Szondi test

In contrast to Freud's work, Szondi's approach is based on a systematic drive theory.^[1][3] That is, Szondi means to enumerate all human drives, classifying and framing them within a comprehensive theory. Szondi drive system is built on the basis of eight drives,^[4] which in different proportion are present in all individuals, healthy and ill. They are: the hermaphrodite or homosexual drive, the sadist drive, the epileptic drive, the hysteric drive, the katatonic drive, the paranoid drive, the depressive drive, and the maniac drive.^[5]

The eight drives, or needs - " Triebbedürfnisse " - in Szondi's own terms, are grouped in four pairs of opposites; the four pairs corresponds to all the independent hereditary circular mental diseases established by the psychiatric genetics of the time:^[6] the schizoform (containing the paranoid and the catatonic drives), the manic-depressive, the paroxysmal (including the epileptic and hysteric drives), and the sexual drive disorder (including the hermaprodite and the sadomasochist drives).^[7]

Szondi's drive diagram has been described as his major discovery and achievement.^[8] Szondi's Drive Diagram has been described as a revolutionary addition to psychology, and as paving the way for a theoretical psychiatry and a psychoanalytical anthropology.^[1][9]

Szondi theory organizes phenomenons like: sadistic personality disorder, paraphilia subtypes, histrionic personality disorder (P++), paranoid proper as "projective paranoid", narcissistic personality disorder as "inflative paranoid", panic disorder (P--), phobia (P+0), hypochondria (Cm-),^[10] stupor (-hy),^[11] somatization and pain disorder as organ neurosis,^[12] conversion disorder (in Pe+, Phy and Schk- danger classes), dissociative fugue (Sch±- and C+0),^[13] paroxysmal attack (Sch±-),^[14] depersonalization disorder and alienation (Sch-±).

Szondi analysis of destiny approach is based an anthropological preoccupation.^[1] Sdonzi's main philosophical references for the concept of fate are Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Representation (1818) and Heidegger's Being and Time (1927).^[15]

Fate analysis of a patient is based on the test score, the patient medical history, and his family background through a genealogical tree. Fate analysis includes Genotropism, a form of depth psychology that had some prominence in Europe in the mid-20th century, but has been ignored for the most part.^{[citation needed]}

The starting assumption of fate analysis is that a person's life (destiny) unfolds in a series of elections: one chooses an occupation, acquaintances, partners, family, and ultimately his decisions implicitly selects his illnesses and his death. Szondi experience in genealogy research have led him to believe that these elections can not be considered only as the individual sovereign decision, but that such choices often follow certain patterns that preexisted within his family ancestors. Szondi concluded that some life choices are genetically inherited.

It is a projective personality test, the same category of the most-known Rorschach test, but with the crucial difference of being nonverbal. The test consists in showing the examinee a series facial photographs,^[16] displayed in six groups of eight each. All 48 subjects featured in the photogtaphs are mental patients, each group containing a photo of a person whose personality had been classified as homosexual, a sadist, an epileptic, an hysteric, a katatonic, a paranoid, a depressive and a maniac. The subject is asked to choose the two most appealing and the two most repulsive photos of each group. The choices will supposedly reveal the subject satisfied and unsatisfied instinctive drive needs, and the subject's dimensions of personality.^[17] Each photo is supposed to be a stimulus apt to detect the pulsional drive tendencies of the examinee, from which the main personality traits can surface.^[18] Szondi said that for some disturbed examinees the stimulus of seeing the photo of a mental patient with the same pathology caused them to have crisis and convulsions during the test examination.

Szondi further broke down the results into four different vectors: a homosexual/sadistic, epileptic/hysterical, catatonic/paranoid and depressive/manic.

Szondi believed that people are inherently attracted to people similar to them ^{[citation needed]}. His theory of genotropism states that there are specific genes that regulate mate selection, and that similarly-gened individuals would seek each other out.

To interpret the test scores, a variety of methods have been developed by Szondi himselft and other researchers. They can be classifies as quantitative, qualitative and proportional methods.

Szondi said that from a sociological perspective, the most important discovery made through fate psychology, has been operotropism, that is the discerning of the role played by latent inherited genes (genotropic factors) in the choice of a particular vocation or profession.^[19][20]

The Szondi test is a psychological exam named after its Jewish Hungarian creator, Léopold Szondi in the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest Hungary. The test was first formulated by Szondi around 1935.^[1][2]

In 1944, Szondi published Schicksalsanalyse ("Fate analysis"), the first of a five volume series.^[21][22]

In 1960 Szondi began to collaborate with psychotherapeut Armin Beeli on 17 "forms of existence", dived in two main groups "forms of danger" (Gefährexistenzformen) and "forms of protection" (Schutzexistenzformen).^[23] On the basis of the syndromatics (diagnotisc method) published in book 3 (1952) and 4 (1956) of the Schicksalsanalyse,^[24][25] one or two (rarely three) forms of existence are detected from each test profile. First results of this research were published in 1963.^[23]

Szondi condensed the syndromatics into a table called Testsymptome zur Bestimmung der 17 Existenzformen (test symptoms for the identification of the 17 existence forms), which was published in Szondiana VI (1966) and in the final edition of book 2 (1972). However, the table alone is not sufficient, as analysis of the forms existence still demands "solid knowledge and practice of Syndromatik", in addition to thorough training in Fate Analysis thinking.^[26]

30 of the 48 photographs were taken from Wilhelm Weygandt's 1901 Atlas und Grundriss der Psychiatrie, which is now in the public domain. ^{[27][28][29][30]} Of the remaining 18 pictures:

• four were from Magnus Hirschfeld's Sexuelle Zwischenstufen: Das männliche Weib und der weibliche Mann (1918);
• two were from Otto Binswanger's Die Hysterie (1904);^[31]
• one was from Theodor Kirchhoff's Der Gesichtsausdruck und seine Bahnen beim Gesunden und Kranken, besonders beim Geisteskranken (The facial expression and its paths among the healthy and the sick, especially the mentally ill) published in 1904, Lehrbuch der Irrenheilkunde;
• one was from Friedrich Scholz's Lehrbuch der Irrenheilkunde : für Aerzte und Studirende (1892).^[32]

Six photos were from a criminologic clinic in Stockholm (the Swedish Institute of Criminal Psychiatry) directed by St. Strobl.^[33] and four were taken by Szondi himself in Hungary.

The shock element of the photos is crucial. Commenting an experiment with alternative pictures of mental patients, Szondi argued that since the photos used were nicer or less disturbing, they failed to trigger the responses that the test is supposed to.^[34]

Szondi test is not widely used in the modern clinical psychology, because its psychometric properties are weak.^{[citation needed]} However, it remains in the history of psychology as one of the well-known psychological instruments, although its use today is marginal, being replaced by modern psychological instruments, with good psychometric properties.^{[citation needed]}

Szondi Fate analysis has influenced philosophers Henri Niel, Alphonse De Waelhens and Henry Maldiney, and psychiatrist Jacques Schotte.^[1] In 1949, Susan Deri published the first English language description to the Szondi test.^[35][36] Some graphologists attempted to integrate the szondi test with graphological test; however, Sonzdi was not a graphologist and the goal of his test was in contrast with graphology.^[37]

In 1959, the international Szondi Society was established, and holds a symposium every three years. In 1969, The Szondi Institute was formed, and published from Zurich the journal Szondiana.^[36]

Artist Kurt Kren created a motion picture, 2/60 48 Köpfe aus dem Szondi-Test, from the still shots of the Szondi test in 1964.

Szondi's main work is his five volume series on fate analysis (Schicksalsanalyse). They were first published from 1944 (volume one) to 1963 (volume five). The first two were later republished in multiple revised editions. They are:

• Das erste Buch: Schicksalsanalyse. Wahl in Liebe, Freundschaft, Beruf, Krankheit und Tod.^[38][39] B. Schwabe, Basel, 1944. (2nd edition 1948, 3rd edition 1965, fourth edition 1978)

• Das zweite Buch: Lehrbuch der Experimentellen Triebdiagnostik (Textband). Huber, Bern und Stuttgart, 1947. (1st edition 308pp, 2nd edition 1960 443pp, 3rd edition 1972 484pp) This is the book in which Szondi explains in details how to perform and interpret the test. Only the first edition, which would be completely overhauled in 1960, was translated into English as Experimental Diagnostics of Drives (1952). The 1972 third edition added a 40-page long appendix, that included a table to help determine the dangerous and the protective forms of existence. The Textband (text volume) is complemented by two additional (smaller) volumes, sold separately: Band 2: Testband, which contains the photographs and additional material to take the test, and Band 3: Trieblinnäus-Band (classification of instincts).
• Das dritte Buch: Triebpathologie, also called and classified as Triebpathologie, Band I (Drive pathology, volume I), and subtitled Elemente der exakten Triebpsychologie und Triebpsychiatrie. Huber, Bern und Stuttgart, 1952. Composed of two parts: part A Elemente der exakten Triebpsychologie (Teil 1 Dialektische Trieblehre pp. 37–156, Teil 2 Dialektische Methodik pp. 159–234), and part B Elemente der exakten Triebpsychiatrie (Teil 3 Klinische Psychologie, Experimentelle Syndromatik pp. 237–509). Part A and B have been republished, with no changes (unverändert Auflage), in two separate volumes: Part A as Triebpathologie: Dialektische Trieblehre und dialektische Methodik der Testanalyse(1977, 234pp); part B as Triebpathologie: Elemente der exakten Triebpsychiatrie: Klinische Psychologie, experimentelle Syndromatik, Volume 1 (with unchanged page numbers^[40]). (1977, pp. 235–543)
• Das vierte Buch: Ich-Analyse,^[41] subtitled Die Grundlage zur Vereinigung der Tiefenpsychologie. Zweiter in sich abgeschlossener Band der Triebpathologie. Huber, Bern und Stuttgart, 1956.
• Das fünfte Buch: Schicksalsanalytische Therapie, subtitled Ein Lehrbuch der passiven und aktiven analytischen Psychotherapie. Huber, Bern und Stuttgart, 1963. (see pp. 157–170).

In 1963, after finishing the fifth volume, he published Introduction to Fate Analysis; it is a short book that collects conferences he held at the University of Zurich the previous year, with the aim of introducing to a larger public the most important results of his research.^[42] The conference collection was first published in French translation, as they were unpublished in German.^[43][44] A second tome of introductory conferences has also been published:

• Introduction à l'analyse du destin. Tome I : Psychologie générale du destin, Translated by Claude van Reeth, 1972.^[45][46]
• Introduction à l'analyse du destin.^[47] Tome II : Psychologie spéciale du destin, 1983.

Other works by Szondi include:

• Analysis of Marriages. An attempt at a theory of choice in love. Acta Psychologica, 1937.
• Kain. Gestalten des Bösen. Huber, Bern, Stuttgart, Wien, 1969.
• Moses. Antwort auf Kain. Huber, Bern, Stuttgart, Wien, 1973.
• Die Triebentmischten (Drive separation) Bern: Huber, 1980
• Integration der Triebe: die Triebvermischten (Integration of drives: the drive mixing). Huber, Bern, Stuttgart, Wien, 1984

• Trait theory
• Big Five personality traits
• Values scales

• Szondi, L. (1972) Introduction à l'analyse du destin, Tome I

• Achtnich, Martin (1979) Der Berufsbilder-Test
• Johnston, Arthur C. (2012) Szondi Test and Its Interpretation: 2012
• Szondiana
• Szondi, Lipod; Moser, Ulrich; Webb, Marvin W (1959) "The Szondi Test In Diagnosis, Prognosis and Treatment" J. B. Lippincott Company
• Achtnich, Martin (1979) Der Berufsbilder-Test
• Johnston, Arthur C. (2012) Szondi Test and Its Interpretation: 2012
• Deri, Susan (1949) Introduction to the Szondi Test: Theory and Practice
• Beeli, Armin Psychotherapie-Prognose mit Hilfe der experimentellen Triebdiagnostik. Abhandlungen z. experimentellen Triebforschung u. Schicksalspsychologie. N. IV. H. Huber, Bern u. Stuggart, 1965

• The Szondi Forum
• Szondi Institute (in German)
• International Szondi Association
• Homepage of CEP (Centre d'études pathoanalytiques)
• Faces of Madness: Seeing abnormality through photography (Explanation of test with photographs)
• Homepage of Szondi-Institute (in German)
• Homepage of CEP (Centre d’Etudes Pathoanalytiques)
• Scoring-spreadsheet in Excel and Openoffice Calc format. Can be set to English, French, German, Dutch
• A minor online version of the test (in French)
• Szondi test app for Android
• Home page of Tokio Szondi Gesellschaft(in Japan)
• en la psiqiatria - 75. El test de Szondi.
• LIFE 12 Apr 1948, pp. 67–9
• Sonzi test, drawings and keys of all 48 portratis of the test
• Artistic rendering of the 48 portratis

Template:Link FA