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

Chapter 6: Discussion
The question Is there sensitive psychopathological evidence presented in the artwork of
mental illness? has been answered. The bare results tell us that pictures by people with
psychiatric disorder contain some characteristic structural and content differences from
those of normal controls and furthermore, some of these characteristic differences are
specific to certain psychiatric disorders. The DAPA test has proved effective in that it
has been sensitive enough to detect differences relating to diagnostic grouping. But this
question has been answered before, and also proved positive if weak 291 .
Generally the DAPA test results agree with the other major contemporary
studies in the field, which is to say that they agree with the general direction of
assumptions of the literature. However, a close look at the areas of differentiation, each
of which are discussed below, gives very different discrimination factors. Therefore
another question presents itself How closely do the answers from the DAPA test resemble
what is generally 'known' from the rest of the field and if they do not what reasons have
we to think that the interpretation of the DAPA test answers are more valid than this
accumulated experience?. The answer to some of this question must be sought in what
is reported in Chapter 2. The DAPA uses formal measurements of structure whereas the
other tests were predominantly biased to content, in line with the clinical use of such
measures in the assessment of art therapy. The other tests are remarkably variable in the
291
See B. Cohen, J.S. Hammer and S. Singer (1988), The Diagnostic Drawing Series: a systematic
approach to art therapy evaluation and research, Arts in Psychotherapy , V.15(1):11-21, and my discussion
of their results, Chapter 2.
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