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

olds and only 2 with over 60s. The typical subject was therefore a case study of an adult
with affective disorder.
Table 1 showing diagnostic groups for case studies by levels of benefits where the
primary purpose of artmaking was the expression of feelings
D 113
I
A
G
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
10
All studies
n=67
freq %
9 13.4
13 19.4
4 6
9 13.4
5 7.5
13 19.4
11 16.4
3 4.5
no benefit
n=8
freq %
2 25
0 0
0 0
2 25
2 25
1 12.5
1 12.5
0 0
catharsis
n=16
freq %
2 12.5
5 31.3
2 12.5
1 6.3
1 6.3
2 12.5
2 12.5
1 6.3
68
communi
-cation
n=20
freq %
1 5
5 25
0 0
3 15
1 5
6 30
3 15
1 5
healing
n=10
freq %
1 10
1 10
1 10
2 20
0 0
2 20
3 30
0 0
social/
developm't
n=8
freq %
1 12.5
2 25
0 0
0 0
1 12.5
1 12.5
2 25
1 12.5
relation
ship
n=5
freq %
1 20
0 0
0 0
1 20
0 0
1 20
0 0
0 0
There was a broad range of disorders treated with no particular bias to any diagnostic
group. Cathartic benefits were particularly apparent in people with emotional trauma
and depression, who also showed higher communicative benefits but the other
beneficiaries showed more range of distribution.
Results: From Table 2, overleaf, the majority of the studies (54%, n=36) recorded the
primary benefits as communicative and cathartic-reflective. These were achieved by
researchers who were oriented towards projective techniques, who used these techniques
to facilitate the expression of emotion (for communication there was an equal use of
educational methods) and analysed the content of the finished work. Secondly came
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1 Schizophrenia
2 Emotional trauma
3 Drug/Alcohol addiction
4 Psychotics or phobias
5 Brain disease/damage
6 Adjustment disorder/emotional reaction
7 Affective disorder/depression
10 Retarded