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

ather than for schizophrenia 335 . This might have been more obvious in content and
influenced the judgement of emotional tone, so a negative correlation between emotional
tone and form might have been a reasonable expectation. There is, however, no such
evidence; small non-significant positive correlations indicate that the judgement of the
positivity of the painting was not influenced by form.
The position of substance abuse, which scored significantly more form than
depressed, indicates that form should be a true predictor of depression, unlike most of
the other elements which put substance abuse further down the scale than depression.
Patient groups exhibited some dominance of form, but their focus covered less of the
surface than that of controls, who tended to use about half the page; this probably
accounts for the confusing results when untrained raters are apparently able to distinguish
patients from controls slightly better than chance using their own criteria, which usually
turn out to be quality. Higher levels of form, though, are not necessarily an indication of
health as the pictures of substance abusers were not distinguishable from controls.
Substance abusers did not use more blue or form than other groups, but there was
a high negative association between blue and form. The plot for blue and form is unusual
in that very little blue, when half filled with form decreases to no blue as form increases;
it is likely that blue was deposed by the form, being a background colour (sky?) rather
335 Amos (1982, op.cit.) reports Billig's 1969 observations of a schizophrenic recovery "beginning with
random scribblings" and generally dissolution of form in schizophrenia; Wadeson's (1980, op.cit.)
categorisation of psychopathology from the literature shows schizophrenics were thought to produce
disorganised and deteriorated compositions, but she reports experiments from 1976, which disagree. She
found the majority of schizophrenic pictures full formed and developed, depressive-like qualities such as
colourless, emptiness, were noted in a few paintings from manic/depressive and schizophrenics also.
Wadlington and McWhinnie (1973), op.cit. found no differences between patient groups (including
schizophrenia and depressives) on dominant form and size relations.
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