Luscher test

The Luscher color test is a psychological test invented by Dr. Max Luscher in Basel, Switzerland. Max Luscher believed that sensory perception of color is objective and universally shared by all, but that color preferences are subjective, and that this distinction allows subjective states to be objectively measured by using test colors.

Luscher believed that because the color selections are guided in an unconscious manner, they reveal the person as they really are, not as they perceive themselves or would like to be perceived.

In the shorter Luscher test, the subject is made to sit before 8 colored cards that are also numbered and asked to choose the color s/he likes best. This card is then taken off and the subject is made to continue selecting colors in preferred order until all cards have been selected and taken off.

The test is repeated with the same cards again since this helps the psychologist ensure whether the subject has been sure about his choices rather than being impulsive. When the first time and second time results are identical or almost identical; psychologists may interpret this to be an “emotional inflexibility or rigid attitude towards life”.

he extended version of the test has 5015 precise definitions along with 34 predetermined personality traits, some of which lie outside the realm of the conscious. For the color test to be effective, the subjects must choose the colors in an unconscious manner to reveal how s/he actually is from within and not how s/he would like to be perceived.