projective drawing

Drawing is a creative act that allows the client to feel and understand himself, freely express his thoughts and feelings, free himself from conflicts and strong feelings, develop empathy, be himself, freely express dreams and hopes. This is not only a reflection in the minds of clients of the surrounding social reality, but also its modeling, an expression of attitude towards it. Some scientists tend to consider drawing as one of the ways to complete the program of improving the body.
Drawing develops sensory-motor coordination. Its advantage (compared to other activities) is that it requires the coordinated participation of many mental functions.
According to experts, drawing is involved in coordinating interhemispheric relationships, since in the process of drawing concrete-figurative thinking is coordinated, which is mainly associated with the work of the right hemisphere of the brain, and abstract-logical thinking, for which the left hemisphere is responsible.
Being directly related to the most important functions (vision, motor coordination, speech, thinking), drawing not only contributes to the development of each of these functions, but also links them together.
Drawing, the client gives vent to his feelings, desires, dreams, rebuilds his relationships in various situations and painlessly comes into contact with some frightening, unpleasant, traumatic images. Thus, drawing acts as a way of comprehending one’s capabilities and the surrounding reality, as a way of modeling relationships and expressing various kinds of emotions, including negative ones. Therefore, drawing is widely used to relieve mental stress, stressful conditions, in the correction of neuroses, fears.
Projective drawing can be used both individually and in group work. The main task of a projective drawing is to identify and understand difficult-to-verbalize problems and experiences of clients.
By managing and directing the subject of drawings, you can achieve switching the client’s attention, concentrating it on specific significant problems. This is especially effective in childhood when correcting fears using drawing therapy.
Projective drawing is considered by some authors as an auxiliary method in group work. It allows you to diagnose and interpret communication difficulties, emotional problems, etc. The themes of the drawings are chosen in such a way as to provide the participants with the opportunity to express their feelings and thoughts graphically or with a drawing. The method allows you to work with feelings that the subject is not aware of for one reason or another.
The topics offered for drawing can be very diverse and relate to both individual and general group problems. Typically, the topic of drawing covers:
1. My own past and present (“My main problem in communicating with children”; “Situations in life in which I feel insecure”; “Me and children”; “My usual day”, etc.).
2. Future or abstract concepts (“Who would I like to be”; “Three wishes”; “Loneliness”; “Island of happiness”; “Love”; “Hatred”; “Fear”; “Envy”, etc.).
3. Relations in the group (“What the group gave me, and I gave her”; “What I expected and what I got from studying in the group”; “What I don’t like or who I don’t like in the group”, etc.).
The following techniques are used in projective drawing (classification by S. Kratochvil):
1. Free drawing (everyone draws what they want). The drawings are done individually, and the discussion takes place in the group. The topic is either set or chosen by the members of the group on their own. 30 minutes are allocated for drawing, then the drawings are hung out, and the discussion begins. First, the members of the group speak about the drawing, and then the author. Differences in the interpretation of the figure are discussed.
2. Communication drawing. The group is divided into pairs, each pair has its own sheet of paper, each pair draws together on a specific topic, while, as a rule, verbal contacts are excluded, they communicate using images, lines, colors. After the end of the drawing process, there is a discussion of the drawing process. At the same time, it is not the artistic merits of the created work that are discussed, but those thoughts, feelings about the process of drawing that the members of the dyads had, and their relationship to each other in the process of drawing.
3. Joint drawing: several people (or the whole group) silently draw on one sheet (for example, the group, its development, mood, atmosphere in the group, etc.). At the end of the drawing, the participation of each member of the group, the nature of their contribution and the features of interaction with other participants in the drawing process are discussed.
4. Additional drawing: the drawing is sent in a circle – one begins to draw, the other continues, adding something, etc.
The group members’ discussion of the author’s drawing begins with the group members telling about what the author of the drawing wanted to depict, how they understand his intention, what he wanted to express, what feelings the drawing evokes.
Then the author of the drawing talks about his own idea and his understanding of the drawing. Of particular interest are the discrepancies in the understanding and interpretation of the members of the group and the painters, which may be due to the presence in the drawing of both elements unconscious by the author and projections of the problems of other clients.
There are two ways to work with finished drawings:
1. Demonstration of all drawings at the same time, viewing and comparison, finding common and distinctive content by joint efforts.
2. Analysis of each drawing separately (it passes from hand to hand, and the participants speak about its psychological content).
Projective drawing promotes self-knowledge, mutual understanding and activation of the group process.
When interpreting a projective drawing, attention is drawn to the content, ways of expression, color, shape, composition, size, specific features repeated in various drawings of one client.
The projective drawing reflects the client’s direct perception of this or that situation, various experiences, often unconscious and non-verbalized.
So, a client who says that he is satisfied with his position in society and his professional success, drawing on the topic “what I am”, draws bright and large figures of colleagues, a room, but places himself in the very corner of the sheet, draws in black, and the figurine is made much smaller and more carelessly than the rest. He draws the figures of his colleagues carefully, large, while he draws himself casually, with strokes. During the discussion, it turns out that the drawing reflected the situation much more accurately than the client’s statements, and most importantly, it reflected the client’s true feelings in connection with his position in the professional community.
When drawing together, the discussion expresses the participation of each in group work, the nature of the contribution to the common activity, the characteristics of the relationship in the group in the process of joint work.
The use of projective drawing in corrective work with children
Especially effective is the use of drawing therapy in childhood. By organizing drawing classes, the psychologist implements the following functions:
– empathic acceptance of the child;
– creation of a psychological atmosphere and psychological safety;
– emotional support for the child;
– setting a creative task and ensuring its acceptance by the child;
— thematic structuring of the task;
– assistance in finding a form of expression of the topic;
– reflection and verbalization of the child’s feelings and experiences, actualized in the process of drawing and objectified in his product.
The functions of a psychologist can be implemented in a directive and non-directive form.
The directive form presupposes a direct statement of the problem to the child in the form of a drawing theme; guide the search for the best form of expressing the theme and interpreting the meaning of children’s drawings.
With a non-directive form, the child is given freedom both in choosing a topic and in choosing an expressive form. At the same time, the psychologist provides the child with emotional support, and, if necessary, technical assistance in giving maximum expressiveness to the product of the child’s creativity.
Experts distinguish 5 types of tasks used in drawing practice:
1. Subject-thematic.
2. Figuratively symbolic.
3. Exercises for the development of figurative perception, imagination, symbolic function.
4. Games and exercises with visual material.
5. Tasks for joint activities.
Subject-thematic tasks are drawing on a given topic, where the subject of the image is a person and his relationship with the objective world and people around him. An example of such tasks can be drawings on the topic: “My family”, “I am at school”, “I am at home”, “What am I now”, “I am in the future”, “My favorite pastime”, “What I love”, “My best deed”, “My world”, etc.
Figurative-symbolic tasks represent the child’s depiction of abstract concepts in the form of images created by the child’s imagination, such as good, evil, happiness; image of emotional states and feelings: joy, anger, surprise, etc.
This type of task requires a higher symbolization than the previous one, since the depicted concept does not have an external physical shell; any external sign of the depicted phenomenon cannot be taken as the basis for symbolization. This forces the children, when performing the task, to turn to the analysis of the moral content of the events and phenomena that become the subject of the image during the task, and, therefore, to rethink the meaning of these events.
Exercises for the development of figurative perception, imagination, symbolic function. These tasks are aimed at structuring an unformed set of stimuli. In these tasks, children are invited, based on a stimulus series, to recreate, reproduce an integral object and give it meaning (drawing by dots, “magic” spots, “fun blots”, etc.). Such exercises are based on the well-known projection principle used in the Rorschach technique.
Games and exercises with visual material. This type of work involves experimenting with paints, pencils, paper, plasticine, chalk, etc. in order to study their physical properties and expressive possibilities. The effect of the exercises is to stimulate the need for visual activity and interest in it, reduce emotional tension, form a sense of personal security, increase self-confidence, form interest in research activities, and stimulate cognitive needs.
Typical for this type of task is finger painting, plasticine manipulation (painting with plasticine on glass or plastic), experimenting with color, overlapping color spots, etc.
Collaborative assignments may include all of the above assignments. This type of tasks is aimed both at solving the problem of optimizing communication and relationships with peers, and at optimizing parent-child relationships. Tasks can be offered to the child on literary verbal material, such as writing fairy tales and stories.
In accordance with the main stages in the development of children’s visual activity, E. Cramer (1975) identifies four types of images relevant to painting therapy:
1. Doodles are shapeless, chaotic lines, primitive, unfinished forms.
2. Schemes and semi-schemes, which are conventional stereotyped images.
3. Pictograms, i.e. schemes enriched by the expression of the child’s individuality, his position in relation to the world. Pictograms, although they express the affective attitude of the child to the world, are not yet sufficiently open for communication with the world, they require explanations and interpretation of the drawing by the author himself for their understanding.
4. Artistic images that have aesthetic value, objectifying the affect in a form understandable to the viewer without additional clarification by the author.
The most favorable for solving correctional problems is the fourth type of image – artistic images that allow you to fully realize all the advantages of art and creativity.
Children’s drawing is considered primarily as a projection of the child’s personality, as a symbolic expression of his attitude to the world. In this regard, it is very important to separate in a child’s drawing those features that reflect the level of the child’s mental development and the degree of mastery of the drawing technique, on the one hand, and the features of the drawing, reflecting personal characteristics, on the other.
So, scribbles, shapeless strokes and lines, being a more initial stage of children’s drawing, characteristic of an early age, can be regarded, on the one hand, as signs of mental retardation, on the other hand, as indicators of the child’s feelings of loneliness and defenselessness, evidence of the child’s negativism. in relation to the outside world or a manifestation of hyperactivity.
For the correct interpretation of the meaning of children’s drawings, the following conditions must be taken into account:

The level of development of the visual activity of the child, for which it is necessary to view the drawings made by the child earlier (at home, in kindergarten, school, etc.).
Features of the drawing process itself (selection of a topic, its preservation during the drawing process or its transformation; the sequence of execution of individual parts of the drawing; spontaneous speech statements; the nature of emotional reactions; the presence of pauses in the drawing process, etc.).
The dynamics of changes in drawings on the same topic or drawings of similar content during one remedial lesson or during the remedial process. Even a child’s stereotypical reproduction of the same drawing over the course of one or several lessons becomes an active orientation and study of a conflict affective situation, i.e. represents a significant step forward.

Different types of images may predominate in a child’s drawing, reflecting not only the age-related dynamics of visual activity, but also the individual characteristics of the child’s personal experience of his relationship with the world at the time the drawing was created. The analysis of the child’s activity and ways of using art materials is also important.
E. Kramer identifies five ways in which a child uses art material:
1. Manipulations to study the physical properties of the material.
2. Destructive behavior, the child losing control over his actions (tearing paper, breaking pencils, splashing paint, etc.).
3. Stereotypical reproduction of the same patterns and actions.
4. Drawing graphic pictograms.
5. Creation of artistic images that fully realize the child’s need for self-expression and communication with other people.
The sequence of using the listed artistic materials reflects the sequence of positive development of correctional work in case of its success. When organizing classes, it must be borne in mind that each visual material sets a certain range of possible ways to act with it, stimulates the child to various types of activities. By selecting visual materials for each lesson, you can to some extent control the activity of the child.
For example, when organizing drawing therapy with hyperactive and disinhibited children, it is not recommended to use materials such as paints, plasticine, clay, i.e. materials that stimulate the unstructured, non-directional activity of the child (scattering, splashing, smearing), which can easily turn into aggressive behavior.
It is more appropriate to offer such children medium-sized sheets of paper, pencils, felt-tip pens, i.e. visual materials that require organization, structuring of their activities, fine sensory-motor coordination, control over the implementation of the action. At the same time, it must be taken into account that pencils in hyperactive children will break from too much pressure, paper will tear, etc. Therefore, for such children, it is necessary to provide special exercises that allow you to relieve excessive tension and carry out emotional response. On the contrary, children who are emotionally “constricted”, frustrated, with high anxiety, are more useful materials that require wide free movements, including the whole body, and not just the area of ​​the hand and fingers. Such children should be offered paints, large brushes, large sheets of paper attached to the walls, drawing with chalk on a wide board.
Osipova A.A.