Abstract
‘An old Victorian oil lamp. The shape of the lamp. Two girls - at each side going to kiss each other. Big breasts, very slim, high heads, only one leg. Red lipstick.’ These are the responses to the above Rorschach ink blot (Card 3) by a woman ‘who was deeply involved in a homosexual relationship’ while at her stay in a psychiatric hospital in London (Barker, 1970). The use of the Rorschach in pathologising and affirmative research towards lesbians and gay men has had an interesting history. In this short paper I outline the work of two individual women – Evelyn Hooker and June Hopkins- and compare their approaches to lesbian and gay affirmative research using the Rorschach. By paying close attention to the historical contexts of such research, I allow for new interpretations of the meaning of difference to emerge and suggest the projective test moment to be particularly rich for feminist scholars.