[Art therapy: development and evaluation of an observation instrument to systematically analyze patients' paintings...

Art therapies have been established methods in oncology for many years. To what extent patients' pictures can be systematically described, and what connections to various illnesses are possibly thereby revealed, has been discussed in various specialized medical fields for over a hundred years. The following paper first presents insight into the present stand of research and then presents the results of the study.

Are systematic analyses of pictures possible with the use of the instrument we have developed? Are pictorial differences evident within the researched group?

A previously developed instrument was submitted for expert questioning for the purpose of the study. The instrument that had been modified on the basis of these results could then be used in the study to interpret 162 pictures. Four different raters, three of whom were acquainted with neither the patients nor the pictures, interpreted these pictures independently of one another.

The evaluation of the expert interpretations shows that this newly developed instrument is suitable for the differentiated description of patients' pictures. First important indications were drawn in regard to the pictorial differences between the two examined groups of cancer patients and patients with chronic polyarthritis.

Systematic picture analyses are possible. A further analysis of the expert interpretations is necessary to clarify questions raised by the pictorial differences found in the various diagnostic groups.