Art Therapy
	This was my research paper on Art Therapy of my freshman year.  I am very interested in this topic and am eager to learn more.  If you are also interested in Art Therapy, or are working is this field, or want to give your opinion on my paper,  please don't hesitate to email me or sign my guestbook. You are welcome to visit our new Art Therapy / Psychology Forum. ***********************************************************************
	The House-tree-Person technique is one of well-known psychoanalytic tasks, which is widely used as a psychoanalytic approach in art therapy.      In the House-Tree-Person technique, the client is told to draw a house, a tree and a person on a white paper.  The figure gives the therapist some indication of how the client perceives himself of herself in the world (the figure is usually considered to be a reflection of the self) (Fleshman and Fryrear 88).      For instance, the branches of the Tree overextended upward or outward frequently mirror the subject's overstriving for achievement.  Plancing of the windows against the wall of the House so that the side of the House serves also as one side of the windows implies feelings of insecurity.  If only a part of the Person is drawn in a profile view (for example, head in profile, body in front view), it appears to reflect an evasive attitude in social relations.  Lack of many details, incomplete wholes, and use fo very faint lines are a combination found in subjects who are deeply depressed.  A ground line sloping downward and away from the drawn whole on either side may reflect a feeling of isolation, exposure, and helplessness in the face of environmental pressures (Hammer 9).      Hence, the House-Tree-Person is a diagnostic technique that is useful in the art therapy situation.                                                                                                                             INDEX                                                                                            NEXT >