Changes in human figure drawings during intensive treatment

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Psychotherapy Research

Background:

• Seriously disturbed young adults often undergo intensive inpatient treatment.
• Assessing therapeutic change is crucial for evaluating treatment efficacy.
• Human Figure Drawings (HFDs) offer a potential projective tool for tracking psychological development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate changes in Human Figure Drawings (HFDs) among seriously disturbed young adults during intensive inpatient treatment.
• To determine if HFDs can serve as an independent measure of therapeutic progress.
• To explore differential changes in HFDs based on patient subtypes (introjective vs. anaclitic).

Main Methods:

• Comparison of HFDs from admission with those drawn after over one year of intensive treatment.
• Scoring of HFDs using the Goodenough-Harris Scale (GH) and the Robins Balance-Tilt Scale (RBT).
• Analysis of HFD changes in relation to patient classification (introjective vs. anaclitic).

Main Results:

• Significant improvement in HFDs was observed over the course of intensive treatment.
• This improvement was statistically significant only for patients classified as introjective.
• No significant improvement in HFDs was noted for anaclitic patients.

Conclusions:

• Human Figure Drawings (HFDs) demonstrate significant change during intensive inpatient therapy.
• HFDs appear to be a sensitive and independent indicator of therapeutic change, particularly for introjective patients.
• Findings align with previous research using clinical case records and Rorschach protocols.