Today’s Google logo is inspired by Hermann Rorschach’s famous inkblot test on the anniversary of the Freudian psychologist’s 129th birthday. The Rorschach Inkblot test is a psychoanalysis process where patients are shown ten different inkblot paintings and report what they see in the images. The goal of the test is to gain insight into unconscious portions of a patient’s personality projected onto the inkblots.
The Google logo is framed from the eye of the user holding an inkblot image, with a psychoanalyst sitting to the left, waiting to record answers. The Google letters are arranged in pictures and a window located on the far wall. The search icon leads to search results for Hermann Rorschach.
Users can flip through various inkblot images, some traditional and others a little less traditional, like the pair of gnomes or dinosaurs. (Of course, that may just be what I see.) The logo includes a ‘Share what you see’ link, allowing users to post their answers on their Google+, Facebook or Twitter accounts.
Born in Zürich on this date in 1884, Rorschach lived in Russia where he met his wife, but returned to Switzerland in 1914 to work at the regional psychiatric hospital in Herisau. By 1821, he had authored the book Psychodiagnostik, introducing the concept for the Rorschach Inkblot test. Rorschach died one year after the publication of Psychodiagnostik at the age of 37 on April 1, 1922 from peritonitis.
Here are a few images of the logo, including the ones where I saw gnomes and dinosaurs:
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