SINGLE TESTS AND SERIES OF TESTS 25 



y 



there is an advantage in deciding in this way, for the 

 gift wellnigh an artistic gift of intuitive appre- 

 ciation and sympathetic understanding is peculiarly 

 indispensable to the psychiatrist. But if we leave 

 ty there remains a 



decided disadvantage, because every conclusion ar- 

 rived at by this method then remains a subjective 

 one that cannot be controlled or subjected to gener- 

 alization. On this account we are justified in de- 

 manding that, at least in addition to this intuitive 

 diagnosis, there should also be a method for making 

 an objective evaluation of the results. To meet this 

 demand these mere collocations of tests will have to 

 be replaced by a closed system of tests which will 

 permit the derivation of a final general index of in- 

 telligence from the results obtained from any subject 

 whomsoever, and that in accordance with prescribed 

 rules that can be applied in a comparable way in all 

 places and on men of different grades of intelligence. 



An alienist has come forward lately with an attempt of this sort, 

 i. e., an attempt to join together a series of tests systematically so 

 as to furnish a 'picture' of an individuality. I refer to the so- 

 called 'profile-method' of the Russian, Rossolimo (23-24a) : a 

 method that really includes more than mere tests of intelligence 

 and comes, therefore, but partially within our scope. 



Rossolimo has contrived ten tests for each of ten different men- 

 tal functions. The results obtained from the single subject are 

 set out graphically by erecting ordinates corresponding to the 

 number of the tests achieved for each of the functions under test. 

 The ends of these ordinates are then joined to make a curve that 

 Rossolimo calls the 'individual profile.' This profile line is sup- 

 posed to furnish a pictorial representation of the total nature of 

 a patient. Thus, for instance, in those disorders in which the ca- 

 pacity of immediate reproduction is decidedly reduced while the 

 other capacities remain unaffected, the profile will show a sharp 

 notch at a definite point, and so on. 



The tests proposed by Rossolimo have many commendable feat- 

 ures; we may note, for example, the little puzzles, like the sepa- 

 rating of two interlaced wire nooses, etc., that are used to test 



