It’s been 35 years since Ozymandias dropped a giant interdimensional squid on New York City, killing thousands and destroying the public’s trust in heroes once and for all. And since that time, one figure in a fedora, mask, and trench coat has become a divisive cultural icon. So, what does it mean when Rorschach reappears as a gunman trying to assassinate a candidate running against President Redford? Who is the man behind the mask, and why is he acting this way? Now it’s up to one detective to uncover the identity of this would-be killer and expose a web of conspiracies that will change the world forever. Collects Rorschach #1-12.

Since its creation more than eighty years ago, the famous Rorschach inkblot test has become an icon of clinical psychology and popular culture. Administered over one million times world-wide each year, the Rorschach is used to assess personality and mental illness across a wide range of circumstances: child custody disputes, educational placement decisions, employment and termination proceedings, parole determinations, and even investigations of child abuse allegations. The test's enormous power shapes the lives of hundreds of thousands of people -- often without their knowledge. In the 1970s, this notoriously subjective test was supposedly systematized and improved. But is the Rorschach more than a modern variant on tea leaf reading? What's Wrong With the Rorschach? challenges the validity and utility of the Rorschach and explains why psychologists continue to judge people by their reactions to ink blots, in spite of a half century of largely negative scientific evidence. What's Wrong With the Rorschach? offers a provocative critique of one of the most widely applied and influential - and still intensely controversial - psychological tests in the world today. Surveying more than fifty years of clinical and scholarly research, the authors provide compelling scientific evidence that the Rorschach has relatively little value for diagnosing mental illness, assessing personality, predicting behavior, or uncovering sexual abuse or other trauma. In this highly engaging, novelistic account of the Rorschach's origins and history, the authors detail the wealth of scientific evidence that the test is of questionable utility for real-world decision making. What's Wrong With the Rorschach? presents a powerfully reasoned case against using the test in the courtroom or consulting room - and reveals the strong psychological, economic, and political forces that continue to support the Rorschach despite the research that has exposed its shortcomings and dangers. James M. Wood (El Paso, TX) is Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, at the University of Texas at El Paso. M. Teresa Nezworski (Dallas, TX) is Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Dallas. Scott O. Lilienfeld (Atlanta, GA) is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Emory University in Atlanta. Howard N. Garb (Pittsburgh, PA) is on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh and the author of Studying the Clinician: Judgement Research and Psychological Assessment.

SUNDAY TIMES 'BOOKS OF THE YEAR': 'the book develops into a bigger biography of the strange set of images [Rorschach] bequeathed, taking in everything from the origins of abstract art to the invention of the idea of empathy' – James McConnachie, Sunday Times IRISH INDEPENDENT 'BOOKS OF THE YEAR' The captivating, untold story of Hermann Rorschach and his famous inkblot test, which has shaped our view of human personality and become a fixture in popular culture. In 1917, working alone in a remote Swiss asylum, psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach devised an experiment to probe the human mind. He had come to believe that who we are is less a matter of what we say, as Freud thought, than what we see. Rorschach himself was a talented illustrator, and his test, a set of ten carefully designed inkblots, quickly made its way to America, where it took on a life of its own. Co-opted by the military after Pearl Harbor, Rorschach’s test was a fixture at the Nuremberg trials and in the jungles of Vietnam. It became an advertising staple, a cliché in Hollywood and journalism, and an inspiration to everyone from Andy Warhol to Jay-Z. The test was also taken by millions of defendants, job applicants, parents in custody battles and people suffering from mental illness – or simply trying to understand themselves better. And it is still used today. Damion Searls draws on untranslated letters and diaries, and a cache of previously unknown interviews with Rorschach’s family, friends and colleagues, to tell the unlikely story of the test’s creation, its controversial reinvention and its remarkable endurance. Elegant and original, The Inkblots shines a light on the twentieth century’s most visionary synthesis of art and science.

Alan Moore's Watchmen is set in 1985 and chronicles the alternative history of the United States where the US edges dangerously closer to nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Within this world exists a group of crime busters, who don elaborate costumes to conceal their identity and fight crime, and an intricate plot to kill and discredit these "superheroes." Alan Moore's Watchmen popularized the graphic novel format, has been named one of Time magazine's top 100 novels, and is now being made into a highly anticipated movie adaptation. This latest book in the popular Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture series peers into Moore's deeply philosophical work to parse and deconstruct the ethical issues raised by Watchmen's costumed adventurers, their actions, and their world. From nuclear destruction to utopia, from governmental authority to human morality and social responsibility, it answers questions fans have had for years about Watchmen's ethical quandaries, themes, and characters.

The fully revised and expanded edition of the premier guidebook toInterpreting the Rorschach For the last three decades, Dr. John Exner's Comprehensive Systemhas been the leading approach worldwide to administering andinterpreting the Rorschach Inkblot Test. Comprised of threevolumes, The Rorschach(r): A Comprehensive System is theauthoritative reference for the administration, scoring, andinterpretation of the Rorschach. This Third Edition of Volume Two:Advanced Interpretation, with new and updated information and casestudies, provides an essential companion to the basic foundationsand principles outlined in Volume One: Basic Foundations andPrinciples of Interpretation. New to this edition: * All-new case studies describing accurate use of the Rorschach inthe assessment of children, adolescents, and adults in a variety ofclinical and forensic settings * New research developments * New additions to Exner's Comprehensive System * Expanded reference data, including nonpatient data * Expanded coverage of the cluster approach to organizing data forinterpretation The leading guide to the study and implementation of the Rorschachfor more than three decades, this latest volume from John Exner andPhilip Erdberg is must-reading for any serious scholar or user ofthe Rorschach.

Completely new translation of Rorschach's Psychodiagnostics Newly translated and annotated by experts from the field New introductory chapters Illustrated with photos and drawings from the archivesThis new English translation and 100th anniversary annotated edition of Psychodiagnostics, the only book published by Hermann Rorschach, showcases Rorschach's empiricism and the wide-ranging flexibility of his thinking - and thus helps us to understand why his iconic inkblot test has survived for a century and is still being used around the world, with the support of a strong evidence base. The expert translation team have collaborated closely to create an accessible rendition of Hermann Rorschach's presentation of the inkblot test that resulted from his empirical research experiments. Also included in this edition is the case study lecture on new developments in the test that Rorschach gave to the Swiss Psychoanalytic Society in 1922, just six weeks before his premature death. His book and the lecture are each accompanied by annotations for the first time, looking backward to the sources of Rorschach's terminology and also forward to how the test is used today. Drawings and photographs from the Rorschach Archive as well as introductory chapters on the history of the translation and the creation of Psychodiagnostics bring the story of this important figure and his work to life. This volume is essential reading for both historians and contemporary users of the inkblot test and anyone interested in exploring personality testing.

Wil Myerson might have been the creator of Pontius Pirate, the most popular comic in history, before he put on the Rorschach mask and tried to kill a would-be president, but he’s not the only artist who worked on the character. Other artists fell under Wil’s influence, and now all these years later, his more renowned acolyte has fallen sway to Laura, the #1 Myerson superfan. Is it possible she influenced another comic book legend into playing vigilante? The key here is that tape the detective is trying to decipher, the one with the séance that has been haunting him since the very first issue! All this and a cameo by Dr. Manhattan to boot!