A Comparative Study of the Drawings Made by Various Clinical Groups

Abstract

In the nineteenth century considerable attention was devoted to the art products of psychotics. The approach to these interesting phenomena was, however, unsystematized and of little value to psychopathology. Prinzhorn (1922) described the collection of psychotic art at Heidelberg. His monograph on the subject is a classic, but it has been pointed out by Elkisch (1945) that his analysis was not carried far enough to produce significant diagnostic criteria. In five recent articles Anastasi and Foley (1940, 1941) have made a comprehensive survey of work done on the whole field of the artistic behaviour of abnormal people. They have pointed out the inadequacies of research in this sphere: the lack of control groups of normal people, the generalizations made from a few selected data, and the constant danger of reciprocal projection.