Remember Rorschach ink-blot tests? It’s such an appealing argument: the patient looks at the ink-blot and says what he sees, the psychotherapist interprets their psychological state based on this. There’ve been hundreds of experiments looking for some evidence that it actually works. Since you’re reading this, you can guess the answer is simply “No.”
That depends on what Eliezer / you mean by “it.” From my reading of the evidence, the claim that the psychotherapist can interpret the patient’s psychological state by use of the Rorschach ink-blots has been refuted; any knowledge they get is probably from cold reading, and they fail to notice real evidence they’re not looking for. This is an empirical statement about the population of psychotherapists, rather than the best application of the test, though.
Cold reading sounds pretty negative. Cold reading is a technique used by mentalists, psychics, fortune-tellers, mediums and illusionists to dupe their marks. If you want to go with a negative comparison, perhaps consider Tasseography ;-)
Cold reading sounds pretty negative. Cold reading is a technique used by mentalists, psychics, fortune-tellers, mediums and illusionists to dupe their marks. If you want to go with a negative comparison, perhaps consider Tasseography ;-)
I chose that phrase for its precision, not its emotional valence; were there a more neutral yet readily understandable term, I would have picked it instead.
I checked. It doesn’t say “No”.
That depends on what Eliezer / you mean by “it.” From my reading of the evidence, the claim that the psychotherapist can interpret the patient’s psychological state by use of the Rorschach ink-blots has been refuted; any knowledge they get is probably from cold reading, and they fail to notice real evidence they’re not looking for. This is an empirical statement about the population of psychotherapists, rather than the best application of the test, though.
Cold reading sounds pretty negative. Cold reading is a technique used by mentalists, psychics, fortune-tellers, mediums and illusionists to dupe their marks. If you want to go with a negative comparison, perhaps consider Tasseography ;-)
I chose that phrase for its precision, not its emotional valence; were there a more neutral yet readily understandable term, I would have picked it instead.
For a start, “cold” seems as though it would often be wrong. It isn’t “cold” reading when you have a medical history in front of you.
I looked at the original 10 inkblots and saw pelvic bones in 9 of them. I wonder what that says about me...