The Effects of E.C.T. on the Drawings of Depressed Patients

Abstract

A study of the effects of E.C.T. on mental efficiency and retentivity has already been published (Hetherington, 1952). The present paper reports the effects of E.C.T. on drawings made by the same group of patients. Workers such as Prinzhorn (1922), Maclay, Guttmann and Mayer-Gross (1938), Anastasi and Foley (1943), Martin and Weir (1951) and Raven (1951) have been concerned with analysing unrestricted or “free” drawings of widely varying nature. Other workers, such as Burt (1921) and Goodenough (1926) have used restricted drawings usually of “a man” more specifically for the estimation of intelligence. Anastasi and Foley (1941) have reviewed the work done with the drawings of abnormal people, and have drawn attention to the lack of control groups, the rarity of quantitative assessments, and the danger of over-interpretation of the drawings on the part of observers. In order to meet these criticisms, patients' drawings have been compared in the present paper with those of a group of normal untreated people, assessments of the drawings being limited to quantitative measurements of area and position on the page, or to subjective judgments of consistency of style undertaken by several observers working independently.