From the author: The article was published in the “Territory of Choice” Magazine, July 2011. The address of the article on my blog: People often contact us at the Praxis center with the question: “What does it mean if my child draws...?” - Some parents are concerned that the child often draws pictures of battles and wars, some are afraid of non-standard drawings, some are afraid that children draw in dark tones - gray, brown, black. Yes, perhaps this is something to think about. However, it is not enough to know the meanings of individual parameters to interpret a drawing; it is necessary to master the general logic of analysis, which allows us to consider these indicators in their relationships. Psychologists often use drawings in working with children, because projective methods allow not only to find out the obvious, but also to look into the as yet unconscious as a child. Due to the high information content of the method, it has recently gained household popularity. Many begin to “interpret” children’s drawings on their own, based only on fragmentary indicators taken from the Internet and books. When drawing conclusions about the character or development of their child, parents are based more on their own ideas about him than on factual data. However, the art of interpreting drawing tests requires familiarity with a large number of different options for completing the task and different approaches. Thus, the projective technique for the parent is only a mirror of his experiences about the child, and not a source of objective information. Drawing is a process that develops the child and has a therapeutic effect; in drawing, the child releases all the energy that he has not learned to express in words. Due to his age, his subtle emotional experiences, in general, except for various metaphors (including drawings), cannot be reflected in any other way. A drawing is the result of creativity, it carries a lot of information. However, very important information can be missed if you do not observe the drawing process: which figure the child started drawing with, did he use an eraser, did he return to any figure to improve it after he started drawing another, etc. After finishing drawing, clarify some details with leading questions. Let us dwell on some features of the analysis. 1. Sequence of task execution. As a rule, after receiving the installation, the child immediately begins to draw all the family members and only then the details that complement the drawing. If suddenly an artist, for some unknown reason, focuses his attention on anything except his family, “forgetting” to draw his relatives and himself, or paints people after depicting secondary objects and objects, you need to think about why he does this and what lies behind all this. What is the reason for his indifference to his loved ones? Why is he delaying the time of depicting them? Most often, the “casket” is opened by leading questions and clarifying shades of family relationships, and other techniques. As a rule, the absence of family members in the drawing or the delay in depicting them is one of the symptoms of a child’s mental discomfort in the family and a sign of conflicting family relationships in which the artist is also involved.2. The plot of the drawing. More often than not, the plot is extremely simple. The child depicts his family in the form of a group photo, in which all family members are present or some are absent. Everyone present is on the ground, standing on the floor, or, for some reason, having lost support, hanging in the air. Sometimes in the picture, in addition to people, flowers bloom, grass turns green, bushes and trees grow. Some children place their family in their own home among furniture and familiar things. It is not uncommon for someone to be at home and someone to be outside. In addition to frozen, monumental group portraits, there are also drawings in which all family members are busy with business and, of course, the most important thing - the child. These drawings, as a rule, are full of expression and dynamism. As mentioned above, sometimes children simply refuse to draw or limit themselves tosome, especially an abstract plot that seems at first glance, where there is no family. But this is only at first glance. A drawing of a family “without a family” - a child’s cry of protest and the distress signal he thus sends - SOS. In the drawing we offer, a ten-year-old girl, jealous of her relatives for the younger children in the family, hid all family members in the house behind thick walls. She placed herself, like Carlson, somewhere on the roof. When your child draws a picture of a family “without a family,” drop what you’re doing and solve the charade. Think about it - why? Build bridges. Otherwise, you may “miss” something significant in your child and lose the “key” to him. If a child’s drawing of a family is associated with something pleasant, with warm, tender memories, it illuminates all family members, or some of them, with a bright sun - a symbol of affection, kindness and love. If there are dark clouds or rain over a group portrait of a family rain, then most likely this is due to the child’s discomfort.3. Sequence of family members. Usually the first child portrays either his most beloved family member, or, in his opinion, the most significant and authoritative in the house. If a child considers himself to be the most significant, he, without hiding it, draws his figure first. The sequence of arrangement of other family members and their serial numbers indicate the child’s attitude towards them, or rather, their role in the family in the eyes of the child or their attitude, in the opinion of the person drawing, towards him. The higher the serial number of the depicted family member, the lower his authority with the child. Usually the most recently drawn relative has the lowest authority. Therefore, if a child intuitively feels rejected and unwanted by his parents, then he portrays himself after everyone.4. Dimensions of family members. The more authoritative the depicted family member is in the eyes of the child, the taller his figure and the larger his size. Quite often, young children do not even have enough paper to place the entire figure in its entirety. When a relative's authority is low, his figure is, as a rule, much smaller in reality compared to other family members. Therefore, neglected and rejected children usually portray themselves as barely noticeable, short, tiny boys with thumbs or Thumbelina, with all this emphasizing their uselessness and insignificance. In contrast to the “rejected”, idols spare no space for depicting their figures, depicting themselves on a par with mom or dad, and even above them.5. The amount of space and its dimensions between the images of individual family members indicate either their emotional separation or their emotional closeness. The further the figures are located from each other, the greater their emotional disconnection, which, as a rule, reflects a conflict situation in the family. In some drawings, children emphasize the disconnection they feel among loved ones by including some extraneous objects in the free space between family members that further separate people. To reduce disunity, the child often fills in the gaps, in his opinion, with things and objects that unite close relatives, or draws unfamiliar people among family members. With emotional closeness, all relatives in the family are drawn almost close to each other and are practically not separated. The closer a child portrays himself to any family member, the higher his degree of attachment to this relative. The further a child is from a family member, the less his attachment to this member. When a child feels rejected, he is separated by a significant amount of space from others.6. The location of the child in the picture is a source of important information about his position in the family. When he is in the center, between mom and dad, or sees himself as the first head of the family, this means that he feels needed and needed in the house. As a rule, the child places himself next to the one to whom he is most attached. If we see in the drawing that the child has depicted himself after all his brothers and sisters, away from his parents,then this is most often just a sign of his jealousy towards other children living in the family, towards his beloved mother or father, or maybe both together, and, distancing himself from everyone else, the artist tells us that he considers himself superfluous and unnecessary in the house.7. When a child for some reason suddenly “forgets” to draw himself, look for a good reason in his family relationships. They are usually not entirely exemplary and, obviously, are painful for the child. A child’s image of a family without himself is a signal of conflict between him and someone in your home or the family as a whole, and in connection with this the child does not have a sense of community with other people close to him. With his drawing in this way, the artist expresses his reaction of protest against his family’s rejection. Intuitively guessing that he has long been rejected by you, that you have almost “forgotten” him, caring about others in the family, the child “takes revenge” on you on paper, not realizing that by refusing to draw himself he is giving away his secrets, unwittingly spilling out his bubbling it is uncomfortable.8. When a child for some reason suddenly “forgets” to draw one of his parents or other real members of his family, then, most likely, no one else, namely the child’s “forgotten” relative, is the source of his discomfort, worries and torment. By deliberately “forgetting” to include such a loved one in his family, the child seems to show us the way out of the conflict situation and to defuse the negative family atmosphere. Quite often, in this way, the artist “eliminates” competitors, trying to extinguish, at least for a moment, the jealousy simmering in him towards other children or towards parents of the same sex. The child is especially persistent in “revenge” and does not draw on paper the family member who constantly suppresses and humiliates him in the house. Therefore, usually the question: “Where is this family member?” - the child, continuing to “take revenge” on him, responds with sheer fables, absurdities and nonsense, such as the fact that this relative takes out the trash, washes the floor, stands in the corner... In short, in this way the child, albeit naively, dreams of taking revenge, at least mentally humiliating a loved one, who constantly humiliates him in reality every day.9. When a child for some reason suddenly “supplements” his family with non-existent relatives or strangers, then he is trying to fill the vacuum in feelings not received in the family, or use them instead of a buffer that softens the feeling of his inferiority in the circle of relatives. Often, children fill this vacuum with those individuals who, in their opinion, are capable of establishing close contacts with them and enabling them to somehow satisfy their communication needs. Therefore, the child, “modeling” the composition of his family, involuntarily offers us its improved, improved version, chosen by him and not by anyone else. In addition to strangers, the artist often “supplements” his family with the animal world: we see birds, animals, but most of all, cats and dogs are loyal and necessary to people. And if in these “additions” there is no identification with a real member of the child’s family, and if cats and dogs... are simply imaginary, the artist does not actually have them, but he dreams that they would be “and replace his relatives and friends, this means that the child longs to be needed by someone. From birth he needs to be loved and to love someone passionately in return, and if you do not satisfy him with your love, then he intuitively looks for love on the side. Therefore, think more seriously about the purpose for which your child, who seems to be deprived of nothing, stubbornly stamps on all the drawings of his family the ghosts of non-existent cats and dogs that do not live in the house, which even you did not promise him to buy. Think seriously and consider this as a symptom that tells you about the lack of necessary communication and the lack of tenderness and affection that your child feels. Think about it: are you to blame for this deficiency? 10. When a child for some reason draws only himself. , “forgetting” to draw everyone else, this most often indicates that he does not feel like a full-fledged member of his family and feels that there is simply no place for him in itthere is enough space. Quite often, in drawings of oneself, the child’s rejection of family members is visible through the emotional background and gloomy color scheme. The loneliness of a rejected person at an age when children are not yet able to cope without their parents is a formidable sign of a dysfunctional situation in the family for your child. Sometimes an artist, when depicting a family, specifically highlights only one himself in order to emphasize his importance to the rest. This is most often done by idols or children who do not hide their egocentrism. Such a child differs from those who are rejected by his involuntary self-admiration, which is usually visible in the coloring and detailing of clothing or in minor background objects that create a festive mood.11. To conduct a more detailed analysis, take a closer look at how the child draws faces and other parts of the body. The drawing of the head is especially informative. When you see that the author for some reason omits parts of the face known to him in the drawing or even depicts a face “without a face”, that is, apart from the outline of the face, there is nothing on it (no eyes, no mouth, no nose...), then this is most often an expression of the artist’s protest towards the family member depicted in this way, because of which the child is obviously constantly filled with negative emotions. When an artist depicts his face like this, a face without eyes, without a mouth, without a nose, then this is a sign his alienation in the family and disruption of communication with many people. When, of all parts of the face, only one eyes are visible in the picture, then, most likely, the child informs you that this family member is constantly watching and watching him, not allowing any of his misdeeds, childish pranks and pampering. And this relative “I see everything” is the source of most conflict situations for the child. Similarly, there may be a drawing of a close “I hear everything”, in which the author is absorbed in the image of ears exceeding the size of Cheburashka’s ears. When, of all the parts, only the child singles out the mouth, then, most likely, the “owner of the mouth,” like a press, puts pressure on the artist, “educating” him with endless notations, moral teachings within the framework of his own morality, and cultivates fear in him. When you see that In the drawing, the artist focuses most of his attention on the head and thoroughly draws out all parts of the face, preferring the face to everything else, then, most obviously, the child once again shows you how significant the closest relative depicted by him in this way is for him. And if your child portrays himself this way, then this is simply self-admiration or one of the signs indicating how seriously he is concerned about his appearance. Often in this way the artist brightens up his own physical “defect”. And if a girl draws her face this way, then most often she simply imitates her mother, who, out of coquetry, constantly touches up her lips, powders her nose, and smoothes her hair in front of her eyes. In addition to the head, drawn hands can also give you a lot of information. When their length is immediately noticeable, then most likely they belong to one of the close family members of the child who is aggressive towards him. The author sometimes depicts such a relative without any arms at all, trying, at least symbolically, to extinguish aggression. When we see the child himself armless in the picture; then, most likely, in this way the artist wants to inform us that he is completely powerless and has no right to vote in the family. When a child in a drawing emphasizes the length of not other people’s hands, but his own, or draws them raised up, then he shows his aggressiveness or his desire to be aggressive in order to somehow establish himself in the family.12. The color scheme of the drawing is a kind of indicator of the palette of feelings emitted by the child when remembering the loved ones whom he portrays. The features and nuances of the emotional attitude of children to individual members of their family or to the family as a whole, the romance of their affections and carefully hidden dislike, doubts, anxieties and hopes seem to be “coded” in the color with which each character is painted. And you, parents, need to find the code for the code in order to arrive on time!