Why do we like the appearance of some people and dislike the appearance of others? Can our sympathy or antipathy toward another person be formed at a subconscious level? Analyzing the marriages of people with psychological disorders, Hungarian psychologist Leopold Szondi concluded that the choice of a partner is very often dictated by attraction to people with similar psychological problems. According to Szondi's theory, each person carries from birth a certain set of inclinations and behavior patterns, inherited from their ancestors. Because of this, such reactions as sympathy and antipathy are linked to stable personality traits.
In Szondi's method, the subject is shown photographs of mentally ill individuals and must choose some and reject others. Szondi assumed that each portrait evokes subconscious impulses, and based on these preferences and rejections, one can draw far-reaching conclusions about a person's behavior, predispositions toward certain professions, hobbies, friends, and sexual partners.
Szondi constantly emphasized that how these drives manifest can vary significantly depending on gender, age, education, environment, and lifestyle, so the descriptions of the dominant factors should not be taken literally.
Szondi's test served as a bridge between Freud's test, focused on individual unconscious factors, and Jung's analytical psychology, analyzing collective unconscious factors. Leopold Szondi focused his research on what he called the familial unconscious factors of personality.
Today, the Szondi test is practically not used in clinical psychology and has rather a symbolic meaning, giving way to more precise and modern analytical tools. However, it has forever entered the history of psychology as a powerful projective psychological test.
