Psychobook: Games, Tests, Questionnaires, Histories

by Julian Rothenstein (Editor), Lionel Shriver (Foreword), Oisín Wall (Contributor)

Who knew a trip to the therapist could be so much fun, even aesthetically rewarding? Beyond sharing feelings or complaining about your mother, Psychobook reveals the rich history of psychological testing in a fascinating sideways look at classic testing methods, from word-association games to inkblots to personality tests.

Psychobook includes never-before-seen content from long-hidden archives, as well as reimagined tests from contemporary artists and writers, to try out yourself, at home or at parties. A great gift for the therapist in your life and the therapist in you, for anyone interested in the history of psychology and psychological paraphernalia, or for anyone who enjoys games and quizzes. Psychobook will brighten your day and outlook.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Reference, Self Help, Mental Health

192 pages, Hardcover

Published September 6, 2016

About the author

Julian Rothenstein is the publisher, editor, and designer of Redstone Press. He lives in London, England.

Reviews

[Owlseyes]

(Henry H. Goddard, American psychologist and eugenicist; "introducer" of "moron" word)

"In 1912, the psychologist Henry H. Goddard concluded that the vast majority of Hungarians, Italians, Jews, and Russians arriving at Ellis Island were “feebleminded.”


[!!!]


"According to a 1947 color test, a fondness for purple is a sign of “emotional immaturity,” which causes the subject to “get stuck in dreams of wishful thinking and fantasy.”


[!!!]

in:
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/element...

[Adriana Lehotová · Rating 1 out of 5]

slabota

[Deke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not particularly long or informative, but still some interesting things in here, including the obvious assessment that assessing personality is often asinine.

[Rebecca DeLucia · Rating 2 out of 5]

for the urbane coffee table, or some equally embarrassing formulation.

[K. 🦉 · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not the most comprehensive or scholarly book on psychological tests, but this book might best benefit students interested in studying psychology, or be used in the classroom as a teaching tool. If this is the case, I think many students will want to learn more about this subject and will seek out additional information.

So often, psychological tests are often criticized for being discriminatory, or pointless, however, in this book, I think there is an emphasis placed on how these tests create dialogue that can be useful in a therapeutic setting. This book even allows the reader to participate in some tests, and while the results might not be life changing, I think some might be surprised with what they discover.

Likewise, this could also just end up being a coffee table book. Your guests will probably stick around to read the entire thing.

[Libby · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun book! Educational, too. And despite the size of the book, I read it in one night.

[Crystal · Rating 1 out of 5]

Waste of time.

[Dan Carpenter · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was hoping for more out of this book. The goal in reading this book was to learn new things about myself, possibly even ways to view the world differently or things I could improve on. This book had nothing like that and focused only on outdated and unscientific tests. Maybe the goal of this book was to show how far we have come but since I was looking for something useful for me now, this book was a big waste of time.

[Yue · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s neither a book for the serious psychology student nor textbook material. Instead, it’s a light-hearted way of introducing the field of psychology, it’s history and the tests conducted through time (both current and obsolete), giving you an idea that there’s more than one way to analyse men, and not all applies.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two excellent introductions, some interesting old psych tests, and a few you can answer yourself. This book doesn’t take itself very seriously, and probably hopes we approach such testing in the same spirit of fun, especially given its dark history.

I spent about a morning on it though so I recommend borrowing a copy rather than buying unless you collect this sort of thing.

[Jean · Rating 2 out of 5]

checked this out from the library. lots of pictures. outcome of tests with answer keys were pretty predictable if you understand symbolism.

[Stacy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like this would be great entertainment with substances, or in one of those situations where you invite a bunch of idiots over just to watch them try to function.

[The_J · Rating 3 out of 5]

A romp through that tests and traps of Psychological trickery, even tested out at a healthy Ego!

[Trevor · Rating 4 out of 5]

What fun! Great historical examples and tons of ideas to use with clients in the present.

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

very basic introduction, some fun tests and images but most of the tests ressemble pseudoscience.

[Makenna Laher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good introduction to psychological testing but only gives surface level information.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I especially liked the introduction.

It is an interesting collection of psychological tests.

[Leonard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. Might take quite a bit of time to thoroughly digest.

[Lily · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is kind of interesting! I wish you could actually take the tests mentioned within!

[Shelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Psychobook attempts to be both interactive and fun as well as a historical review of psychological and personality testing, but it kind of falls short in both areas. Historically, it’s woefully incomplete and is less like an overview than a random and uneven sampling. As a participatory exercise, I could never tell if a test was meant to be taken seriously, or if it was an example of the ludicrousness of the psychological field of yore. And too many were much more interpretive than tallyable – for instance, the very last section of the book showed abstract art works, with the psychological “meanings” of the various interpretations one might have had of them. The first of the essays talked about all the different ways the person-like figure might have been interpreted by the viewer… but I saw a watermelon.

N.B. The library ebook formula was atrocious. You have to keep turning to the back of the book to learn your “results” for each quiz, and not only are the page numbers way off (like they often are in ebooks), but the links in the text didn’t even take you directly to the quiz you were looking up, and there was no link back. If you want to read this book, get the hard copy (or possibly the Kindle proper version is better?).

[Kerfe · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author notes that the text analysis of the Luscher Color Test uses "language similar to horoscopes". But all these different psychological evaluation methods rely on subjective interpretation--and thus they share more with horoscopes, tarot cards, philosophical texts such as the I Ching, or religious texts such as the Bible or Koran, than most people are willing to admit. What you see or hear depends on many factors that are always changing. Can they be quantified?--or is empathy, observation, and intuition just as valid at pinpointing strengths, weaknesses, and problems that need to be addressed in order to live well? Can the Shaman sometimes do more than the medical doctor?

I took this book out of the library to look at the Rorschach cards, endlessly interesting and beautiful to me, and a technique I sometimes use with watercolor. But I enjoyed traveling through the wide world and history of psychological testing. I'm not sure I learned anything new about myself, but there are a lot of good writing prompts in these ambiguous psychological questions. The Abstract Art test? Just another name for Ekphrastic poetry.

[Dawn H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting history of some psychological tests. Several fun and interesting tests. Others just bizarre.

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting coffee table book.

[Doreen · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/11/16 Review tk.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Psychobook is more a coffee table book than one meant for you to sit down and read in one sitting. So that was how I approached it - by picking it up occasionally and reading a few pages at a time. The book's contributors seem to approach psychology with a critical eye. They borderline ridicule people who turn to internet psychology tests as a means of gaining insight into their own psyches, even as they acknowledge why we might do it. They also take us on a brief journey that takes us through psychology's less-than-glamorous history. Some of the more horrifying passages describe how psychology was once used as a tool to oppress minority groups by finding arbitrary ways to "prove" they were somehow mentally or intellectually inferior. The contributors also seem to be trying to play up the ridiculousness of the sample tests that are included. The results are often either painfully obvious or require absurd leaps of imagination.

Ultimately, this book seems to present the science of psychology as a sideshow spectacle to be ridiculed. If you're looking to learn something new about yourself, you likely won't find that here - except maybe how silly you were for ever buying into those "What does your favorite color say about you?" kinds of tests that are always going around Facebook. :)