Human figure test in the research of psychopathological state of refugees and somatically traumatized

Abstract

Machover Human Figure Test was used to investigate eight clinical features in five diagnostic categories (neurosis, depression, schizophrenia, paranoid feature and aggressiveness) and one symptom (motor deficiency) through graphical features of human figure drawing. The test involved 201 subjects, out of whom 109 were refugees from refugee camp in Krnjaca, 31 somatically traumatized patients from the Orthopedic Clinic, Clinical Center of Serbia, Belgrade, and 61 subjects from Belgrade denying any traumatic experience whatsoever. The following was determined in three tested sub-groups: - Out of general psychopathological features, "thickened line of the drawing", "unclear medium line of the drawing" and "absence of an arm or a leg" were significantly most frequent in the group of somatically traumatized subjects, thus supporting the hypothesis that Machover Test examined projective aspects of disorder of the body scheme experience. - Out of eight diagnostic categories, only "motor deficiency" was significantly different - of course, in the group of somatically traumatized subjects, while "aggressiveness" was different in the group of refugees.