The psychopathology of everyday art: a quantitative Study - World ...

Conclusion
The type of analysis used was the most appropriate for the data; all indications
were that other methods would have introduced more methodological discrepancies.
Despite everything, there are strong indications of an effect which differentiates
not only patients from controls (which could be predicted from environment), but also,
different diagnostic classes of patients. The large observational literature and reports
from art therapists predict much larger effects, suggesting very serious measurement
problems.
Summary of the findings of the literature review
Generally, it seems that constructs common across the field of investigation into the
schematics and cognitive constructs of artwork, such as in the description of the work of
art therapy and in psychological drawing tests are only slightly related to artistic
psychopathology. Failure to demonstrate previous published systematic studies
suggests that current applications of the assessment of psychiatric artwork therefore lack
construct validity and predictive validity. Thus we cannot talk about psychopathic art
or of defined marker areas.
These findings support the introductory statement that we know nothing about
the phenomenology of art from psychiatric patients, and it is shown all through the
review that, contrary to popular opinion, there has been a complete failure to understand
the system. It is clear that there is an urgent need for immediate work on the design of
more suitable, sensitive and psychodynamic evaluation measures for psychiatric artwork.
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