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

There would be a correlation between all or most of: emotional tone, hue,
intensity and form reflecting increased aesthetic harmony with greater structure
and positivity of the picture.
Between blue and brown reflecting their neutral status.
Painted line would negatively correlate with drawn line because patients used little
painted and more drawn line.
Differences between groups - Colour
The focus is on the most important findings: Black differentiated substance abusers from
all other groups and schizophrenia from 3 other groups; green differentiated controls from
3 other diagnostic groups. Additionally, there were differences in colour associations
between diagnostic groups; Figure 3 summarises these relations. Art therapy research
has provided support for the assumption of a consistent relationship between colour and
emotion 294 , so the work of people with psychiatric disorders, which are often
characterised by mood disorder should differ from normal controls. It has been suggested
that colour usage is related to the adequacy of individual resources for integrating affective
experience 295 , a facility rarely developed in schizophrenics, so within group differences
should be expected. Presented here is a summary (table 2) by Amos, of the work of
Tarmo Pasto, 1968 296 , empirically developed from experience with the use of art in
294
Bernard I. Levy (1984), Research into the psychological meaning of colour, Am. J. Art Therapy , V.23,
(reprinted from V.19, July 1980, pp.87-91).
295
D. Rapaport, M. Gill and R. Schafer (1946), Diagnostic Psychological Testing , Chicago: Year Book
Publishers.
296
Tarmo Pasto (1968), The bio-mythology of colour: a theory, in I. Jakob, ed., Psychiatry and art: Art
278