A Washington-based content creator revealed that a person can find out if he is holding on to a past trauma and unable to be happy by taking the inkblot test – an optical illusion, Daily Mail reported .

Cecilia Ann, who is studying psychology, explained in a TikTok video that Rorschach test— a psychological experiment can reveal information about the personality of someone based on what they can see in the inkblot.

The test was designed by Swiss psychoanalyst Hermann Rorschach. He formalised this idea through the inkblot test he created.

Rorschach used inkblots to create a diagnostic test for schizophrenia after he noticed that people suffering from schizophrenia tended to identify the images differently than other individuals. He wrote in his book Psychodiagnostik.

“The test involves presenting a subject with images of inkblots; the person then describes what they see in these blots. The test can purportedly assess personality, emotional functioning, or certain mental disorders, but research has significantly challenged its validity,” according to Psychology Today.

Cecilia said this optical can be revealed whether a person was stuck in the past and unable to be happy. She explained how the test could help people in identifying if they had any mental disorders.

A person may be suffering from emotional trauma if he sees something extremely complicated in inkblot.

While repeating the process and showing images of an inkblot, Cecilia asked users what they saw before as she began explaining the test.

Referring to a book titled ‘The Body Keeps Score’ by Bessel van der Kolk, she said the author wrote about ‘wartime veterans, people with PTSD and people with trauma, and how the… test can tell you a lot about those people.’

Delving into further explanation, Cecilia said that if a person saw something complicated in the images she showed, then they were most likely to be ‘struck in the past’.

Originally designed to diagnose schizophrenia, the test may prove essential to finding insights about the subject’s personality, emotions, cognition, motivations, relationships, or mental health.