The H-t-p Technique

In this chapter ten cases are presented in an effort to demonstrate what may be expected from the H-T-P in clinical practice. The attempt has been to select: (1) cases representative of as many different syndromes as possible in the limited space available; (2) cases that illustrate most of the quantitative and qualitative scoring points; (3) cases whose H-T-P's are not markedly atypical (far more startling examples could have been used). In each case there is given, in addition to the drawings themselves: (1) a brief biographical sketch; (2) the quantitative scoring point by point and a summary of the quantitative scores (on the plate containing the subject's drawings) ; (3) the main qualitative scoring points with the interpretation of each point following it in parentheses (the interpretation in each instance is the one which seems best justified by all that is known, from every source, concerning the given subject) ; (4) a summary containing a discussion of the quantitative and qualitative analyses and the final impression. The necessity for economizing space lias prevented the presentation of more than very brief extracts from the P-D-I's in these cases. The absence of the full P-D-I is not to be construed as indicating its relative diagnostic value in each case. In the discussion of certain of the cases, diagnostic patterns will be suggested. The reader will view these with extreme caution, however, for: (1) no score pattern on the H-T-P has been found to be presented by all patients of a given diagnostic category; (2) whenever the drawings of two subjects given the same classification-diagnosis have been *For case 7 the author is indebted to Mrs. Katherine Wilcox, Chief Psychologist, Traverse City State Hospital, Michigan. Cases 5 and 9 were first reported in somewhat less detailed fashion by Miss Selma Landisberg (12). analyzed carefully, rather marked individual differences have been discovered. It is the author's firm belief that score patterns should always be regarded as aiding diagnosis, not as providing it.