympathy for his plight.

A 1992 episode of America's Funniest People had a parody called "Bananas Across America", in which a banana was handed from individual to individual in a chain showing various American landmarks, looking as if a banana had traveled in a chain from California to Washington D.C.

In the 1998 episode of , "The Cartoon", Kathy Griffin's character Sally Weaver performs a one-woman act, "Jerry Seinfeld, the Devil" to get under Jerry's skin. Jerry confronts Sally asking her to stop. Sally later describes the meeting in her act saying that Jerry groped her "getting all Hands Across America."

In "Hiatus", an episode of American sitcom , Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) remembers having participated in this campaign. In "It's Never Too Late for Now", another episode of 30 Rock, Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) answers a request for ID in order to verify her age with the response, "How about this for ID? I participated in Hands Across America."

The July 21, 2004 episode of the Late Show with David Letterman, rapper P. Diddy presented a Top Ten list titled "Top Ten Ways I, P. Diddy, Am Getting People to Vote." The number three entry mocked the event, stating, "Remember 'Hands Across America'? Yeah, well we ain't doin' that."

The music video for "Something to Believe In" by The Ramones features a parody event entitled "Hands Across Your Face."

The film Beerfest makes numerous references to Hands Across America.

The film North references the event when the governor of Hawaii complains about waiting for people to show up.

The show The Goldbergs includes Hands Across America as a major plot point in the season 3 episode "Baio and Switch".

In the show Modern Family Jay and DeeDee argue about what year Hands Across America took place.

In the American Dad! episode "Max Jets", 'My Love Is Pure' is sung by a gold-digging waitress named Gina. The song ends with her saying, "Hands Across America, bitches."

In Major Dad episode "Just Polly & Me, and the Kids Make Five" original air date September 18, 1989, Polly Cooper creates a peaceful situation after Major McRae's proposal and hart daughters' negative reactions by grabbing their hand saying: "Hands across the kitchen".

The title is referenced for the title of the Ed, Edd n Eddy episode "Hands Across Ed".

The 2019 film opens with a commercial advertising the event, watched by the film's protagonist. Near the conclusion, the film's antagonists, The Tethered, begin linking hands in unison to recreate it.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Hands Across America was a public event on Sunday, May 25, 1986, in which approximately 6.5 million people held hands for fifteen minutes in an attempt to form a continuous human chain across the contiguous United States. Many participants donated ten dollars to reserve their place in line.

# data[].attributes.body
The Tethered describe themselves as shadows. Perhaps they represent darker aspects of each of the characters, or perhaps they represent the dark impulses behind the surface of materialism.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In Jungian psychology, the " shadow", " Id", or " shadow aspect/archetype" may refer to (1) an unconscious aspect of the personality which the conscious ego does not identify in itself, or (2) the entirety of the unconscious, i.e., everything of which a person is not fully conscious. In short, the shadow is the unknown side.

Because one tends to reject or remain ignorant of the least desirable aspects of one's personality, the shadow is largely negative. There are, however, positive aspects that may also remain hidden in one's shadow (especially in people with low self-esteem, anxieties, and false beliefs).

Contrary to a Freudian definition of shadow, the Jungian shadow can include everything outside the light of consciousness and may be positive or negative. "Everyone carries a shadow," Jung wrote, "and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is." It may be (in part) one's link to more primitive animal instincts, which are superseded during early childhood by the conscious mind.

Carl Jung stated the shadow to be the unknown dark side of the personality. According to Jung, the shadow, in being instinctive and irrational, is prone to psychological projection, in which a perceived personal inferiority is recognized as a perceived moral deficiency in someone else. Jung writes that if these projections remain hidden, "The projection-making factor (the Shadow archetype) then has a free hand and can realize its object-if it has one-or bring about some other situation characteristic of its power." These projections insulate and harm individuals by acting as a constantly thickening veil of illusion between the ego and the real world.

From one perspective, "the shadow...is roughly equivalent to the whole of the Freudian unconscious"; and Jung himself asserted that "the result of the Freudian method of elucidation is a minute elaboration of man's shadow-side unexampled in any previous age".

James C. Kaufman wrote that "in spite of its function as a reservoir for human darkness-or perhaps because of this-the shadow is the seat of creativity"; so that for some, it may be, "the dark side of his being, his sinister shadow... represents the true spirit of life as against the arid scholar".

The shadow may appear in dreams and visions in various forms and typically 'appears as a person of the same sex as that of the dreamer'. The shadow's appearance and role depend greatly on the living experience of the individual because much of the shadow develops in the individual's mind rather than simply being inherited in the collective unconscious. Nevertheless, some Jungians maintain that The shadow contains, besides the personal shadow, the shadow of society ... fed by the neglected and repressed collective values'.

Interactions with the shadow in dreams may shed light on one's state of mind. A conversation with an aspect of the shadow may indicate that one is concerned with conflicting desires or intentions. Identification with a despised figure may mean that one has an unacknowledged difference from the character, a difference which could point to a rejection of the illuminating qualities of ego-consciousness. These examples refer to just two of many possible roles that the shadow may adopt and are not general guides to interpretation. Also, it can be difficult to identify characters in dreams-"all the contents are blurred and merge into one another ... 'contamination' of unconscious contents"-so that a character who seems at first to be a shadow might represent some other complex instead.

Jung also made the suggestion of there being more than one layer making up the shadow. The top layers contain the meaningful flow and manifestations of direct personal experiences. These are made unconscious in the individual by such things as the change of attention from one thing to another, simple forgetfulness, or a repression. Underneath these idiosyncratic layers, however, are the archetypes which form the psychic contents of all human experiences. Jung described this deeper layer as "a psychic activity which goes on independently of the conscious mind and is not dependent even on the upper layers of the unconscious-untouched, and perhaps untouchable-by personal experience" ( Campbell, 1971).

The eventual encounter with the shadow plays a central part in the process of individuation. Jung considered that "the course of individuation...exhibits a certain formal regularity. Its signposts and milestones are various archetypal symbols" marking its stages; and of these "the first stage leads to the experience of the SHADOW". If "the breakdown of the persona constitutes the typical Jungian moment both in therapy and in development", it is this that opens the road to the shadow within, coming about when "Beneath the surface a person is suffering from a deadly boredom that makes everything seem meaningless and empty ... as if the initial encounter with the Self casts a dark shadow ahead of time." Jung considered as a perennial danger in life that "the more consciousness gains in clarity, the more monarchic becomes its content...the king constantly needs the renewal that begins with a descent into his own darkness"-his shadow-which the "dissolution of the persona" sets in motion.

"The shadow personifies everything that the subject refuses to acknowledge about himself" and represents "a tight passage, a narrow door, whose painful constriction no one is spared who goes down to the deep well". If and when 'an individual makes an attempt to see his shadow, he becomes aware of (and often ashamed of) those qualities and impulses he denies in himself but can plainly see in others-such things as egotism, mental laziness, and sloppiness; unreal fantasies, schemes, and plots; carelessness and cowardice; inordinate love of money and possessions-...[a] painful and lengthy work of self-education".

The dissolution of the persona and the launch of the individuation process also brings with it 'the danger of falling victim to the shadow ... the black shadow which everybody carries with him, the inferior and therefore hidden aspect of the personality'-of a merger with the shadow.

According to Jung, the shadow sometimes overwhelms a person's actions; for example, when the conscious mind is shocked, confused, or paralyzed by indecision. 'A man who is possessed by his shadow is always standing in his own light and falling into his own traps ... living below his own level': hence, in terms of the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 'it must be Jekyll, the conscious personality, who integrates the shadow ... and not vice versa. Otherwise the conscious becomes the slave of the autonomous shadow'.

Individuation inevitably raises that very possibility. As the process continues, and "the libido leaves the bright upper world ... sinks back into its own depths...below, in the shadows of the unconscious", so too what comes to the forefront is "what was hidden under the mask of conventional adaptation: the shadow", with the result that " ego and shadow are no longer divided but are brought together in an-admittedly precarious-unity."

The impact of such "confrontation with the shadow produces at first a dead balance, a stand-still that hampers moral decisions and makes convictions ineffective... tenebrositas, chaos, melancholia." Consequently, (as Jung knew from personal experience) "in this time of descent-one, three, seven years, more or less-genuine courage and strength are required", with no certainty of emergence. Nevertheless, Jung remained of the opinion that while "no one should deny the danger of the descent ... every descent is followed by an ascent ... enantiodromia"; and assimilation of-rather than possession by-the shadow becomes at last a real possibility.

Enantiodromia launches a different perspective. "We begin to travel [up] through the healing spirals...straight up." Here the struggle is to retain awareness of the shadow, but not identification with it. "Non-identification demands considerable moral effort...prevents a descent into that darkness"; but though "the conscious mind is liable to be submerged at any moment in the unconscious... understanding acts like a life-saver. It integrates the unconscious"-reincorporates the shadow into the personality, producing a stronger, wider consciousness than before. "Assimilation of the shadow gives a man body, so to speak", and provides thereby a launching-pad for further individuation. "The integration of the shadow, or the realisation of the personal unconscious, marks the first stage of the analytic process...without it a recognition of anima and animus is impossible." Conversely "to the degree to which the shadow is recognised and integrated, the problem of the anima, i.e., of relationship, is constellated", and becomes the centre of the individuation quest.

Nevertheless, Jungians warn that "acknowledgement of the shadow must be a continuous process throughout one's life"; and even after the focus of individuation has moved on to the animus/anima, "the later stages of shadow integration" will continue to take place-the grim "process of washing one's dirty linen in private", accepting one's shadow.

Abrams, Jeremiah, and Connie Zweig. Meeting the Shadow: The Hidden Power of the Dark Side of Human Nature. Tarcher, 1991, ISBN 0-87477-618-X

Abrams, Jeremiah. The Shadow in America. Nataraj. 1995

Arena, Leonardo Vittorio, The Shadows of the Masters. ebook, 2013.

Bly, Robert. "A little book on the human shadow". Edited by William Booth. Harper and Row, San Francisco, 1988, ISBN 0-06-254847-6

Campbell, Joseph, ed. The Portable Jung, Translated by R.F.C. Hull, New York: Penguin Books, 1971.

Johnson, Robert A., Owning Your Own Shadow : Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche, 128 pages, Harper San Francisco, 1993, ISBN 0-06-250754-0

Johnson, Robert A., Inner Work : Using Dreams and Creative Imagination for Personal Growth and Integration, 241 pages, Harper San Francisco, 1989, ISBN 0-06-250431-2

LeGuin, Ursula K., A Wizard of Earthsea, ISBN 0547773749

Neumann, Erich. Depth Psychology and a New Ethic Shambhala; Reprint edition (1990). ISBN 0-87773-571-9.

Zweig, Connie, and Steve Wolf. "Romancing the Shadow." Ballantine, 1997.

Zweig, Connie. "Meeting the Shadow of Spirituality."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In Jungian psychology, the " shadow", " Id", or " shadow aspect/archetype" may refer to (1) an unconscious aspect of the personality which the conscious ego does not identify in itself, or (2) the entirety of the unconscious, i.e., everything of which a person is not fully conscious.

# data[].attributes.body
Mythological Doppelgangers are often omens of disease and death. Moreover, Trows often replace healthy baby with unhealthy ones, which fool the parent. Perhaps the opposite is happening here, here a healthy parent is replaced by their doppelganger.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
How would you feel if you met another you from a parallel universe? One may well exist, as a ghostly double or evil twin, ready to crush your sanity or even replace you altogether!

What Is a Doppelgänger?

A doppelgänger, often anglicized as doppelganger, is a spirit double or evil twin that looks exactly like you. The German word translates literally as a double goer. According to legend or folklore, if you spot your double, it is an omen of dreadful disease or even possibly death. In modern society, a doppelganger also refers to a person who is very similar to you in the way they look and act.

Doppelganger Origin

Stories of doppelgangers date back to ancient myth and legend. The theme of an evil twin or haunting ghost replica have featured numerous times in literature and art, depicting an innate fascination with the concept, whether real or imaginary. The concept of a good and evil twin is noted as far back as the 5 th century BC, in an ancient Iranian religion called Zoroastrianism. The two primal spirits were the sons of time and represented darkness and light.

The ancient Egyptians believed in the existence of a ka or spirit double. The spirit twin allegedly had the same memories as the original individual. In an Egyptian version of the Trojan War story, a spirit double was sent, instead of the actual Helen. The ka was such a perfect replication of Helen that it fooled everybody and a war was averted. Native American myth also incorporates twins, the Hopi twins. In their cosmology, they believed the afterlife mirrored the land of the living. The duality extended to the twins called the Child of Water and the Child of Sun.

Norse mythology tells of a similar ghostly double which is said to perform the actions of a person just before they do. The spirit will often smell or sound like, or have the same voice as, the original person.

Scottish tales from the Orkney Islands describe mystical baby snatchers who replace real human babies with replicas. Trows, or mythical fairy creatures, allegedly swapped their sickly babies with healthy human babies. The replacement babies would immediately change to look exactly like the human baby and fool the poor parents, until the fairy baby became ill and died. The Bretons version, called the Ankou, was said to be the harvester of souls. Sighting him, much like sighting a twin spirit, would be an omen of certain death. Dressed in a dark cloak, with hat and scythe in hand, he would then get the newly dead souls to help him harvest more souls!

Real Doppelgangers

Abraham Lincoln was supposedly an open-minded statesman, who recognized the existence of the paranormal world. He reported seeing his doppelganger in the mirror, on more than one occasion. In 1860, shortly after Lincoln was elected, he claimed to see a double reflection of himself in the mirror. He asserted that the second reflection looked remarkably weaker and paler. His wife believed it was a bad omen, suggesting he would finish his first term, but not make it to the end of his second!

Writer, poet and statesman Johann Wolfgang von Goethe claimed to encounter a doppelganger during his life, from 1749 - 1832. He alleged he was headed by horse to Drusenheim, after ending a relationship with a girl called Frederika. Von Goethe came across an exact double of himself, also on a horse, heading in the opposite direction. The only difference was that the doppelganger had on a gold-trimmed gray suit. Von Goethe was on the same road eight years later, heading in the same direction his doppelganger had been and suddenly noticed he was wearing the exact same gold-trimmed gray suit he had seen his ghostly double in! The writer claimed to see a doppelganger of his friend too, dressed in von Goethe's own robe. On returning home, he found his friend - wearing the same robe he had seen on the man's wraithlike double.

The servants of Catherine the Great reported seeing her in her throne room one night, when she was actually in her bed. She ordered them to shoot her evil spirt double and, strangely, she perished shortly after her double was shot at. Guy de Maupassant was a French writer who died in 1893. He was well known for his mastery of short stories. One of his short stories, La Horla, was indeed ghost-written as, sources cite, it was dictated to him by his doppelganger! Allegedly, de Maupassant's health began to worsen shortly after he had written the story, which recounted a tale of a man who went mad due to a sinister ghost taking him over!

Another doppelganger encounter, commonly cited, is that of Emilie Sagée. Emilie was a school teacher in the 1840s in a private school, in what is now known as Latvia. She had been quite a job hopper up until then, having had 19 jobs in 16 years. Her students first spotted her spirt double when she was teaching class. The specter appeared next to her as she wrote on the board, imitating her movements. It was spotted again when the teacher was busy working in the school garden and also seen concurrently, in her ghostly form, in a classroom! Adventurous students decided to try and pass through the wraithlike figure and succeeded! They allegedly reported a feeling of thick material when passing through it. The teacher was said to feel drained and helpless at the time of the sightings.

In Art

The artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti produced a watercolor painting entitled How They Met Themselves, in 1860. The painting depicts a couple out walking in the woods, who encounter their exact doubles. The lady collapses at the sight and the man draws his sword in defense of their evil spirit replicas. Rossetti purportedly painted the work of art on his honeymoon!

Edgar Allan Poe, the American writer and fan of dark tales of mystery and horror, wrote a short story called William Wilson, which was published in 1839. The story portrayed the struggle of man to avoid submitting to his vices. He had a doppelganger who continually tried to keep him away from his evil ways.

Modern Explanation

Modern day medicine and science claim the phenomenon is experienced because of head injury or mere hallucinations. It is also considered to be the result of a psychiatric phenomenon known as heautoscopy. Sources describe the phenomenon as viewing your own body from a distance, and it is said to be due to schizophrenia or epilepsy. Another explanation may exist for the eerie spirit double, if one is open to the supernatural. Could it be another you, an exact copy, but from an alternate reality or alternate dimension perhaps?

Whether real or fictional, seeing your doppelganger is likely to drain the color out of anyone. In the style of Edgar Allan Poe, it may haunt you for a very long time and perhaps even drive you mad!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Doppelgänger - Your Evil Twin | Mythology.net

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
How would you feel if you met another you from a parallel universe? One may well exist, as a ghostly double or evil twin, ready to crush your sanity or even replace you altogether! A doppelgänger, often anglicized as doppelganger, is a spirit double or evil twin that looks exactly like you.

# data[].attributes.body
Perhaps this biblical reference may refer to us valuing commercialism over god. This keeps on repeating in the narrative, and 11 11 is also a repeating number

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
If you've just stepped out of Jordan Peele's "Us," your head is probably spinning with questions.

While we can't explain the existential meaning of its themes like identity, free will and the fear of The Other that Peele poses throughout, we can help with one detail left unanswered by the film: What does the Bible passage "Jeremiah 11:11" say?

If you haven't seen "Us," yet, some SPOILERS!!!! follow.

Also Read: 'Us' Film Review: Jordan Peele Terrifies Again With a Chilling Examination of Duality

In the opening scene of "Us," we see Lupita Nyong'o's character Adelaide as a young girl in 1986. While walking through a carnival on a boardwalk by the beach, she sees a homeless man with a piece of cardboard that reads "Jeremiah 11:11." When she returns to the beach as an adult, she sees the same homeless man with the same cardboard sign, only now he's being carted into an ambulance as a bloody corpse.

Here's "Jeremiah 11:11," as translated into English in the King James Bible:

Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.

Pretty doom and gloom! Although it's certainly appropriate for a horror movie like "Us," it's not among the more common verses used in the movies.

Also Read: Jordan Peele's 'Us' Headed Toward an Even Bigger Opening Than 'Get Out'

The book of Jeremiah is part of the Bible's Old Testament, and Jeremiah is the second of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the second of the prophets in the Christian Bible. The passage in particular is part of a covenant between God and the people of Israel. God says through Jeremiah that he would protect the people of Israel in exchange for worshipping Him exclusively. But he warns of a "conspiracy" among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

"They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them," the passage reads. "The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers."

You could make the connection that, with this passage, Peele is referring to the bond between men and the other "tethered," or the clones that reside in tunnels underneath the surface. And it also teases how Adelaide's clone Red is so driven to revenge with no chance for redemption or salvation for those living above ground.

Also Read: Jordan Peele's 'Us' Wins Over Critics: 'A Masterpiece' Despite Some 'Messiness'

Even if the passage itself doesn't have the strongest narrative tie, "11:11" pops up again in the film. The numbers are a mirrored image, which fits perfectly with the doppelgänger themes of "Us." And it's also the time that's stuck on the clock when the power in the family's home goes out and when the copycat families in red first appear.

Didn't expect Jordan Peele to get all Biblical on you, huh? Hope that clears up at least one question. As to whether you have a clone controlling your every move and slowly awaiting to murder you, you're on your own with that one.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Jordan Peele's 'Us': What Does the Bible Passage 'Jeremiah 11:11' Say?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If you've just stepped out of Jordan Peele's "Us," your head is probably spinning with questions. While we can't explain the existential meaning of its themes like identity, free will and the fear of The Other that Peele poses throughout, we can help with one detail left unanswered by the film: What does the Bible passage "Jeremiah 11:11" say?