This test was originally created by Hungarian psychiatrist Leopold Szondi in 1935. Szondi believed that it was possible to reveal the dark and repressed impulses within us simply by the aversion we show towards certain people.
Each of the eight photos is supposed to reveal a hidden aspect of the human psyche, revealing the psychological drives and tendencies that we unknowingly carry inside. These latent impulses were repressed in childhood because they were deemed inappropriate, “bad,” or somehow socially unacceptable in the environment we grew up in.
The Szondi test operates on the principle that we are inherently attracted or repulsed by people who are similar to us. So pay careful attention to each mental patient and the “face” they give to the repressed impulse potentially within you!
Terms You Need to Know
The following psychological terms will show up in your result. I’ve included a simple explanation of what each means:
Repression: This is a psychological defense mechanism that prevents us from feeling emotions or impulses that we believe are wrong, “bad” or unacceptable. Repression occurs when we push down a character trait, feeling, habit, or desire into our unconscious mind so that we are no longer consciously aware of it.
Denial: The practice of completely refusing to accept the reality of something within us such as a habit, trait, feeling, impulse, or desire. Denial can be either conscious or unconscious (i.e. we’re not aware of it), and in an attempt to further protect ourselves, we may adopt the opposite behavior of what we have repressed.
How to Take This Test
Look at the portraits of the people below and choose ONE person who you would NOT like to meet walking down a dark alley at night. Go with whatever person gives you the creeps, disturbs you, or generates fear or disgust within you.
Important Note
Please don’t misunderstand your result: it does not imply that you have a mental illness. Instead, approach your result with the perspective that this could be a potentially repressed impulse within your psyche.
The original Szondi test had six sets of eight portraits, but this test presents a simplified version.
What did you get?
Share your results!
Epileptic — spot on in the Denial explanation. Will have to explore the repressed impulses further.
I Chose the Epellectic. Its Spot On…
What does it mean if I am very much at ease with all of them. Meaning none creeps or disturbs me?
I choose no. 4 though that gave me Schizophrenic
I got sadist then maniac. Trutfully, i was freaked out when i first got it, but then screw it all, who cares if i’m a maniac?
I’m sold. The tests are meaningful. Number 4 I think I can work through consciously. Number 1 will take a while.
Very interesting how I got schizophrenic back in 2020, when my life was good and stable. In 2022 I went through the only psychotic episode to this date and I’m still recovering from it, still having transient paranoid thoughts and anxiety. I can see how the result worried me back then and how much sense it’s making now.
I can feel my schizoid tendencies just underneath the surface and must be very careful with stress.
I chose #2 – epileptic. That kinda freaked me out. Ten years ago in my 40’s, I was diagnosed with epilepsy after experiencing the onset of generalized seizures. (Prior to this I lived a full, active, healthy life – as far as I was concerned.) The subsequent ten years have been an insane journey of medication trials, loss, and an entire altering of the world I thought I knew. Having this come up as my choice of “dark impulse” feels odd. Is there more to see/understand than what is apparent on the surface?
Yikes! That was a little too on point. The good news is that while I would have never said that describes me out loud – I am doing (or beginning to do) the very things you recommend.
Honestly, none of those faces rouse any feelings of fear or disgust. So I’m not even sure if the result I got was correct.
It is surprising to me that women faces were more perturbing to me when in reality I have always been much more scare of men in general, since I have a story of past sexual abuse. Why you think is that?