Rorschach, Smorschcach: A much-needed update to psychological evaluation.

Every year, my mom makes somewhere in the ballpark of 20 different kinds of cookies and candies at Christmas. So, what does this have to do with psychological evaluation you ask? Great question! You see, each cookie and/or candy varies greatly from the other. And, as you might expect, each person has his or her favorite kind. It’s my theory that you can learn a lot about a person, simply based on their favorite Connie Christmas Cookie, or CCC.

For anyone who didn’t recognize the name Rorschach in the title, it refers to Hermann Rorschach, the Swiss Freudian psychiatrist best known for developing the Rorschach inkblot test. By looking at the inkblots and describing what they see and why, patients supposedly reveal characteristics about themselves.

By analyzing people’s choices in CCCs, I’ve been able to extrapolate my own data with which to asses my unsuspecting patients, muhahaha. We’ll start with me – my favorites are my mom’s spritz cookies, and her gingerbread people (this is a PC blog)! One has a very strong almond extract flavor to it, the other has overriding notes of ginger and cinnamon. As such, I’m a person who likes bold things and to take chances. The typical is very boring for me and I often seek new adventures or take risks.

My grandfather, on the other hand, specifically avoids the spritz cookies because they are colored green with food dye. This is the same man who, at 86 years old, had never eaten an M&M until recently because he thought they were flavored to match the colors, like Skittles. My grandfather is a skeptical man, who does not take an uncalculated step. For example, he’s a very good handyman but before he undertakes a project he has thought every aspect of it through. I, on the other hand, love to attack projects head on. Thus, the difference in cookies!

My fiance loves the seven-layer bars. They have a wide array of ingredients and a diverse flavor. She loves to have a lot of different things going on, and to take on a ton of responsibility such as working two jobs, planning a wedding, going to the gym on a regular basis, taking up knitting, relearning Spanish, making time for me etc… Just thinking of all the things she does makes me tired.

One of my coworkers just commented to me that the sugar cookies are her favorite. As you might expect, she is a very even-keel type person. You typically won’t find her doing something outrageous or risky. She likes to be on the safe side of things.

As you can see from my study of humans and their favorite CCCs, it’s really quite easy to develop a better understanding of those around you based on cookie preferance. Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s a gingerbread person that has been taunting me all day long and I have to go threaten to take its gumdrop buttons.