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

Attempts to lists characteristics of clinical significance have produced no
consensus of agreement between studies 60 . When attributes of the picture which are
supposed to accompany symptoms are examined, the question of what kind of
accompaniment is still at issue. Projective tests do not have answers, they collect
information. For example, the interpretation of a subject's projection onto the highly
ambiguous stimuli of inkblots (the Rorschach Test) is said to reveal deep unconscious
needs and personality factors. The prototype of the projective approach is the landmark
work of Machover (1949) 61 , which stresses the significance of isolated signs and details
in human figure drawings. The usefulness of this method has been challenged by the
failure of validation, reliability and validity in objective studies, and that it is by no means
certain what they measure, how they work, or if indeed they do work 62 . Later authors
have adopted a more clinical intuitive stance 63 . Wadeson 64 had doubts, as a few other
Perceptual and Motor Skills , V.70:465-466, give modest support for validation but do not recommend
its use in isolation.
60
Harriet Wadeson and William T. Carpenter (1976), A Comparative Study of Art Expression of
Schizophrenic, Unipolar Depressive, and Bipolar Manic-Depressive Patients, J. Nervous Mental Dis. , May
V.162(5):334-344. Found characteristics of different diagnostic groups of patients unrelatable to table
expectations derived from the literature. Wadeson later commented that there was as much evidence for
as against these characteristics (1980 op.cit.) For recent studies, refer to Chapter 2.
61
K. Machover (1949), Personality
10th ed., Charles C. Thomas.
Projection in the Drawing of the Human Figure , Springfield IL: 1978
62
Sophia Kahill (1984) Human Figure Drawing in Adults: an update of the empirical evidence 1967-1982,
Canadian Psychol. V.25(4):269-292 noted some improvements in research methods but had nothing to
add to previous reviews "While it is obvious that figure drawings are not meaningless, establishing what
it is they mean with any precision or predictability is difficult" (p.288).
63
G.D. Oster and P. Gould (1987), Using Drawings in Assessment and Therapy: a guide for mental health
professionals , New York: Brunner Mazel, describes a drawing protocol; E. Koppitz (1983), Projective
Drawings in Children and Adults, Sch. Psychol. Review , V.12:421-427. provides informal projective
scoring scores which depend on experience/insight of administrator; recent example of Silver: Rawley
Silver and Joanne Ellison (1992), Identifying and Assessing Self-Images in Drawings by Delinquent
Adolescents, Arts in Psychotherapy , V.22(4):339-352.
64
Harriet Wadeson (1987), The Dynamics of Art Psychotherapy , New York: Wiley.
34