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

This section does not deal strictly with form as there were overlaps between what was
observed and what was recognised in depicted material, that were impossible to separate.
This group of studies, however, was qualitatively distinct from those categorised as
content analysis because the findings were primarily to do with observable changes in the
artwork of the patient. Art therapy reports commonly focused upon the content of the
artwork to describe individual variation in the artwork of the patients rather than
collective. Their style of reporting often neglected the objective findings to concentrate
on the analysis of meaning. The categorisation here thus may actually contradict the
theoretical orientation expressed by the authors of some of these papers. 3 papers using
mixed groups of 'psychiatric patients' accounted for 65% of the total cases and their
general findings are described first.
General signs of psychiatric disturbance
General signs were summarised seperately (Table 5, appendix 2). There were three
general indications of psychiatric status:
(1) distortion of figures;
(2) odd placing of drawing elements;
(3) circling behaviour.
Specific diagnostic signs
Table 6 (appendix 2) summarised studies which reported specific diagnostic signs in the
analysis of formal artwork.
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