Rorschach Test Research Articles

Rorschach Assessment in Suicide Survivors: Focus on Suicidal Ideation.

Background: The study of Suicidal ideation (SI) in people bereaved through suicide (Suicide Survivors, SSs) could be hampered by the person's willingness to admit it, or by their limited awareness of it. Our main hypothesis is that SI is common in these people, especially if they are parents or children of the victim. For its potential in shedding light on specific unconscious processes, Rorschach test was chosen for our investigation, for the first time in SSs literature. Rorschach suicide ideation and selected variables were further analyzed to better delineate their psychological profile.Method: Rorschach according to Exner's Comprehensive System was administered to 21 people bereaved through suicide presenting as outpatients at SOPROXI Project Service—Padova Mental Health Center- and 23 healthy controls. Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was routinely administered to SSs and considered in the study.Results: T-tests showed significantly higher mean SI score (S-Con) as it emerged from the Rorschach test S-Con scores in SSs compared to control participants. SI found only weak correlation with the BDI item in which SSs can explicitly state the desire for their death. Within-group analysis revealed higher S-Con mean scores in bereaved children and parents of the victim compared to other kind of kinships. Morbid content (MOR) has been fund as the most characterizing variable in SSs' S-Con in terms of effect size, followed by a low number of responses with an ordinary form (X +%). Human movements (M), Special Scores related to thought slippage (ALOG, FABCOM2, INCOM2, and CONTAM) and poor human representations (PHR) have been shown to be more significantly present in SSs compared controls.Discussion: Psychodynamic interpretations of our results are provided. Clinical practice should consider Rorschach as one of eligible tools of investigation on this field.

Rorschach Inkblot Test implementation in young adult with HIV positive diagnosis in existential background: a case report

One of the most widely used projective test is Rorschach Inblot Test. Apart from the psychoanalytic interpretation and interpretation of the test based on psychometric scoring there are also interpretations based on different theoretical background. One of these is the interpretation of the Rorschach test from an existential perspective. There are examples of Rorschach Inkblot Test which has interpretation on existential perspective especially with cancer patient. While existential concerns may be experienced in people who are at risk of death due to an illness, interpreting the Rorschach test from an existential perspective provides useful information to examine the mental state of individuals towards this disease. Therefore, this research is about a Rorschach Inkblot Test report from an existential perspective which applied to the young adult who was diagnosed with Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection (HIV).

Pilot research of women’s codependent behavior using Rorschach test

One of the most famous projective techniques around the world – G. Rorschach inkblot test. In many countries this technique is rather popular because it can give the chance of both the qualitative and quantitative analysis. This thesis is confirmed in research works of J. Eksner Institute. For several decades J. Eksner Institute (USA) have been collected psychometric data with using Rorschach test in various groups of the population. These studies make it possible to conduct a clinical and psychological studies and determine the mental status of the subject. Our research is devoted to informational content of Rorschach test of women who have difficulties in interpersonal interaction within their family (with an addictive partner). It was shown that with increase of manifestation intensity of codependent behavior also the orientation of codependent women in interpersonal interaction changes, the coding symbols (determinants), specific for the codependent women, in answers to the third table of Rorschach test (an integrative system of J. Eksner) were also revealed. The practical relevance of this research is that the obtained results can form a basis of express diagnostics of the women having difficulties in interpersonal interaction within the family (husbands, children).

The Mediated Mind: Affect, Ephemera, and Consumerism in the Nineteenth Century by Susan Zieger

Reviewed by: The Mediated Mind: Affect, Ephemera, and Consumerism in the Nineteenth Century by Susan Zieger Leah Grisham (bio) Susan Zieger, The Mediated Mind: Affect, Ephemera, and Consumerism in the Nineteenth Century (New York: Fordham University Press, 2018), pp. 273, $30 paperback, $105 hardcover. At first glance, our culture's consumption of mass media—with our twenty-four-hour news cycle, social media, and love of iPhones—may not seem to have much in common with the nineteenth century. Susan Zieger's The Mediated Mind: Affect, Ephemera, and Consumerism in the Nineteenth Century, however, argues otherwise. By examining the close relationship between consumers and goods in nineteenth-century Britain, Zieger presents ephemeral items and the conversations they sparked as prefigurations of twenty-first century forms of mass media. At the center of this book are ephemera that have received little critical attention: objects like temperance pledge cards, inkblot games, cheap reprints of fine art, sheet music, and cigarette cards. Reading print as a media technology, she works to counter Theodore Adorno and Max Horkheimer's "image of the mindless mass cultural consumer" by exposing the affective, intellectual engagement between mass-produced print goods and consumers (12). "Affect," Zieger explains, "demarcates the friction—whether irritating, pleasurable, or compulsive—that results when a new mass medium repositions individuals in relation to the social" (208). In other words, ephemera produced discussion, debate, and unique types of knowledge that Zieger elucidates throughout the monograph. The first two chapters, which focus the most explicitly on mass-produced print objects, may be of special interest to Victorian Periodicals Review's readers. The innovative first chapter compellingly presents the temperance movement as a mass-media event by examining the effusion of print matter it produced, such as elaborate certificates for those who took sobriety pledges and cheap ballads promoting the cause. As she does in later chapters, Zieger links these ephemeral objects to community events, underscoring the active role ephemeral objects held in communal discourse; here she considers crowd-drawing spectacles like temperance speakers Father Mathew and John B. Gough. Though most of the book focuses on England, chapter one is more transatlantic in its approach (Gough was English-born but did most of his work in America, and Father Mathew was Irish). The wider lens of this chapter is both a strength and a weakness. While it offers interesting insights about ephemera and affect within Anglo-Irish and transatlantic contexts, it may leave readers wondering about the fissures or divergences among Irish, English, and American temperance ephemera. Chapter two (a version of which was published in Journal of Victorian Culture) considers how smoking became analogous with consuming print material, as shown in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's [End Page 210] short story "The Man with the Twisted Lip" (1891) and Robert H. Buss's watercolor Dickens's Dream (1875). The literary, artistic, and ephemeral manifestations of smoking emphasize cognition, and the reader's absorption in written material becomes synonymous with the smoker's absorption in his tobacco. Additionally, smoking came with its own ephemera, such as collectable cards found inside cigarette boxes and publications created especially for smokers. This ephemera aided the proliferation of print media as an exchange of information, with many of the cards imparting encyclopedia-style facts that created a "cultural fantasy" aligning smoking with knowledge (75). Chapter three extends the discussion of print culture and knowledge by reading Harriet Martineau's Eastern Life Present and Past (1848) and Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone (1868) with a special emphasis on the materiality of ink. Broadening what is typically considered print culture, Zieger presents ink—and the phenomenon of ink gazing—as a notable media phenomenon itself. Often written about in Victorian culture, ink gazing consisted of a brown or black Orientalized other making predictions based on images that appeared in the surface of a pool of ink. In public consciousness, ink became associated with knowledge, information, and in some cases genius. Notably, Collins's novel adjusts this association, instead creating an analogy between ink pools and "the unconscious as information storage," a connection Zieger argues is reflected in the period's popular inkblot games and later Rorschach tests (118). These activities, which are...

The History of Cricket in Oregon, 1870s-1920s

Author Craig Owen Jones writes “the failure of American Cricket to flourish in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is the Rorschach inkblot test for sports historians — each sees in the failure whatever they wish to see.” In this research article, explores the history of cricket in Oregon, and especially the Portland Cricket Club, “with an emphasis on cricket clubs' sociological and demographic makeup.” The earliest reference of cricket in Oregon are in newspaper reports on cricket games being played in Portland in 1873. By the late 1870s, cricket had expanded beyond Portland to areas as far apart as Albany, Astoria, and Corvallis. Jones ultimately concludes that cricket's failure to establish in Oregon was due to major cricket clubs taking on an exclusionary membership of mainly upper-class players, and failed to establish a broader appeal. Although cricket never took off in Oregon, Jones emphasizes that “it nonetheless played a persistent, if small, role in sporting life for almost three quarters of a century.”

The History of Cricket in Oregon, 1870s-1920s

Author Craig Owen Jones writes “the failure of American Cricket to flourish in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is the Rorschach inkblot test for sports historians — each sees in the failure whatever they wish to see.” In this research article, explores the history of cricket in Oregon, and especially the Portland Cricket Club, “with an emphasis on cricket clubs' sociological and demographic makeup.” The earliest reference of cricket in Oregon are in newspaper reports on cricket games being played in Portland in 1873. By the late 1870s, cricket had expanded beyond Portland to areas as far apart as Albany, Astoria, and Corvallis. Jones ultimately concludes that cricket's failure to establish in Oregon was due to major cricket clubs taking on an exclusionary membership of mainly upper-class players, and failed to establish a broader appeal. Although cricket never took off in Oregon, Jones emphasizes that “it nonetheless played a persistent, if small, role in sporting life for almost three quarters of a century.”

Correspondence of Maximum and Typical Performance Measures of Cognitive Processing.

We examined associations among cognitive processing measures that varied on a continuum from maximum to typical performance tasks in the context of an ego depletion study. Our intent was to replicate and extend the findings of Charek, Meyer, and Mihura, which showed that ego depletion had an expected effect on selected scores from the Rorschach inkblot task. We hypothesized that Rorschach variables indicative of cognitive sophistication would correlate with neuropsychological measures of cognitive ability and that Rorschach variables theoretically unassociated with cognitive processing would not correlate with those criterion measures. These hypotheses were supported, providing evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. We also hypothesized ego depletion effects on all measures; however, none were evident. Methodological considerations and implications of the findings are discussed.

Development and preliminary validation of a brief behavioral measure of psychotic propensity

Extensive research demonstrates that the dimensional assessment of psychotic manifestations is a primary strength of the Rorschach inkblot task, which provides an in vivo sample of problem-solving behavior and normative standards concerning the logic and coherence of thought processes and the typicality of perceptual representations. This article presents foundational research for the Thought and Perception Assessment System (TPAS), a Rorschach-based system designed to assess solely for disordered thinking and perceptual aberrations using either the standard 10-card set of inkblots or alternative 3-, 4-, and 5-card short forms. Using data from three patient samples (ns = 61, 93, and 133) and one nonpatient sample (n = 118), we document the equivalence of mean scores across the full and short-form card sets. We also document satisfactory interrater reliability and validity for the full and short forms, as well as strong part-whole reliability coefficients between the short forms and the full form. Consistent with psychometric theory and the principle of aggregation, each type of coefficient decreased as a function of decreasing the number of cards. We discuss implications and future applications in research and clinical assessment.

Psychiatrists Write MH Resource for Black Community

Psychiatrists Write MH Resource for Black Community

Coding With R-PAS: Does Prior Training With the Exner Comprehensive System Impact Interrater Reliability Compared to Those Examiners With Only R-PAS-Based Training?

ABSTRACTThe Rorschach Inkblot Method (RIM) is a performance-based personality assessment instrument used in both clinical and research settings worldwide. This investigation examines response-level, interrater reliability of U.S. graduate students enrolled in the same doctoral program and divided into two unique participant groups: 20 of those with previous Comprehensive System (CS) training background who are now trained in Rorschach Performance Assessment System (R-PAS; initial coders N = 11, blind coders N = 9), and 19 of those trained solely with R-PAS (initial coders N = 10, blind coders N = 9). Trainees’ coding was analyzed based on a sample of 50 protocols (half per group) representing a total of 1,189 responses. Blind coding was used among trainees and coding between the two investigated training groups was analyzed for each variable at the response level and expressed as percent agreement, Gwet's AC, and kappa values. Rates of agreement between the trainees were similar across both groups, and most of the concordance rates can be characterized as excellent. Overall, these results suggest that trainees may learn how to code R-PAS variables with similar reliability levels whether or not they had prior CS knowledge.

Effect of psychological projection on improving the quality of marriage of patients with breast cancer after chemotherapy

Objective To explore the psychological projection on improving the quality of marriage of patients with breast cancer after chemotherapy. Methods From January to December 2015, a total of 32 breast cancer patients with postoperative chemotherapy who admitted to Department of General Surgery Huai'nan North Hospital and Huai'nan Eastern Hospital were selected as the research object. Olson marital quality questionnaire was issued when patients firstly receiving chemotherapy in hospital, at the same time they were evaluated by the Rorschach Inkblot Test. In view of the negative projection in the patient's test, the intervention was carried out by painting projective therapy, sand plate therapy, deep hypnosis and cognitive behavioral therapy. The marital quality of patients were investigated again at 1 month after discharge or the second time receiving chemotherapy. The scores of Olson marital quality questionnaire were compared before and after the intervention. Results Before the intervention of psychological projection, the score of marital satisfaction, husband and wife communication and sexual life dimension in the Olson quality of marriage questionnaire were (33.3±5.6) , (30.9±5.5) and (28.2±4.2) respectively. The scores of each dimension after intervention were (36.1±4.6) , (34.2±4.3) , and (30.7±5.3) respectively. They were all improved in the Olson marital quality questionnaire, and the differences were statistically significant (t=2.19, 2.67, 2.09; P<0.05) . Conclusions The intervention of psychological projection can relieve the physical and psychological trauma caused by breast cancer in patients with postoperative chemotherapy of breast cancer and improve the quality of marriage. Key words: Breast neoplasms; Antineoplastic combined chemotherapy protocols; Marital quality; Psychological projection; Projection effect

Near‐Infrared Spectroscopy Detects Prefrontal Activities During Rorschach Inkblot Method

AbstractThe present research investigated activities in the prefrontal cortex while performing the Rorschach inkblot method (RIM) using functional near‐infrared spectroscopy. Participants who had no history of mental illness or external head injury were presented with three International RIM Cards (I, IV, V) for 30 s each and asked to identify what they looked like. In addition, a picture task was conducted, in which simple pictures were used as visual stimuli and participants were asked to say what they were. Results showed significant increase of oxyhemoglobin over time with nearly all measurement channels on the RIM task. The volume changes in oxyhemoglobin during both the middle and late segments of the RIM task were more significant than those of the picture task in almost all channels with the exception of no significant difference in the middle with a few right lateral channels. With regard to deoxyhemoglobin, on the RIM task, a significant decrease was observed with nearly all channels, but only in some of the task segments. These results are then discussed in regards to the function of the prefrontal cortex.

Index de contenu traumatique au Rorschach (TCI) et diagnostic de l’abus sexuel chez l’enfant

ObjectivesThe article has two aims. The first objective is to present to French clinicians working in forensic field a translation of an index built and validated using Rorschach Inkblot method by Armstrong and Loewenstein (1990), called Trauma Content Index (TCI). TCI was codified inside the Comprehensive System and integrated in recent R-PAS. The Rorschach indicators that constitute TCI, namely responses related to blood, anatomy, sex, aggressive movement and morbid content can be easily translated in French Parisian School system. For us, these indicators are highly relevant because they refer, according to our conception, to the attack of the image of the body and the representation of self which are the first indicators to be degraded in case of sexual abuse. The second objective is to study if American validated TCI cutoff to identify sexual abuse has the same usefulness when applied to a cohort of French children suspected of sexual abuse than in American sample and using Parisian School Rorschach codifying system. MethodsWe compared TCI of 50 children aged from 5 to 12 evaluated with Rorschach Inkblot A methodology in double-blinded-scoring where the two experts were both convinced of probability child sexual abuse diagnosis. We have obtained a high fidelity score of interrater agreement (0.92). These data were compared to TCI index of 50 children matched control group with samples stratified according to socio-economic level of parents as well as age. Chi square method was used to compare the two groups. ResultsA TCI cutoff of 0.25 allows us to differentiate statistically the two groups (Chi2: 19.01; P<0.001). Such a cutoff enables us to identify 72 % of the clinical group and only 6 % of the control group as false positives, showing the interest of TCI index applied to children suspected of sexual abuse. We agree with point of view issued from Kamphuis-Kugeares and Finn research (2000) upon adults in their own samples (n=100). That study compared Rorschach records of non-dissociative outpatients with histories of (a) definite sexual abuse, (b) suspected but unconfirmed sexual abuse or (c) non-sexual abuse. They conclude that, although TCI was strongly associated with the presence and severity of sexual abuse, the TCI is one factor among many that can be used to assess the validity of clients’ claims of past sexual abuse. French and South America studies on children with projective tests (Condamin 2006, Mazoyer-Roques, 2014, Scortegagna and de Villemor-Amoral 2012) are more qualitative oriented than Anglo–Saxons researches (Leifer et al., 1991, Kikuchi et al., 2010), but they end up at the same conclusion. That is the reason why we compared our two groups with as second projective tool: the ant's tales test (Royer 1978, de Tychey 2010) used to study child's body image whose usefulness was recently suggested to identify child sexual abuse (Kabuth et al., 2017). Joined use of TCI and indicators issued from that tool allow us to identify 94 % (instead of 72 % with TCI single use) of our clinical group. ConclusionTCI and projective tools are useful in forensic field to undertake child sexual abuse diagnosis. It would be important for future research to make comparative studies to approach TCI cutoff scores derived from subjects confronted to various post-traumatic situations and their psychiatric disorders forms. So it would perhaps possible to highlight specific cutoff values to child sexual abuse diagnosis.

Adolescence, agressivité, style expressif. Réflexions théoriques illustrées au moyen du Rorschach

BackgroundThe symbolic and imaginary elaboration of internal aggressiveness, as well as of coexisting anxiety, has a very important function in the identity quest of middle adolescence. Various theoretical approaches underline the differences between sound aggressiveness, in the sense of self-assertion, and blind violence, be it directed against oneself or the other. We present the theoretical perspectives of psychoanalysis and Ego Psychology, of the humanistic school, of the sociologic and systemic tradition, and of the cognitive and developmental comprehension of identity quest and elaboration of aggressive drives in adolescence. According to clinical experience and research results, the Rorschach test can be a well-suited tool for the study of orientation and mode of elaboration of internal violence. MethodsWe present a comparative study of 3 clinical subgroups of adolescents characterized by anxiety, conduct disorders or suicidal behavior (total N=60), based on the analysis of their Rorschach protocols. The study comprehends the quantitative comparison of the psycho grams, using non-parametric statistical procedures, and a detailed qualitative analysis of the expressive style in the 3 subgroups. The stylistic and expressive specificities of each subgroup are illustrated with the help of contrasted clinical vignettes. ResultsThe quantitative analysis showed that, for the most important indicators, the subgroup characterized by suicidal attempts is located between the subgroups characterized by anxiety and conduct disorders, with the exception of the form %, where suicidal subjects do not distinguish themselves from the subgroup of anxious adolescents. The qualitative analysis allowed analyzing typical configurations of adjustment to the aggressive drive in the responses with human and animal content. The specificities of expression in the three clinical subgroups indicated new perspectives for their psychotherapeutic follow-up. ConclusionSome innovative tracks for diagnostic research, as well as for the evaluation of psychotherapies, come out of this study.

Blunted vocal affect and expression is not associated with schizophrenia: A computerized acoustic analysis of speech under ambiguous conditions

IntroductionPatients with schizophrenia are consistently rated by clinicians as having high levels of blunted vocal affect and alogia. However, objective technologies have often failed to substantiate these abnormalities. It could be the case that negative symptoms are context-dependent. ObjectivesThe present study examined speech elicited under conditions demonstrated to exacerbate thought disorder. MethodsThe Rorschach Test was administered to 36 outpatients with schizophrenia and 25 nonpatient controls. Replies to separate “perceptual” and “memory” phases were analyzed using validated acoustic analytic methods. ResultsCompared to nonpatient controls, schizophrenia patients did not display abnormal speech expression on objective measure of blunted vocal affect or alogia. Moreover, clinical ratings of negative symptoms were not significantly correlated with objective measures. ConclusionsThese findings suggest that in patients with schizophrenia, vocal affect/alogia is generally unremarkable under ambiguous conditions. Clarifying the nature of blunted vocal affect and alogia, and how objective measures correspond to what clinicians attend to when making clinical ratings are important directions for future research.

Rorschach Evaluation of Personality and Emotional Characteristics in Adolescents With Migraine Versus Epilepsy and Controls

The literature examining primary headache, including migraine, in adolescents, has pointed out the key role played by a wide range of psychiatric disorders in reducing the patients’ quality of life. Moreover, pioneering studies showed that preexisting personality characteristics, specific emotion regulation styles and psychological-psychiatric difficulties are likely to increase the risk of the onset, maintenance, and outcome of headache. Still personality issues in migraine have been poorly studied, in particular in children and adolescents. This study aims, therefore, to investigate the specific characteristics of personality, and in particular emotion regulation and coping strategies, in adolescent with migraine, comparing them with age-matched patients with idiopathic epilepsy and healthy adolescents. 52 adolescents (age: 11–17) were assessed using a multi-method test battery, which included a self-report questionnaire (the youth self-report), a proxy-report (child behavior checklist) along with a projective personality test, the Rorschach Test, administered and scored according to the Exner comprehensive system. The results showed specific personality characteristics in adolescents with migraine, revealing a marked difficulty in modulating and regulating affections through thoughts and reflections, resorting instead to impulsive acts and maladaptive coping strategies, thus revealing a vague and immature perception of reality. Differently from adolescents belonging to the general population, but similarly to patients with epilepsy, adolescents with migraine perceive a high situational stress, probably related to the condition of suffering from chronic disease. They have, therefore, a lower self-consideration and self-esteem along with a poorer insight regarding themselves as well as the relations with others. In line with previous findings, these preliminary results suggest the need for further research on ample samples, using also standardized projective test in order to better understand the pathogenesis of psychological difficulties in patients with migraine. As a clinical implication, the results seem to indicate that providing a psychological integrated approach can play a pivotal role in the assessment and treatment of adolescent with migraine, in order to improve the outcome and the quality of life of the young patients.

“Spying for the People”: surveillance, democracy and the impasse of cynical reason

This essay examines the Snowden affair as a sort of Rorschach test that traces the contours of what I am calling the impasse of cynical reason. In particular, I contend that the emerging form of algorithmic dataveillance both elicits and actively thwarts theoretical and critical approaches predicated on an a normative, symbolic model of epistemology that this form aspires to supplant. As a result, what such approaches tend to discern in the emerging culture of surveillance are its own epistemological commitments—the very ones comprising the impasse of cynical reason. Breaking out of this impasse will thus require disrupting the deep, hidden complicity of such critique with its ostensible object. I contend that this will require taking seriously the often disingenuous or fallacious arguments on behalf of dataveillance in order to overcome the critical resistance to the quite genuine eventuality they connote—that of the decline of cynical reason as the prevailing form of social coordination.

Contemporary Data on the Location of Response Objects in Rorschach's Inkblots

ABSTRACTUsing a diverse sample of 4,786 protocols obtained with the Rorschach Performance Assessment System (Meyer, Viglione, Mihura, Erard, & Erdberg, 2011), we provide a contemporary overview of how people organize Rorschach's inkblots into identifiable regions while formulating responses. After examining how frequently each location was used across all cards in this sample, we examined the consistency of their use by computing parallel information in 17 samples (N = 4,701) obtained using the Comprehensive System (CS; Exner, 2003), including clinical, nonclinical, and adult, child, and adolescent data. Even though the CS data could only record a single location for each response, the average correlation of location use across samples was .96. The results also document continuous dimensionality in use rather than any discontinuities that would demarcate a boundary between common and uncommon locations. Implications of this notable reproducibility and dimensionality are discussed for future conceptualization of location typicality, including location coding considerations and possibilities for improved measures of perceptual fit.

Neural Correlation of Maturity and Perceptual Decision Making: An Event Related Potential Evidence, Time-Frequency and Measure Projection Analysis

Perceptual decision making is one of the most complex brain perception forming multi network information interactions in the brain. The accuracy of decision making varies with age and maturity level. We have used electroencephalogram time locked with Rorschach inkblot figures for temporal investigation of decision related components in different age groups. Further study the time-frequency analysis and estimating the source generators of brain components related to the presented task using probabilistic measure projection analysis. The main two components N130 and N240 are found post stimulus onset. N130 is an early response of puzzled brain noticed in different age groups. While the trusted decision response is reflected in the late component of N240 in matured group only. The projections of ERP components are estimated mostly on the left hemisphere. Prior to decision making, the brain processes the information mostly on parietal area and the trusted decision response is present in the left temporal gyrus. In conclusion, the motor response at pre-mature age does not be informed by perceptual mental decision while it does at mature age.

The Algorithmic Writing of Stones: A Cybernetics of Geology

The Algorithmic Writing of Stones:A Cybernetics of Geology Paul Prudence (bio) To know the shape is to enjoy the information it embodies. – Blohm, Beer, and Suzuki, Pebbles to Computers In his classic work of lithic scrying, The Writing of Stones, Roger Caillois suggests that the pareidoliac's interpretation of a stone's pattern depends upon her own personal internalized database of stored images, a database defined by the cultural stock of mediated imagery forged and embellished by personal memory, emotion and psychical topography. For Caillois, "the vision the eye records is always impoverished and uncertain. Imagination fills it with the treasures of memory and knowledge." Caillois's own database was one defined in a pre-digitized, barely computerized world. His meditations on Agates, Jaspers and Septaria evoked for him a world of grotesque pathologies, fantastic creatures and mythological landscapes devoid of digital allusions. Like the results of a Rorschach test, the imagery he conjured reveals the emotive secrets hidden in the recesses of his own mind. A post-digital re-reading of his stones might invoke entirely new kinds of narratives. By reinterpreting Caillois's stones in relation to the aesthetics of digital simulation, algorithmic visualization can be used as decryption device to decode and unravel new fictions. The digital age has supplied the directory of the unconscious with a new aesthetic of patterns. Sigils of chaos theory and emblems of emergence provide the imagination with new a gestalt with which to interpret the writing of stones. How do the symbols of this new aesthetic invade our dreams and reconfigure the hard-drive of the collective unconscious? And how might they be refracted back into our view of the world as we invent stories that give meaning to entropy and shape haphazard incidents into coherent narratives? The crystal deposits in stones might now chronicle the arching trajectories of boids as they trace pathways defined by chaotic parabolas of a Lorenz Attractor. In other rocks, mineral accretions may delineate facsimiles of reaction diffusion patterns—the scattered pointillist aftermaths of activator-inhibitor liaisons. Other patterns tell tales of cellular automata self-assembling themselves into unpredictable, but [End Page 71] scrutable patterns—Conway's Game of Life frozen inside a crystalline snapshot. So, the stones become a collective unconscious for dynamical systems, an oblique strategy for algopoetic revelry, and a divination system for generative pattern recognition. Though Caillois's readings prefigure the emergence of digital culture, there are some tantalizing references and delicate clues in his writing, almost as if he were peering into the future and blindly feeling his way through to a possible computational interpretation of his stones. Commenting on one Jasper that he nicknames Orbits, we hear of a concentric ring pattern that "proclaims the orbits of the planets or electrons around invisible nuclei" and whose rings "reflect the phantom revolutions which, alike on a vast and on a microscopic scale, unflaggingly repeat the same pattern." Here he intimately senses the universal constructor function of self-similarity in nature long before chaos theory and fractal mathematics became mainstream. He understands that forms can encapsulate themselves across dimensions, rhythmically repeating themselves to create diminishing echoes of their own signatures towards a proposed infinity, in sometimes maddeningly giddying recursions, mise en abyme. Just as chaos theory has infected every corner of science, the scale invariance found in Orbits, according to Caillois, symbolizes "the blueprint of nature itself." The author often hints at this internal self-reflexivity so essential to natural morphologies at any given scale: "To decipher such writing is to interpret some oft repeated signs so turned in upon themselves that they refer to their own form." And when he explains that "their values are intrinsic and without external reference," might he be imagining a kind of geological Turing Completeness?—a universal lithic calculating machine whose solution is its own morphology (Turing). This possibility echoes the inklings of tantric cybernetician Stafford Beer in Pebbles to Computers who saw that "Nature's computers are that which they compute" and who maintained that "We cannot read off numbers" from these calculations "because nature does not put labels on its solutions—it becomes them" (in Blohm, et al.). The sealed language of stones...