The subject of Psychobook is psychological tests, both classic tests and newly created ones. Oversized, with more pictures than text, it is truly an art book.
Psychobook begins with an introduction by Lionel Shriver, a journalist and novelist, which proves to be a very personal indictment of psychological testing. There follows a more even-handed historical essay by Oisin Wall, a curator at the Science Museum in London.
The bulk of Psychobook is comprised of photographs of tests and archival material related to tests. For example, along with intelligence tests designed to screen potential immigrants, we find images of new arrivals being tested at Ellis Island. Likewise, we see beautifully reproduced Rorshach inkblots along with pictures of Rorshach and older inkblots that may have inspired him. The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is a projective test in which subjects respond to images with their fantasies. Here we see the 1930s originals cut out of magazines alongside updated images especially commissioned for this volume. Each is provocative in its own way. As an added bonus, a series of photographs of psychotherapists in their offices from the 1930s to the present is interspersed with the content on psychological testing.
