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

in use because it distributes the elements over the whole painting rather than
concentrating on a part of the image to be subjectively decoded. This systematic and
objective system is innovative since previous instruments have always placed the
emphasis on meaning and therefore concentrated on part of the object. It has been
recognised, although not very widely, that statistics for drawing tests are often unreliable
because there is physically less, or less definable image, on the patient side 341 , as well as
a limiting effect because of inadequate translation of intention. This was not a problem
for the DAPA because the avoidance of subjective identification of elements of content
throws the focus on the structure of the work, no translation is required.
Effectiveness and validity of the DAPA
The DAPA was developed as a psychiatric assessment to objectively define and describe
psychopathological criteria of paintings. It comprised 6 rating scales of mostly formal
elements derived from predicted psychiatric symptoms from clinical observations of
psychiatric pictures and from the literature: colour, intensity, line, space, emotional tone,
form.
In three studies, the DAPA has proved:
reliable
flexible enough to be used retrospectively
discriminatory: between patients and nonpatients and to a lesser extent
341
Stanley R. Kay (1978), Qualitative differences in human figure drawings according to schizophrenic subtype,
Perceptual and Motor S kills , V.47:923-932 - reporting floor/ceiling effects in retarded schizophrenics. This effect
is often reported as 'statistically but not clinically significant'.
327