"Oh those crazy cards again": A history of the debate on the Nazi Rorschachs, 1946-2001

This essay provides a critical history of the debate on the Rorschach Inkbl ot Tests administered to 22 leading figures of the Third Reich who were imp risoned in Nuremberg in 1945-1946. This debate occurred in two stages. The question at the heart of the first stage was whether the Nazi leaders were sane or psychopaths. Despite a strong disagreement concerning the use of th ese diagnostic labels, there was a surprisingly broad agreement on the actu al substance of the discrepant diagnoses. Divisions of opinion, however, ar ose from political dissension in two areas: the nature of liberal democraci es and authoritarian regimes, and the possibility of trust in any political leadership. The second stage was marked by an ideology of convergence aime d at establishing a consensual "scientific truth" on the Nazi Rorschachs. T hus. the politics of the second phase were motivated by interests and ambit ions internal to the field of Rorschach expertise, rather than by extraneou s political anxieties.