Well, I dug out the book that I was talking about, “Big Secrets” by William Poundstone, as promised. According to this book, the monkey image is taken from The Children’s Apperception Test (CAT). Children are supposed to make up a story to go with the picture. The stories that the children make up help the examiner figure out the child’s personality.
There are some really strange images in this book. I was thinking about scanning them in but I am kind of afraid of breaking copyright (I hope that just having the monkey image above isn’t breaking copyright laws..hmmm). All of the images depict animals in human situation. For example, there is a picture of an adult dog with a puppy over it’s “knee”, spanking it. There is a toilet in the background. Another picture depicts a pregnant cat with an apron. All of them are really rather creepy, I think. I wonder what that says about me ;).
So, the idea is that children make up stories that are about themselves. I suppose the child doing this excercise would identify with the child monkey in the picture. The book states, “The picture inspires thinly veiled autobiographical stories of misbehavior and punishment or treachery at the hands of grownups.” So the two monkeys on the couch are talking about the little monkey behind his back. The Monkey speaking to the child is either punishing the child or making a strong point, it depends on how it’s interpreted.
So Mandrake, in light of all of that, it’s interesting that you identified with the adult monkey speaking to the child… I guess I will just leave it at that 🙂
