Emotional and Conceptual Responsiveness of Schizophrenics and Normals in a Projective Drawing Technique

Abstract

To elicit verbal and visual material about their feelings, 30 paranoid schizophrenic and 30 normal Ss were asked to draw how they felt most of the time and then to draw the opposite emotion. The drawings and protocols were submitted to 6 clinical judges (psychologists) for classification as normal or schizophrenic and to 6 ‘naive’ scorers (undergraduates) to classify as realistic or abstract; E had determined beforehand that these categories were equivalent. Both evaluating groups validly classified the protocols, but scorers' results were significantly more reliable. The productions could thus be correctly categorized by their formal and by their psychological properties. There was a significant difference between the diagnostic groups in depicting ‘opposite’ emotions, but the use of color, while it might be helpful in an individual case, proved to be of no general value.