Human figure drawings in a prospective study of six disorders: hypertension, coronary heart disease, malignant tumor, suicide, mental illness, and emotional disturbance.

To test the hypothesis that human figures drawn by young adults are potential predictors of future disease states, drawings of 204 former medical students were examined 13 to 23 years later. During the interval, the 102 subjects in the experimental group developed one of six specified disorders, while the 102 subjects in the control groups remained in good health. Drawings were classified in eight categories based primarily on the stance of the figure. Categories of drawings found to be distinctive for the various groups are: healthy control groups: the neutral or uncommitted attitude; hypertension/coronary group: the inviting or input-demanding attitude; malignant tumor group: the attitude of ambivalence or conflict; suicide/mental illness group: the self-related or withdrawal attitude; emotional disturbance group: incomplete figures, bizarre figures, action scenes. Thus the evidence suggests that the stance of the figure drawing reflects the subject's attitude toward the outside world. When the category profiles of groups are compared, the following differences are found at levels of statistical significance: the total experimental group is different from the total control group; the somatic subset, "Body Takes the Rap" is different from the psychological subset, "Psyche Takes the Rap"; and the hypertension/coronary group, malignant tumor group, and emotional disturbance group are different from their specific control groups. It is concluded that human figure drawings by this population have predictive potential for certain future disease states, and that there are psychological precursors of somatic disease.