Dr Luscher’s Colour Psychology (Colour Types)
.In your adventures on the internet, you may have encountered this intriguing little test featured on colorquiz.com and other websites. Upon taking it, you may have been impressed, unimpressed, or reserved and skeptical about your results. In any case, you were probably curious about how it works. This article will provide a brief summary and introduction to the theory behind the Luscher Colour Test, and give a rundown of his related typology.
Luscher’s work is supposedly quite popular internationally, especially in Europe, but most of the commentary and research on it is exclusively in German. I can’t read German so I can’t investigate their validity: So, in this article, we will be taking Dr. Luscher on his word, and proceeding as if his research is sound.
Luscher’s theory rests on a couple of fundamental claims. The first is that our emotional and psychological reactions to colour are deep-rooted and pre-conscious. This means that we react a certain way to colours whether we mean to or not, and even whether we know it or not. Our sensation of colour bypasses our conscious brain and interacts directly with our emotional systems and our self-regulating (“Autonomic”) nervous system (abbreviated as “ANS”).
The second is that the essential meaning of any colour is the same for everyone. Their effect on heart-rate, respiration, arousal, metabolism etc. is universal. For example, orange-red is always exciting and stimulating, while dark blue always has a calming effect. However, a person’s subjective attitude towards the effects produced by a colour – their preference for the colour – can vary widely.
This attitude is what Luscher calls the “function”. When taking the colour test, you are asked to rank the colours in order of preference. The idea is that the first colours you pick – the most preferred – are tied to emotional states that you want more of. The short-form notation for this is “+”. The next most preferred colours represent your present situation and emotional state, indicated by “x”. Next are emotional states that are neither preferred nor outright rejected, but restrained, either because the person is indifferent to them or because they are inappropriate to the current circumstances. These are indicated by “=”. Finally, the last colours picked represent states that are disagreeable. They are rejected on the grounds of being unwanted, or wanted but painfully out of reach. These are indicated by “-”.
As for the colours themselves, Luscher derived their significance and meaning in a very interesting way. Influenced by Kant, he started with purely logical distinctions. He asked, What can things do in space? They might be solid, and move things out of their path as needed, like any sturdy materiel; or they might be quiescent, adapting to other shapes, like water or air. In terms of human behaviour, this could be considered the difference between acting on the one hand, and adapting or perceiving on the other. The final terms Luscher arrived at were “Autonomous” and “Heteronomous”, meaning “self-determined” and “other-determined” respectively. (Parallels to this duality include the Chinese Yang and Yin, as well as Jung’s Animus and Anima).
What do objects do over time? They change or stay the same. In terms of human attention, this becomes a focus on a single subject (the Self), a “Concentric” attitude; or a focus on many changing objects, an “Ex-centric” attitude. (This has certain parallels with Introversion and Extraversion, although they remain separate concepts).
These two distinctions created a classic quaternity: The Autonomous-Concentric, the Heteronomous-Excentric, and so on. Now Luscher changed his methods. He wondered, What emotional states fit into each category? And then, through extensive experimentation and trial-and-error, he found colours that naturally elicited those emotional states. His theory is part empiricism and part pure logic.
The four major colours that make up the quaternity are Dark Blue, Blue-Green, Orange-Red, and Bright Yellow. Their meaning is as follows:
DARK BLUE: Contented Self-Moderation
This colour elicits a feeling of tranquility. It has a universally calming effect on the nervous system (thereby allying itself with the parasympathetic branch of the ANS). It is Heteronomous and Concentric: meaning, “other-determination of the Self”. The quietude and contentment tied to Blue is a kind of peaceful surrender, a relaxation that allows a person to interact with their deeper feelings. Dark Blue is therefore associated with a certain sensitivity, as well as tenderness towards loved ones. People in this state of dissolved tranquility also tend to be easily hurt.
BLUE-GREEN: Stable Self-Respect
Green is considered one of the “psychological primaries”, but it is not technically a primary colour. It is a mix of Blue and Yellow: it contains a certain tension of light and dark; not a thing-in-itself, but a binding-together. It represents the interlocking beliefs and memories that make up our identity. It is Autonomous and Concentric, meaning “a self-determination of the Self”. It is associated with self-assertion, conviction, obstinacy, and persistence. A person with this sense of immutable identity wants to believe their principles are correct; they want to be in full control of themselves; they have feelings of pride, prestige and even superiority.
ORANGE-RED: Active Self-Confidence
This hue is universally exciting. It stimulates the sympathetic branch of the ANS, which raises pulse, blood pressure, and respiration rate. It is especially associated with arousal and aggression. Like Green, it is Autonomous and wants to be in control; however, it is directed towards external objects (Ex-centric). It is therefore a kind of striving or hunger, associated with desire, domination, and achievement. A person in the stimulated Red state wants to exercise their strength and sexual potency, and experience the present to its fullest. They may also want to be seen as a dynamic and exciting person, bragging or showing-off to convince others of their competence.
BRIGHT YELLOW: Open-Minded Self-Development
Bright Yellow is the lightest of the major colours, and is therefore stimulating like Orange-Red, but it lacks the solidity and purpose of the latter. This colour seems to disperse and disappear into brightness. It represents spontaneity, variability, exhilaration, and hope for the future. It is Heteronomous (other-determined) and Ex-centric (focused on objects), therefore people in this open-ended state are easily carried away with excitement by new people, places, and developments. It represents a total loosening or relaxation, and the possibility of escape from intolerable circumstances. It is a relentlessly cheerful colour that often becomes irritating to the exhausted or depressed.
The four colours have many parallels in our culture. In terms of the classical elements, they are Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. In terms of the Greek Humours, they are the Phlegmatic, Melancholic, Choleric, and Sanguine temperaments. In psychiatric terminology, they are the depressive, obsessive, manic, and paranoid types.
In the Luscher Colour Test, people are expected to pick the four major colours within the first 4 or 5 of their ranking. This is because they represent important psychological and physiological needs. The other four colours of the test are, by design, less appealing (with the possible exception of violet). The genius of this is that they become a foil to the major colours. If someone picks a major colour after any of the generally unappealing colours, it indicates that the associated emotional state is undergoing a kind of suppression. Something has happened to make it intolerable: A rejected Blue might be someone who cannot relax or let themselves be sensitive; a rejected Green, someone who has fallen from grace and their self-esteem or sense of identity is in tatters. Yellow and Red rejected together often means the person is sick of stimulation: they are physically exhausted, or on the other hand, psychologically withdrawn.
Nevertheless, the major colours represent basic needs, and the underlying motivation of a person is always to meet and acquire them. Therefore a rejected major colour is a “want but can’t have” or a “want, but is too painful to have”. It indicates a stress point in the personality, an anxiety. When this happens, the most preferred colour takes on a compensatory quality. It becomes exaggerated and compulsive, and even if it is the “most wanted” colour of the test-taker, it never truly satisfies them.
On the flip side, one of the “foil” auxiliary colours may be picked in the first half of the test. This indicates a generally negative attitude towards life, and is also classed as an anxiety. The nature of the anxiety differs based on the colour; but if Grey or Black are picked early, it generally means that, for whatever reason, many of the major emotional states have become intolerable and the person is resorting to desperate measures to preserve themselves.
The auxiliary colours are violet, brown, grey and black. Their meaning is as follows:
Violet is a mixture of Red and Blue, two opposite colours. It represents domination and surrender at the same time: an “identification”, a melding-together of subject and object. It represents a desire for a sensitive, intimate, “magical” relationship. It is also something like a waking dream: everything that is thought and imagined must become reality. Violet picked first in the test is very common among children and adolescents, who we tend to consider as living in a “fantasy land”, still protected from the harsher realities of life. (This is meant as a clue about its nature, not that adults who pick Violet first are necessarily the same way). People in the Violet state want to be seen as charming and mysterious, and look for others who can charm them in the same way: they want to “cast a spell” over others and themselves.
This hue of Brown is Orange-Red broken down by Black: Therefore it is also tied to the sexual impulse and sensuality, but its energy and vitality are gone. It mainly represents the bodily senses, physical health, and the comfort of home. Normally, it is in the indifferent “=” category, since a well-functioning body should not be the cause of much attention. However, if brown is picked early (meaning it is desired), this indicates that the person wishes for comfort, recuperation, or home. People displaced during World War II showed an especial preference for this colour. If brown is rejected or picked last, this may indicate that the person does not want to associate with any creature comforts, thinking they are made of sterner stuff. This usually produces an anxiety that is compensated by some compulsive sensuous behaviour.
The grey is devoid of colour (achromatic), and is midway between light and dark. It neither excites nor relaxes. It represents a veil of total neutrality and detachment. In the Luscher Colour Test, it acts as a kind of fence: The colours coming after it have become intolerable, and the person wishes to wall them off with a shield of non-involvement. They may go through the motions of these states in their daily life, but entirely avoid feeling them. The colours that precede grey are thought of as the only way forward, the only emotional states with which the person is allowed to engage. If grey is picked first, this means that non-involvement is the ultimate value. If it is last, it means that the person wants to experience everything, and will do anything to avoid the horror of neutrality. Grey usually occurs in the 5th to 7th picks.
Black is the negation of colour itself. It represents a rejection of the intolerable conditions of life, a total surrender or despair. The colours picked after black have been “given up on” and the person believes they can offer him nothing. The colours picked before black are the only things left to pursue. Black has an intensifying, volatile effect on any colour it is paired with: Yellow and Black picked together, being the brightest and darkest colours of the test, usually means that some catastrophic change is soon to occur. Black is usually picked last in the test.
The Colour Test offers thousands of different possible interpretations, based on the positions, groupings, and interplay of the colours. Decades of use have led to a lot of nuance for an experienced practitioner to keep in mind and take advantage of. Generally, a human practitioner is able to spot more interesting patterns in a set of test results that an automated system like a online quiz. The guidelines for administering and interpreting the test are in the published book, “The Luscher Color Test”.
The system of “Anxiety and Compensation” featured in the Colour Test provides the foundations for an interesting typology. In “The 4-Color Person”, Luscher describes the ideal individual: Someone who is able to balance all four emotional states with their corresponding “senses of self” (self-moderation, self-esteem, self-confidence and self-development). However, most people under-value one or another colour, resulting in an anxiety with a corresponding compensation (an over-valuation of another colour). This system of colour pairs results in 32 “unbalanced” types.
The beauty of this type system is how straightforward and intuitive it is to grasp. For example, someone who over-values Red self-confidence is simply that: over-confident. An over-valuation is a compensation covering up an anxiety: In this case, that anxiety might be tied to the inability to achieve Blue contentment, so that the person is perpetually dissatisfied. Luscher nicknames this type “The Greedy Showoff” or “The Baiting Devil”, depending on whether the exaggerated self-confidence or the lack of contentment is the dominant factor. Let’s look at The Baiting Devil as an example of a combination type:
The baiting devil (Over-valued Red and rejected Blue, with an emphasis on rejected Blue)
Sense of self: Dissatisfaction; Pompous Overconfidence
Behaviour: Disquiet; Agitation; Provoke people in order to create contacts and relationships and to ward off their void (a life which is devoid of relationships), their boredom, their deserted isolation, and their discontent
Baiting devils are dissatisfied because, although highly excitable and emotionally susceptible, they suffer from their lack of responsiveness, their monotony, and their lack of relationships with others. They feel fine if there is an intense encounter and erotic fascination in a relationship. And they like tasks in which they have to commit themselves personally and totally.
Baiting devils can’t stand people who hide their true feelings behind conventional cliches and, in their boredom, create a gap and a vacuum. So they bait such people. They challenge them with direct or boorish criticism. They try to strike them in their weak points. That makes the baiting devils feel superior, thereby avenging themselves for the inadequate, unsatisfying attempt at contact or for an earlier rejection.
The solution to each type-dilemma is always to accept the rejected sense-of-self, no matter how painful that is in the short-term. In this case, the Baiting Devil must accept Blue self-moderation to ease their relentless agitation and dissatisfaction caused by its suppression. Relaxing the anxiety naturally relaxes the compensation: This person will slow their compulsive and exaggerated expression of Red aggression and showiness, if their efforts are successful. The full explanation, and a description of each type, can be found in the published book “The 4-Color Person”.
In this way, Luscher subscribes to a kind of Stoic philosophy, the one that has been largely abandoned, that states that we actually have control over how we react to life’s events and tragedies – That we create our own happiness, regardless of our circumstances. He uses this analogy: When learning to ride a bike, your circumstances have an impact. You might be in a rough neighborhood (a poor locale); you might have an old, rusted, second-hand bike (having physical defects); you might not even have a teacher (absent parents).
However, none of these things could really teach you to ride that bike anyways. This is because the last, most essential step is one that no one can teach or very well explain. To ride a bike, you have to figure out for yourself the sensation of balance. Balancing the four senses of self, achieving the right middle ground that gives you freedom and peace of mind, is something that occurs entirely within yourself, regardless of environmental factors. Again, this is like the Stoic philosophy: You cannot control events, but you can control your reaction to events. Take it for what it’s worth.
Luscher, Max, and Scott, Ian. The Luscher Color Test. New York: Random House, 1969. Print.
Luscher, Max. The 4-Color Person. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979. Print.
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