2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43
There is often confusion between drawing tests, projective diagnostic techniques, projective therapeutic techniques, and art therapy. Let's see what unites them and what are the differences.
What unites them is that in all cases, drawings or images (prepared in advance or drawn by the client) are used, as well as the mechanism itself on which the work is built - the projection mechanism - when the client, as it were, transfers his internal state to an external object (image, drawing or other product of creativity).
They differ in goals, objectives, the process of carrying out the work and the result obtained.
So, there are diagnostic and therapeutic methods. Both of them can work either with a ready-made image (a set of cards), or with a product of the client's creativity (the client can draw, sculpt from clay or plasticine, weave a mandala, make a doll, etc.).
Diagnostic methods are aimed at studying the client's personality or any individual aspects of the personality and the nature of interaction with other people (for example, the manifestation of intrapersonal conflicts, interests and motives of a person, the level of adaptation and the level of creative activity, the manifestation of the nature of relations in a family or in a team, etc.). etc.). During the test, in the case of working with ready-made images, the researcher provides the client with a set of cards with images (these can be spots, blots, comics with some social situations, etc.) and asks the client to describe what he sees on these cards, describe the plots of social situations, the nature of the characters, etc. In the case of a drawing, the researcher asks the client to draw a drawing on a given theme, for example, "Non-existent animal", "House, tree, person", "Cactus". Further, the researcher interprets the client's answers or drawing according to the key corresponding to the test, as well as taking into account his personal experience and perception. The researcher may or may not provide feedback to the client. These methods are more focused on obtaining information by the researcher himself than on providing information to the client. They can be used, for example, when applying for a job, when conducting a clinical trial, or as a counselor psychologist to clarify the situation.
There are also diagnostic projective techniques that are not related to drawing, for example, the test of incomplete sentences.
In addition, currently projective methods with public keys have gained popularity on the Internet, in which Internet users are invited to independently conduct research and decrypt the result - for fun. The results of such studies are not always reliable and not always safe. An experienced researcher, before making a conclusion, conducts several tests to clarify the same issue, and can also conduct a conversation with the client in order to exclude the randomness of the results or, for example, the influence on the result of some events in the client's life (for example, if the client once survived a fire in a house, then the technique with a drawing of a house can give a distorted result, if this fact of the client's biography is not taken into account). Also, the researcher forms the feedback so that it is understandable and safe for the client. The results of the feedback, independently decrypted by the key, can shock a person. For example, the test result might say "you are a latent homosexual." And what should a person do with this information, how to treat it, whether to take it seriously?
I have also come across situations when diagnostic techniques at various trainings, seminars or groups are sold as art therapy. For example, at the "women's training", the participants are asked to draw a "mistress", "an amazon" and a "mistress", and then they are given a key: "there is a green color - it means that, there is no green color - it means …", "long hair - says about that, short - about … ", or the presenter herself comes up and tells the participant how she is doing with the Amazons and hostesses. This is not art therapy.
Therapeutic techniques are aimed at making the client himself aware of information about himself, experiencing insight, and finding the answer to his question himself. The therapist does not in any way interpret the client's drawing or response. However, the therapist can provide feedback on how he feels and perceives the situation.
Therapeutic projective techniques using prepared images are, for example, working with metaphorical associative cards (MAC). The therapist and client clarify the client's request. The client is then asked to select one or more picture cards from a set, for example, "what is bothering me and what will help me" or "problem state and desired state". Then the therapist and the client talk on these cards, the therapist asks questions, asks to describe what the client sees on the cards, and what they are for him, how it relates to his life, how it will help the client in solving his question. The therapist does not make any diagnostic conclusions and does not offer solutions to the client. The client receives information himself and finds solutions himself. The therapist only asks questions and can share "what is this card for him, what his feelings are".
Some psychologists attribute this type of work to art therapy, while some identify it as an independent approach.
In the case of working with a client's creative product, the therapist and the client also clarify the client's request, and then the therapist offers the client the creative part of the work: draw, or mold, or pour from cereal, or fold out of paper, or ring a bunch of keys, or write a letter / fairy tale etc. - something, according to the instructions of the therapist, which has a certain meaning when working with this request. It can be a drawing "I am like a jewel", a sculpture of the desired state, an application "tree", the sound of a problem state, a sprinkled cereal resource mandala, etc. Then the therapist and the client talk in the same way as in the previous form of work. In addition, the therapist asks questions about how the client was to do it (draw, sculpt, etc.), what he felt in the process, what he feels now, looking at his drawing, what he wants to do - perhaps he wants what change something, the therapist can notice some details, for example, "I see big roots near the tree, what is this about for you?", can also give feedback about his feelings and his perception.
When a client creates a product of his creativity, he will partially respond to his feelings, including through the body, which is especially important. When a client looks from the outside at his drawing (sculpture, etc.), he sees the problem as if from above, the problem is no longer inside him, but outside, and it is smaller than him, you can look at it and do something with it. When a client gives a name to his drawing (sculpture, etc.), he already brings the problem to a conscious level and receives a key to its solution. When a client transforms a drawing (sculpture, etc.), he transforms his inner state as well. Working through creativity gives the metaphor "everything is in my hands", "everything can be changed with your own hands." And also art therapy reveals a person's creative potential well. To work in art therapy, the client does not need to be able to draw or sculpt. On the contrary, professional artists are offered some other type of creative work in which they are not professionals. But in the process of therapy, a person ceases to be afraid to create and opens up.
There are also projective therapeutic techniques that are not related to working with images, drawings and other creativity. Then there is work with the imagination and there is also a conversation. For example, "the world is …". The client chooses a metaphor for the world, and then there is a study: who I am in this world, what I want, who is with me, what is important to me in this world, etc.
Therapeutic techniques can be aimed more at clarifying the situation / state or at changing the situation / state. If the goal is more in clarification, then conditionally these therapeutic techniques can be called diagnostic. The same technique can be used for both clarification and change. For example, the "world is …" technique described above in the first session with a client is more aimed at clarification. And if you use it later, when the client is already actively at work, then it can give a good transformational effect. The author of the image is the artist Irina Avgustinovich.
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