Figure 2 age characteristics of families. Test "My Family"

Family Drawing Test- one of the most popular projective techniques that psychologists use in working with children, starting from early preschool age. This technique is aimed at identifying emotional problems and difficulties in family relationships. In drawing, children can express what is difficult for them to express in words. Having learned how the child sees the world, family, parents, yourself, you can understand the causes of many of the baby’s problems and effectively help him in resolving them.

For a child, the whole world is a family. How does a child see himself? parental home? How does he perceive mom, dad and their relationship? How to get to know your son or daughter better, to look at the world of adults “through the eyes of a child”? The simple “Family Drawing” technique will help you with this.

There are many systems for interpreting the results of the “Drawing a Family” test. And although they all give a fairly accurate picture of family relationships, we want to offer an interpretation developed by a Russian psychologist, Dr. psychological sciences VC. Loseva. The symbolic interpretation of the drawing is quite accessible to people even without pedagogical or psychological education. Let us only note that the methodology is not intended to assess a child’s intelligence and does not provide information about his readiness or unpreparedness for school.

At what age can the Family Drawing test be used?

As long as the person depicted by the child resembles a ball with arms and legs, it is too early to use the test. From about four to five years old, the child begins to draw the head and torso separately. From this point on you can use the technique.

Instructions for the test "Drawing of a family"

The child is given a simple pencil medium soft and standard Blank sheet A4 paper. The use of any additional tools is excluded.

Instructions: “Please draw your family.” No instructions or clarifications should be given. To answer questions that arise in the child, such as “Who should be drawn and who should not be drawn?”, “Should I draw everyone?”, “Should I draw grandfather?” etc., you should answer evasively, for example: “Draw the way you want.”

While the child is drawing, you should unobtrusively observe him, noting points such as:

• The order of filling the free space.
• The order in which the characters appear in the picture.
• Start and end time of work.
• The occurrence of difficulties when depicting a particular character or elements of the drawing (excessive concentration, pauses, noticeable slowness, etc.).
• Time spent on individual characters.
• The emotional mood of the child during the depiction of a particular character in the drawing.
• After finishing the drawing, ask your child to sign or name all the characters in the drawing.

Conversation with a child based on a drawing

After the drawing is completed, the second stage of the study begins - conversation. The conversation should be light, relaxed, without causing a feeling of resistance and alienation in the child. Here are the questions to ask:

• Whose family is shown in the picture - the family of the child, his friend or a fictitious person?
• Where is this family located and what are its members doing currently?
• How does the child describe each of the characters, what role does he assign to each in the family?
• Who is the nicest in the family and why?
• Who is the happiest and why?
• Who is the saddest and why?
• Who does your child like best and why?
• How does this family punish children for bad behavior?
• Who will be left at home alone when they go for a walk?

Interpretation of the results of the Family Drawing test

The resulting image, as a rule, reflects the child’s attitude towards the members of his family, how he sees them, and what role he assigns to each in the family configuration. There is a big psychological difference in the child’s attitude towards the one whom he drew first and whom he did not depict at all under the pretext “it didn’t fit.”

Ask the author to sign all the characters. It is too important point. For example, your daughter signs the figure of her older brother “Sasha,” and her sister lying in the stroller “little sister.” The difference in emotional attitude towards them is immediately clear. The information you receive cannot be used for reproaches (“Why don’t you love your little sister?”) If the child cannot write yet, let him tell you who he drew.

Pay attention to the inanimate objects in the picture.. This is for us adults, they are inanimate. In the child’s perception, furniture, toys, TV, telephone can even enter into a kind of “relationship” between themselves and the characters in the picture. And the child is not so wrong here. It’s just that adults often hide their emotional attachment to their “toys.” And if in the picture you see a dad who has half disappeared under the hood of a car, and a mom sitting with a phone, then even a non-specialist will not have difficulty drawing a conclusion: how much time does dad spend with the car, mom spends time with the phone, and how much time spends with the child and friend? with a friend.

If there are many objects and few people in the picture, then this does not indicate an emotionally poor environment in the family. Rather, it is about the direction of emotions towards the world of things. Which is also not a sign of greed. Most often, the child expresses the parents’ desire for constancy, because every thing is a symbol of stability.

1. Assessment of the overall structure

What we see in the picture: indeed, a family, the members of which are depicted together, standing close together or busy doing some common task, or are they just several isolated figures that have no contact with each other. It should be borne in mind that this or that image of the family situation may be associated with the real situation in the family, or may contradict it.

• Family members are depicted holding hands, this may correspond to the real situation in the family, or it may be a reflection of what is desired.
• Two people are depicted close to each other, then perhaps this is a reflection of how the child perceives their relationship, but at the same time it does not correspond to reality.
• If a character is distant from other figures, this may indicate a “distance” that the child notices in life and highlights it.
• By placing one family member above the rest, the child thereby gives him an exceptional status. This character, according to the child, has the greatest power in the family, even if he draws him as the smallest in comparison with the size of the others.
• The child tends to place the person whose influence in the family is minimal below the rest.
• If a child is taller than everyone else and interferes with his younger brother, then in his opinion, he is the one who controls everyone else.

2. Determining the most attractive character

It can be identified by the following signs:

• the attractive character is depicted first and placed in the foreground;
  made with more love and thoroughness;
• he is taller and larger than the other characters;
• the rest of the characters are grouped around, turned in his direction, looking at him.

A child can highlight one of the family members by depicting him in some special clothes, giving him some details and in the same way depicting his own figure, thus identifying himself with this character.

The size of a particular family member speaks of the meaning that this character has for a child. For example, if the grandmother is drawn larger than the father and mother, then most likely the relationship with the parents is currently in the background for the child. On the contrary, the least significant character in the drawing is depicted as the smallest, drawn last and placed away from the rest. A child can deal with such a character more categorically: cross it out with a few strokes or erase it with an eraser.

Strong shading or strong pencil pressure when depicting a particular figure, they reveal the feeling of anxiety that the child experiences in relation to this character. Conversely, just such a figure can be depicted using a weak, thin line.

The preference of one or another parent is expressed in the fact that Which parent did the child draw himself closer to?, what facial expression can be read in the figures of the parents.

Distance between family members– one of the main factors reflecting the child’s preferences. The distances in the figure are a reflection of psychological distance. Thus, the closest people are depicted in the drawing closer to the figure of the child. The same applies to other characters: those whom the child places next to in the drawing are, in his opinion, close in life.

3. Child about himself

If The child highlights his figure the most in the drawing, draws himself more carefully, drawing all the details, depicting more vividly, so that he catches the eye, and the rest of the figures form just a background, then thereby he expresses the importance of his own personality. He considers himself the main character around whom life in the family revolves, the most significant, unique. A similar feeling arises based on the parental attitude towards the child. Trying to embody in the child everything that they themselves could not achieve, to give him everything that they were deprived of, parents recognize his priority, the primacy of his desires and interests and their auxiliary, secondary role.

Small, weak figure, depicted surrounded by parents, in which the child recognizes himself, can express a feeling of helplessness and a demand for care and attention. This situation may be due to the fact that the child is accustomed to the atmosphere of constant and excessive care that surrounds him in the family (often observed in families with only child), therefore he feels weak and can even abuse this, manipulating his parents and constantly demanding help and attention from them.

The child can draw yourself close to your parents, pushing aside the rest of the family. Thus, he emphasizes his exceptional status among other children.

If a child draws himself next to his father and at the same time exaggerates the size of his own figure, then this probably indicates strong feeling rivalry and the child’s desire to take the same strong and authoritative place in the family as the father.

4. Additional characters and details

When drawing a family, a child can add people not related to the family circle, or animals. This behavior is interpreted as an attempt to fill voids, compensate for the lack of close, warm relationships, compensate for the lack of emotional connections, etc. So, for example, a boy, being the only child in the family, can include in his drawing cousins ​​or brothers, the most distant relatives and various animals - cats, dogs and others, thereby expressing the lack of close communication with other children and the need to have a constant companion in life. games with whom one could communicate on equal terms.

The picture may also contain fictional characters, which also symbolize the child’s unmet needs. Having not received their satisfaction in real life, the child satisfies these needs in his fantasy, in imaginary relationships. In this case, you should ask your child to tell you more about this character. In his answers you will find what he really lacks.

The child can draw close to one of the family members pet not actually present. This may indicate the child's need for love, which he would like to receive from this person.

Ask who is who. You might be in for a surprise. The character you mistook for a grandfather will turn out to be not a real grandfather, but Santa Claus! Appearance fictional characters indicates unmet needs that the child realizes in his fantasy. Such a character must be given attention and asked in detail about him. From the story you will understand what your son or daughter lacks in real life.

Dad is depicted as a fishing rod or computer. The interpretation of such drawings must be approached with caution. They do not necessarily mean that the character has no emotional connection with family members. In such situations, you just need to ask the child in more detail why he drew his father that way.

Principles of Linear Distance extend not only to the human world, but also to inanimate objects. The thing that is closest to the character, according to the child, is the most interesting for him.

The principle of vertical hierarchy extends to the world of objects. Most children draw the sun in the corner of the sheet. Oddly enough, the sun for a child is a symbol of supreme power and protection. If a room is depicted, instead of the sun a chandelier often appears as a substitute source of light and heat. Family members and objects placed between the author of the drawing and the sun are seen as competitors, preventing the person from enjoying full protection and care.

Image a large number of small parts of objects speaks of a child’s fixation on order and rules, of a tendency to hide emotions within himself, which is fraught with a subsequent “explosion.” The abundance in the picture of objects related to one field of activity emphasizes the importance of this field of activity for the family. One child's drawing showed three computers and three desks. In that family there was a cult of work by mom, dad and older brother.

Adults sitting in soft chairs or on a sofa e, mean a special value for the family of rest and relaxation, but in forms that are not typical for a child. After all, children do not like to lie down. If a child depicts many closets, and even with keyholes, it can be assumed that the family has secrets that are hidden from him.

Pay attention to the pressure of the pencil. People who cause anxiety in a child are depicted either with increased pencil pressure, or heavily shaded, or their outline is outlined with a double line. But sometimes you can find a thin, trembling line. The child seems hesitant to portray this character.

5. Parent couple

Usually parents are depicted together, the taller and larger father is placed on the left, the shorter mother on the right, followed by other figures in order of importance. As already noted, it should be borne in mind that a drawing does not always reflect reality; sometimes it is only a reflection of what is desired. A child who is being raised by one parent may nevertheless portray both of them, thereby expressing his desire for their union to be restored.

If child draws one parent with whom he lives, this means his acceptance of a real-life situation to which the child has more or less adapted.

One of the parents may be in an isolated position in the picture. If the figure of a parent of the same gender as the child is depicted away from the others, then this can be interpreted as the child’s desire to be with a parent of the opposite sex. Jealousy caused by the Oedipus complex is a completely normal phenomenon for a child before he reaches puberty (on average 12 years).

The case when the figure of the child and the parent of the opposite sex are removed from each other, may, apparently, be considered as a minor violation of the natural order of relationships with the parent of the other sex.

If in the picture parents communicate with each other, for example, holding hands, it means that in life there is close psychological contact between them. If there is no contact in the picture, then most likely there is none in reality.

Sometimes a child, ignoring the real situation, pretends one of the parents is unnaturally large, often this concerns the mother figure. This suggests that in his eyes this parent is perceived as a suppressive figure who suppresses any manifestation of independence and initiative. If a child has formed an image of one of the parents as a dominant, suppressive, hostile, frightening person, then he is inclined to give his figure a large size compared to the figures of other family members, without taking into account their actual physical size. Such a figure can be depicted with large hands, demonstrating through his pose an imperious, dictatorial attitude.

In contrast, a parent who is not taken seriously by the child, ignored, disrespected, is portrayed as small in size, with small hands or no hands at all.

6. Identification

In the family picture, there is also such an indicative factor as identification. The child easily identifies himself with one or another character in his drawing. He can identify himself with his father, mother, sibling.

Identification with same-sex parent corresponds to the normal state of affairs. It reflects his desire to have a preferential relationship with a parent of the opposite sex.

Identification with older brother/sister, regardless of gender, is also normal, especially if there is a noticeable age difference.

Sometimes a child may identify yourself with additional characters who are not part of the family. What is identification expressed in? The figure with which the child identifies himself is depicted as the most attractive and complete; she is given more time. In addition, the results of the conversation usually provide plenty of information about this. In the conversation on which one should rely most, completely opposite things are often revealed. It turns out that a child can identify himself with the most nondescript character in the picture, who has unclear outlines, is placed aside from everyone else, etc. Such a case suggests that the child is experiencing great difficulties and tension in relationships with his family and himself.

7. Refusal to depict a particular family member

If the child draws himself away from the rest of the family, then he probably experiences a feeling of loneliness and isolation.

If the child is missing from the picture, then we can talk about the same thing, but in a much stronger manifestation. Experiences such as feelings of inferiority or a sense of lack of community, alienation, also force the child to exclude himself from the family picture. Similar examples can often be seen in family drawings made by adopted children. Parental dissatisfaction, excessive criticism, comparisons with brothers or sisters in an unfavorable light contribute to the formation of low self-esteem and suppression of the child’s motivation to achieve. In a milder form, this manifests itself when the child draws himself last.

A common occurrence in children's drawings - refusal to draw younger brother/sister. Explanations such as “I forgot to draw my brother” or “There wasn’t enough room for my younger brother” should not mislead you. There is nothing accidental in the drawing of a family. Everything has its own meaning, expresses certain feelings and experiences of the child in relation to people close to him.

It is quite common for an older child to be jealous of his parents. youngest child, since he gets most of the love and attention of his parents. Since in reality it restrains the manifestation of feelings of discontent and aggression, these feelings find their way out in the family drawing. The younger brother/sister is simply not shown in the picture. By denying its existence, the child removes the existing problem.

Another reaction may also occur: the child may depict a younger brother/sister in the drawing, but exclude oneself from the family, thus identifying himself with a rival who enjoys the attention and love of his parents. The absence of adults in the picture may indicate a negative attitude of the child towards this person, the absence of any emotional connection with him.

8. Drawing details

Eyes

Characters with big, wide eyes the child considers them anxious, restless, and in need of help.

Eyes - dots or slits symbolize the internal prohibition on crying, the fear of asking for help.

If you ask a child what a person’s ears are for, you will most likely get a completely reasonable answer - “To hear”! But here’s an interesting nuance that must be taken into account when interpreting the drawing: not hearing anything in principle, but first of all, critical remarks and opinions about yourself. The character with the biggest ears should listen to others more than everyone else. But a character “without ears” can generally ignore what is said about him.

Mouth

The mouth for a child is a symbol of attack - to bite, scream, say offensive things. Family members with large and/or darkened mouths are perceived by the child as a source of threat associated with condemnation and verbal influence. But this does not mean that in this family they speak in a raised tone. But the characters whose mouth is depicted as a dot or dash, do not have the ability to influence other people. Often such characters have even larger ears drawn - in order to obey.

Neck

The neck in the picture does not appear immediately. At first, the head seems to be “glued” to the body.

The neck in a graphic interpretation is the ability to control the mind (“head”) over the feelings (“body”). The neck appears in the picture when the child has the ability to control and manage his feelings.

The character who has a neck is able to control his feelings. Anyone who doesn't have a neck is incapable.

There are drawings where Mom and dad have no neck, A the author himself is depicted with a neck. But this, of course, does not mean that the child considers only himself capable of control. Rather, it symbolizes the widespread belief among children that only small children need to control themselves and their behavior. This is usually voiced by the following phrase: “When I grow up, I’ll go to bed like dad - whenever I want! And there’s so much candy - like mom!”

Long and thin neck, speaks of a conflict in the author’s mind between reason and feelings, which is resolved through self-removal from the world of one’s own strong emotions. If short and thick, then this character is thought of as having no problems in this area.

Head

The character whose head is bigger is smarter.

If something in the drawing is completely incomprehensible (for example, a child can depict a so-called “Roman bust” - the figures of people will be depicted from the waist up and even framed) it is better not to fantasize, but to refuse interpretation altogether.

Literature:

• Family Drawing Test / Taylor K. Psychological tests and exercises for children. A book for parents and educators - M., 2005.

Test "My Family"

This test will help determine the child’s psychological state while drawing, identify the most significant family member for him, and determine intra-family contacts.

Prepare: landscape sheet, simple pencil, colored pencils, eraser.

instructions

Invite your child to draw his family. while drawing don't tell your child anything else. pay attention to who the child drew first - this person is the child’s favorite.

when drawing he'll be ready, ask: “Who did you draw?” “why didn’t you draw... (for example, dad)?” “Who is the happiest here? Why?". “Who is the most unfortunate? Why?".

dough processing

Based on this picture of the family, one can judge the relationships in the family. Of course, this test cannot reflect the whole picture, but something can be gleaned from the picture.

1. analysis of the structure of the drawing

the depicted composition of the family corresponds to the real one - the child has correctly formed the concept of “my family”.

if a child does not draw someone or draws someone very far from himself - a conflict with this person, alienation, dissatisfaction with communication with him.

drew other children or adults who do not live with the child - the child lacks communication with these people.

drew animals - there is a rejection of the child in the family and a lack of communication with people.

if the child himself is not in the picture, the family has a bad attitude towards the child.

I drew only myself - there is no sense of community (they don’t go anywhere together, each one separately). if, in addition, a lot of details are drawn - egocentrism.

2. arrangement of family members

all family members are joined by hands, holding hands - psychological well-being.

if they are united by real common activities - an indicator of family cohesion.

busy with fictitious activities - psychological distress (we are rarely together).

family members at a great distance from the child - alienation, fear, negative relationships.

grouping by interests (parents are busy with one thing, the child with another) - disunity (parents have their own problems, the child has his own, “don’t poke your nose into someone else’s business”).

Whoever the child draws next to him is emotionally closer to the child.

The child draws the most significant person for himself first, and the less significant person last.

Dad is drawn separately, but carefully drawn - often missing.

if there is a frame around the family (everyone is in the building) - isolation from the outside world.

careless depiction of all family members, separation of them by partitions, depiction of people from behind or turned away from each other - a violation of emotional contacts.

3. analysis of the features of the drawn figures

all body details are drawn - the norm. mom without a mouth - “don’t scream”, no eyes - “I don’t want constant supervision”, dad without hands - “don’t hit me”, didn’t draw a face - “I don’t like you.”

missing details on the head or face - hostility, fear, secrecy, distrust of this person. the hands are drawn - very good intra-family relationships, there are no hands - there is no meaningful communication with people around.

huge ears - praise me.

decoration (clothing details, outfits carefully drawn) from the one the child loves most.

if a child carefully draws himself, there is a high need for attention, demonstrativeness, and a tendency to tantrums.

a schematic representation of people - a child’s lack of emotionality.

size of the figures - the main member of the family - the largest, but not necessarily the most beloved.

if the child is drawn as the largest - egocentrism. great parent and very Small child- the parent is very strict, the child is not confident in himself. if everyone is the same height, everyone in the family is partners.

hands up - hostility towards others.

the child is drawn without hands - a feeling of powerlessness, resignation.

Each family member is drawn the same way - all faceless, stamped.

different faces of family members - individuality.

if a child draws himself like his mom or dad, he wants to be like her or him.

the colors used are light, rich tones - joy, loves this person.

black gray, Brown color - unfavorable attitude to this person.

4. Analysis of the drawing process

I drew myself last - low self-esteem.

a lot of erasing with an eraser is a sign of anxiety and dissatisfaction with this person.

small size of the drawing, shading - unfavorable physical condition,
tension, stiffness.

large sizes, bright colors - good mood, relaxedness, lack of
tension and fatigue.

Material for the lesson.

At interpretations of family drawings psychologists always pay special attention to those cases when more or fewer family members are drawn than they actually are (for example, a dad is depicted who is not there, or, on the contrary, an older brother is not drawn).The absence of one of the family members in the picture means either the presence of unconscious negative feelings towards this person, or the absence of emotional contact with this character - it is as if he is not there inner world subject. If a person does not draw himself in a picture of his family, then this indicates the difficulties of self-expression in relationships with loved ones (I am not noticed in the family, it is difficult for me to find my place in it). Also, the absence of the author of the drawing in the drawing means indifference to loved ones (I don’t strive to be with them, they don’t bother me).

For interpretation of a family drawingimportant has leaf space, which is analogous to human living space.Just as in real life, in the plane of the sheet each person unconsciously strives to occupy as much space for himself and the products of his activity as he, in his opinion, deserves. In other words, if he has low self-esteem, then he takes up little space in real world and, drawing on a piece of paper, will take up only a small part of it. On the contrary, people are confident, well-adjusted, draw freely, on a grand scale, and can take up the entire sheet.

Location families on drawing is also important when interpretations. If a person depicted his family in the lower half of the sheet, then this indicates not only his low self-esteem, but also a low level of life aspirations and ambitions. That is, if the family plot is located at the bottom of the sheet, then this means the following: “even the little that I pretend to do, I can’t do.” If a small image is placed at the top of the sheet, and the large lower part of the sheet is empty, this indicates that the subject’s low self-esteem is combined with a high level of his aspirations: “I want a lot of things in life, but I won’t get much.”

It happens that a person draws some inanimate objects together with his family, and perhaps depicts them instead of the family. For example, instead of people, a house without doors, a garage and a fence connecting them can be drawn, but family members are not depicted at all. It is implied that they are all located somewhere inside the drawn house. In such cases, when interpretation of a family drawing psychologists draw the following conclusions. The replacement of the family with inanimate objects shows that the closed world of the house without doors seems to be the largest family value. The fact that there are no family members in the picture indicates a lack of emotional contact with them. The absence of the author of the drawing suggests that he does not see a place for himself in this world. Undrawn doors indicate that the subject has difficulty opening up to others, especially in home circle. The presence of buildings (fence, garage) indicates aggression against the actual owners of the house or rebellion against what the subject considers artificial cultural standards.

At interpretation of a family drawing psychologists also note the importance of how characters are portrayed. Their size, the delineation of facial features (eyes, nose, mouth, etc.), the size and shape of arms, legs, etc.The size of the depicted character or object expresses its meaning for the author of the drawing and shows what place the relationship with this character occupies in his soul at a given moment in time. Size is used to express importance, fear and respect. Big size heads means intelligence, accordingly, the author considers the “smartest” member of the family to be the one for whom he drew the largest head. A large and/or shaded mouth is a symbol of aggression and attack. If a person’s mouth is missing or depicted as a dot, then this person does not have the right to express his opinion and influence others. The more powerful a character is perceived to be, the larger his hand. The absence of hands is an indicator of shyness, passivity; hidden hands express a feeling of guilt. Exaggerated hand size, prominence of the hands and fingers - indicates a tendency towards aggression.

The image in the drawing of a character who does not officially belong to the family (for example, a member of a related family, a family friend, etc.) speaks of unmet needs in relation to this character. The subject realizes these desires in his fantasy, in imaginary communication with a given person. The same tendency is indicated by the presence of a fictional (for example, fairy-tale) character.

Also when interpretation of a family drawing great importance has the location of characters on the paper space.
According to the principle of vertical hierarchy, the highest in the picture is the character who, in the opinion of its author, has the greatest power in the family (although he may be the smallest in linear size). Below everyone is the one whose power in the family is minimal. The distance between characters (linear distance) is associated with psychological distance. Who is closest to the subject? psychologically, he depicts him closer to himself spatially. The same applies to other characters: those whom a given person perceives as close to each other, he will draw next to each other. Also, characters who in the drawing are in direct contact with each other (for example, with their hands) are in equally close psychological contact. Characters who are not touching do not have such contact.

The character or object that causes the greatest anxiety in the subject is depicted either with increased pressure, or is heavily shaded, or its outline is circled several times. But in some cases it may be outlined by a very thin, trembling line. The author seems hesitant to portray him.Characters with large, dilated eyes are perceived by the author as anxious, restless, and in need of being saved. Characters with “dot” and “slit” eyes carry an internal “prohibition on crying,” that is, they are afraid to ask for help. The larger the area of ​​support at the feet, the more firmly the character is perceived as standing on the ground. Absence of feet, small, unsteady legs are a sign of insecurity, instability, lack of a strong foundation, lack of a basic sense of security. If the characters in the picture are depicted in one row, you need to mentally draw a horizontal line along the lowest point of the legs. Then only those people who “stand” on this line have support in reality. The rest, “hanging in the air,” according to the subject, do not have independent support in life.

The “Family Drawing” technique is easy to use, helps to establish good emotional contact,
accessible to persons with reduced intelligence. Its use is especially productive in preschool and junior school age when children often have difficulty expressing their feelings and thoughts. At the same time, this technique and the rules for its interpretation can be successfully used in working with adults. The technique is significant not only for diagnosing interpersonal relationships in the family, but also for choosing tactics for psychological correction and psychotherapy of disturbed family relationships.

Its goal is to identify the peculiarities of the child’s perception of the family situation, his place in the family...

Target– identify the peculiarities of the child’s perception of the family situation, his place in the family, as well as his relationships with family members.

The cattle test consists of 2 parts:

• drawing your family,
• conversation after drawing.

To run the test The child is given a standard sheet of paper for drawing, a pencil (hardness 2M) and an eraser.

Instructions: “Please draw your family so that everyone is doing something.”

All clarifying questions should be answered without any instructions.

While drawing, you should record all the child’s spontaneous statements, note his facial expressions, gestures, and also record the drawing sequence.

After the drawing is completed, a conversation is held with the child according to the following scheme:

1. Who is shown in the picture, what each family member is doing.
2. Where family members work or study.
3. How household responsibilities are distributed in a family.
4. What are your relationships with other family members?

The system for quantitative assessment of cattle takes into account the formal and substantive aspects of the drawing.

Formal features of the drawing counts:

• quality drawing lines,
• position of drawing objects on paper,
• erasing a drawing or its individual parts,
• shading of individual parts of the picture.

Content characteristics of the drawing are:

• the depicted activities of the family members presented in the figure,
• their interaction and location,
• the relationship of things and people in the picture.

1. The child does not always draw all family members. Usually he does not paint those with whom he is in conflict.

The arrangement of family members in a drawing often shows relationships. For example, an important indicator of psychological closeness is the real distance between individual family members.

Sometimes drawings are made between individual family members different objects, which serve as a kind of partition between them. So, quite often you can see a picture in which the father is sitting, hidden behind a newspaper, or near the TV, separating him from the rest of the family. The mother is often depicted at the stove, as if absorbing all her attention.

General activities family members usually indicate good prosperous family relationships.

Often a common activity brings together several family members. This may indicate the presence of internal factions in the family.

When drawing their family, some children draw all the figures very small and place them on the bottom of the sheet. This may already indicate the child’s depression, his feeling of inferiority in the family situation.

In some drawings, it is not people who predominate, but things, most often furniture. We assume that this also reflects the child's emotional concern about his family situation, that it worries him, and he seems to put off drawing family members and draws things that do not have such strong emotional significance.

2. It is believed that a child takes the longest to draw and paint the figure of his most beloved family member. And vice versa, if a child has a negative attitude towards someone, then he draws this person incompletely, without details, sometimes even without the main parts of the body.

When a child’s relationships are conflictual and anxious, emotionally ambiguous, he often uses shading in the image of that family member with whom he has not developed effective connections. In similar cases, redrawing can also be observed.

Several drawing styles can be observed in the drawings.

3. Analysis of the drawing process provides rich information not only about the child’s family relationships, but also about his work style in general.

There are children whose numerous excuses, as well as the manner in which they cover up what they have drawn with their hands, may indicate a child’s distrust of his own abilities and his need for support from an adult.

Most often, he begins his drawing with an image of that family member with whom he really relates well.

4. Sometimes there are pauses before the child begins to draw one of the figures. This in some cases may indicate an emotionally ambiguous or even negative attitude of the child. The comments may also reveal his attitude towards family members, but the psychologist should not engage in conversation with the child while performing the test. D

1. A quantitative assessment system has been developed for the cattle test. Five symptom complexes have been identified:
2. Favorable family situation
3. Anxiety
4. Conflict in the family
5. Feelings of inferiority

Hostility in a family situation.

In order for you to look deeper into the soul of your child and understand how he lives, what he breathes, what he thinks about, what he dreams about while in the family, if you do not have the opportunity to consult with the right specialist, conduct with him one of the adapted We have special options for parents - a version of the drawing technique “My Family”, which reveals intra-family interpersonal relationships.

Drawing technique "My family"

Give your child a piece of paper and a set of colored pencils (black, blue, brown, red, yellow, green). Since this test is adapted for parents and will not be assessed by a specialist, a set of pencils may contain not 6 colors, but much more.

Invite your child to draw a picture of your family. After that, do something, pretending that you are not interested in drawing. Let him feel at least the illusion of freedom. Your gaze involuntarily forces your son or daughter to “weigh” everything in the drawing in your favor. Let the painter be alone with himself. However, while “working”, you need to observe, unnoticed by the child, how he draws, what he draws, where he draws.

After finishing drawing, clarify some details with leading questions. Then analyze the data from the drawing test according to the diagram below. And if you learn to correctly interpret this data, you will be able not only to identify the nuances, but also their shades, the whole gamut of feelings experienced by a child in his family. All that he carefully hides, all that he hides somewhere in the depths and is unable to express to you out loud, all that “seethes” and “boils” in him, all that torments and worries him every day, suddenly unexpectedly, like a genie from a bottle, it “breaks out” and freezes with a “silent scream” on paper. And, freezing, silently screaming, he begs you for help. And this “cry” should be heard by each parent. After all, it would hardly occur to us, parents, that very often we are the culprits of all the child’s troubles.

When analyzing a drawing, you need to pay attention to a number of details: the sequence of completing the task, the plot of the drawing, how family members are located, how they are grouped, the degree of proximity and degree of distance between them, the location of the child among them, the who he starts drawing a family with, who he ends up with, who he “forgot” to depict, who he “added”, who is taller and who is shorter, who is dressed how, who is drawn in outline, who is drawn out in detail, on color scheme etc.

Let us dwell on some features of the analysis of the drawing.

1. Sequence of task completion. As a rule, after receiving the installation, he 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. Most often 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 are 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 place their loved ones 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 -. These drawings are usually full of expression and dynamism.

As mentioned above, sometimes they simply refuse to draw or limit themselves to some, especially abstract plot that seems at first glance, where there is no family (see Fig. 1 below). 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 (a detailed interpretation of the drawing will be given below). When yours 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 associates a drawing of a family 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 above a group portrait of a family dark clouds or it’s raining, then most likely this is due to the child’s discomfort.

3. The sequence of arrangement of family members. Usually the first one depicts either his most beloved family member, or, in his opinion, the most significant and authoritative in the house. If he considers himself 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 he intuitively feels rejected and unwanted by his parents, then he portrays himself after everyone else.

4. Dimensions of the figures of family members. The more authoritative the family member he portrays is in the child’s eyes, 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, the neglected and rejected usually portray themselves as barely noticeable, short, tiny Thumb Thumbs or Thumbelina (see Figure 2 below), emphasizing with all this their uselessness and insignificance. In contrast to the “rejected”, the family idols spare no space for depicting their figures, depicting themselves on a par with mom or dad and even above them (see Figure 3 below).

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. Some drawings emphasize the perceived disconnection of loved ones by including some extraneous objects in the free space between family members that further separate people. To reduce disunity, he often fills the gaps, in his opinion, with things and objects that unite close relatives, or draws among family members unfamiliar people.

With emotional closeness, all relatives in the family are drawn almost close to each other and practically not separated. The closer he portrays himself to any family member, the higher his degree of attachment to this relative. The further one is from a family member, the less affection one has for that member. When he considers himself rejected, he is separated by a significant space from others.

6. Location of the child in the picture- source 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, he places himself next to the one to whom he is most attached. If we see in the picture that he 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 for some reason he suddenly “forgets” to draw himself, look for a good reason in your 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 the child therefore has no sense of community with other people close to him. With his drawing in this way, the artist expresses his reaction of protest against the rejection of him in the family. Intuitively guessing that he has long been rejected by you, that you have almost “forgotten” him, caring about others in the family, he “takes revenge” on you on paper, not realizing that by refusing to draw himself, he is giving away his secrets, involuntarily spilling out the discomfort bubbling within him .

8. When for some reason he suddenly “forgets” to draw one of his parents or other real members of his family, then, most likely, none other than the “forgotten” relative of the child is the source of his discomfort, worries and torment. Deliberately “forgetting” to include such a loved one in our family, as if showing us the way out of conflict situation and to defuse a 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. He especially stubbornly “takes revenge” and does not draw on paper that family member who constantly suppresses and humiliates him in the house. Therefore, usually the question: “Where is this family member?” -, continuing to “take revenge” on him, responds with sheer fables, absurdities and absurdities, such as the fact that this relative takes out the garbage, washes the floor, stands in the corner.. In short, in this way, albeit naively, he dreams of taking revenge, although would mentally humiliate a loved one who constantly humiliates him in reality every day.

9. When for some reason he suddenly “supplements” his family with non-existent relatives or strangers, then with this he tries 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. They often fill this vacuum with those individuals who, in their opinion, are able to establish close contacts with them and enable them to somehow satisfy their communication needs. Therefore, by “modeling” the composition of his family, he 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 devoted and needed by a person cats and dogs. 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 exist and replace his relatives and friends, then this means that he longs to be needed by someone. From birth he needs to be loved and to love someone dearly in return. And if you have not satisfied him with your love, then he intuitively looks for love on the side. Therefore, think more seriously about the purpose of your man, who seems to be deprived of nothing, stubbornly every time in all the drawings of his family he stamps the ghosts of cats and dogs that do not exist and do not live in the house, which even you did not promise to buy for him. Think seriously. And regard this as a symptom that tells you about the lack of necessary communication and the lack of tenderness and affection that yours feels. Think about it: are you to blame for this shortage?

10. When for some reason he draws only himself instead of his family, “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 not enough room for him in it.

Quite often, in drawings of oneself, the child’s rejection by family members is visible through the emotional background and gloomy color scheme. The loneliness of a rejected person at an age when they are not yet able to cope without their parents is a formidable sign of a dysfunctional family situation 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 family idols or those who do not hide their egocentrism. This type differs from rejected ones by involuntary self-admiration, which is usually visible in the coloring and detailing of clothing or in secondary background objects that create a festive mood.

11. To conduct a more detailed analysis, take a closer look at how faces and other parts of the body are drawn. The head drawing is especially informative. When you see that the author for some reason omits parts of the face known to him in the drawing or generally depicts a face “without a face”, that is, apart from the contour 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 against in relation to the family member depicted by him in this way, because of whom, obviously, he is 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 of his alienation in the family and a breakdown in communication with many people.

When, of all the parts of the face, only one eye is visible in the drawing, then, most likely, you are aware 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. Similar may be the drawing of the 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 mouth stands out, 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 a 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, he once again shows you how significant the closest relative he depicted in this way is for him. And if yours 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 paints 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 more 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 hands at all, trying, at least symbolically, to extinguish aggression.

When we see the child himself armless in the drawing, 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 in a drawing he emphasizes the length of his own hands, not strangers, or draws them raised upward, then he shows his aggressiveness or his desire to be aggressive in order to somehow establish himself in the family.

12. Color scheme of the picture- a kind of indicator of the palette of feelings emitted by the child when remembering the loved ones he portrays. Features and nuances emotional attitude children towards 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 cipher to the code in order to come to the aid in time, generously extending your whole hand to your child, who is desperately clutching at a thin straw, who for one reason or another has wilted under the pressure of harsh everyday life and everyday troubles.

As a rule, everything that a child loves and likes is drawn by him in warm, affectionate colors. Without knowing it themselves, they “stick out” their affection and romantic feelings for someone present in the picture with a bright, rich color that involuntarily attracts your gaze. Usually, the one the child likes is dressed up in a special festive outfit, which in its colors resembles a rainbow or the clothes of a fairy-tale princess seen in a magical dream.

And even if yours does not use the entire gamut of colors available to him, he still, whether he wants it or not, distinguishes his beloved relative from all the others with at least one extraordinary stroke that catches your eye.

Mothers are especially dressed up. They express their love for them by designing such fantastic clothing models for them, the patents for which fashion magazines would probably buy from them. In addition to dresses, skirts, blouses with ruffles, embroidery, flounces, many mothers have earrings in their ears, beads on their necks and hairpins in their hair. Almost all mothers wear fashionable shoes and have unusual hairstyles. And if you look closely at the color of their hair, you will most often say: this doesn’t happen - since when is the hair orange, yellow and even blue. This doesn’t happen in life, but it happens in a drawing, when in a flood of tender feelings, splashing out in this way.

Beloved dads also have something to wear. And very often their outfits are almost as good as their mother’s. The child also brightly dresses up all the other relatives he cares about, drawing the smallest details of their clothes. When a child feels good in the family, he is also festively dressed and radiates warm colors.

The cold tones depicted by the child are like the red color at a traffic light, signaling “stop”. Stop for a moment. Think about it
Means. Ask yourself mentally: "Why?"

Cold tones, as a rule, are evidence of a conflicting relationship between a child and a member of his family drawn by him in these tones. Black color is especially informative, ordinary black color, most often information-carrying about the child’s emotional rejection of the relative in the drawing whom he depicted for them. And this rejection can be obvious or hidden. In addition to color, a number of other details will tell you about obvious rejection. You will have to guess what is hidden, unraveling the labyrinths of the child’s feelings. And if for some reason a relative whom he loves is suddenly painted black, then, most likely, in this way the painter involuntarily spills onto paper everything that secretly worries, excites, torments him in relation to the member of his family he depicts. And no matter how much in these cases the artist tries to assure you that he painted from memory, almost from life, and his father really has a favorite shirt - “black”, and his mother also prefers “black” to all colors, and his sister really the braids are “black”, you need to carefully check and understand the reason for its “realism”. Especially when in the same picture other relatives are fabulously dressed and their hair is fabulously colored.

As a rule, the reason for realism is that, no matter how much he adores mom or dad, he cannot and is not able to come to terms with the fact that dad drinks, is rowdy, is a source of scandals, and mom, busy with endless affairs, does not notices the child's devoted love. My sister just makes me jealous. What if she gets more tenderness and affection...

A signal of distress and trouble for your child can also be contour drawing to them individual members of his family or the entire family as a whole, even when the artist depicts the contours in different colors, and not with a simple pencil.

So, analyzing the features of the interpretation of the drawing “My Family”, it was as if you recognized your child again and realized that yours is a personality, albeit still small and unintelligent, but a personality looking at the world with his own clear eyes, having his own special angle on life. And you should be aware of this point of view. Otherwise, it will suddenly turn out that you and yours see everything differently and with different eyes and often speak in different languages. And in order for your language to be unified, you need to know its symbolism for your child, at least in a drawing.

Let's look again at what means, details, and nuances the artist uses to tell you about his role in his own family and about the relationships that have developed in it between other family members.

1. Emotional attachment the child's relationship to one of the parents is usually depicted in such a way that it is close to this parent or next to him. The amount of space between them is minimal. Often their hands are stretched out to each other, emphasizing the complete agreement between the parent and the child who adores him. Almost always, the artist tries to draw his beloved parent as one of the first in the drawing. The figure of this parent is usually taller than all other figures, or at least exceeds the height of the child, thereby, as it were, giving the young artist a unique, understandable only to him, security necessary for life. To make the parent look even more impressive, they often place him on a specially invented pedestal. The parent, adored by the child, is not only carefully outlined by him, but also dressed in the most magical outfits, which in terms of the brightness of the colors are much brighter than the brightest clothes of the artist. There are times when the outfit of an artist and his best mother in the world or the most beautiful father in the world are identical. During the first romantic love When approaching their parents, girls usually draw themselves next to their dads, and boys - closer to their mothers. During the period of a child imitating parents of the same sex, this pattern changes and girls are already close to their mothers, and boys are close to their fathers. Moreover, the parent, adored by the child, is not drawn with contours and strokes, but is drawn out literally down to the details.

When for some reason, suddenly picturing yourself next to your adored parent, you involuntarily leave an empty gap between this “row,” then, most likely, this gap is a reflection of the barrier invisible to us between the two loving people. Most often, this barrier is the character traits of the parent, which push the child away from themselves and force young artist When communicating with a parent, maintain a certain distance, like on a leash.

He usually expresses his dissatisfaction with black or at least one gloomy stroke. Take a look at the drawing of a teenage girl (see Figure 4 below). Here, the black color of the beloved dad’s trousers indicates the child’s worries about the fact that dad began to drink alcohol.

When a child's affection is mutual, he is happy, reaching all the heights of bliss.

When a child's love is unrequited, it is an imperishable source of mental discomfort for the young artist. Therefore, by analyzing the drawing and “unraveling” who the child needs most, you try to take a step towards him. Let him feel how needed he is.

2. Rejection of the child in the family(emotional rejection). When he feels superfluous and unnecessary, an outcast in his family, he either simply does not want and does not want to draw his family, or
draws her, forgetting to draw himself. IN in some cases the artist places his small and inconspicuous figure far from everyone, thereby emphasizing his loneliness among his family. Quite often, between a child who is distant from everyone and members of his family there are some unnecessary objects that increase the disunity of the people drawn. Often the empty gap is suddenly filled with relatives who do not exist, or who actually exist, but are very distant. Cats and dogs also often play the role of buffer.

When he feels superfluous and unnecessary in his family, his figure is the smallest of all, his clothes are gloomy and inconspicuous. Such a person often simply depicts himself with contours and strokes, without stopping at the details, drawing himself to complete the plot. In those cases when, despite everything, he is still attached to one of his parents or to both of them at once, he paints them in warm tones, not skimping on gentle colors. And these warm tones, in contrast to the cold tones with which the artist is depicted, are witnesses to an abyss in the relationship between the child and his family that has already formed or has begun to form.

In Figure 5 (see below), a six-year-old girl, offended by the coldness of her parents and considering herself unnecessary to them, drew them festively and beautifully, deliberately “forgetting” to draw herself next to them. At the request of the experimenter, she then finally finished drawing her figure, depicting it with an outline and a black pencil, making it smaller actual sizes. Then, after thinking for a minute, she suddenly joyfully illuminated herself with the sun and drew grass. And all of her appearance in the drawing now he said to everyone: look, look how small I am. I still need people to love me. And if parents don’t understand this, at least let the sun replace them.

As a rule, rejected people usually "forget" to draw the one in their family who, in their opinion, rejects them.

3. Conflict situation in the family. It is known that the younger and more sensitive he is, the more often he considers himself the culprit of conflicts in his family, regarding them as retribution for pampering, disobedience and childhood sins. A child, feeling guilty, is rejected in his own eyes, so his drawings almost always resemble similar drawings of emotional rejection of children in the family. Most often, the artist “forgets” to draw the one close to him, because of whom, as he believes, the conflict arose. And if he does draw that person, in order to attract attention to him, he depicts him higher or lower than everyone standing nearby, in cold, mournful colors. Often, in a conflict situation in a family, all relatives are drawn only as outlines, and their disunity is visible in the fact that they are all separated from each other by unnecessary objects, empty spaces, as if they do not exist all together, but each with himself.

When, during conflicts, he suddenly “forgets” to draw himself, it is as if he is punishing himself. When, unexpectedly for you, he portrays himself next to those relatives for whom he does not have warm feelings, then in this way he most often wants to reduce, neutralize, and perhaps completely hush up the conflict.

4. Jealousy towards one of the parents in the family. When he feels jealousy towards one of his parents, he tries to veil it by suddenly “forgetting” to draw the “unnecessary” parent or, while drawing him, pushing him into the background by all means. As a rule, the “interfering” parent is much shorter than everyone else, homely and sloppily dressed. Often a child only has enough patience to depict it at least in outline. The “interfering” parent in the picture is most often “inactive,” while the beloved one is busy with a common cause with the child.

5. Jealousy of brothers and sisters. The more difficult it is for a child to cope with the sudden feeling of rivalry against other children in the family, the more clearly he reveals this feeling, despite the disguise. Usually the younger one is jealous of the older one, and the older one is jealous of the youngest child in the house. But the hardest thing is for the middle one: his love for his parents is shared with him by two people at once - both the youngest and the oldest. It is even more difficult for jealous little ones in large families. Often a brother is jealous of his mother and father for his sister, and a sister is jealous of her brother. In short, in any family with several children, there is always soil on which jealousy grows. And you, parents, must remember this in order to uproot even its first shoots.

Usually the one who is jealous is drawn close to the parents or close to them. Often the drawing begins with this child in order to attract your attention to the “favorite”; the jealous person either carefully, literally down to the details, draws out his entire figure, increasing his height and dressing him up in flashy clothes, once again emphasizing how well the “favorite” lives in the family, or, forgetting about all precautions and “dealing with” his “tormentor” “at least on paper, depicts him with contours in mourning tones to make you understand how unpleasant the “favorite” is to the artist himself. If jealousy is so strong that you are unable to control yourself, he accidentally suddenly “forgets” to include in his family circle either a brother, or a sister, or both at once, although he remembers their existence in the house. There is another option.. To attract the attention of parents, a jealous person, carefully drawing brothers and sisters, does not leave himself any space in the drawing, or depicts his fragile figure at a distance from everyone, thereby emphasizing that he is the odd one out.

If there are several children in your family and one of them, while trying out a drawing, only depicts his brothers and sisters next to you, “forgetting” to draw himself, or draws himself away from everyone, think about what is the reason for the young artist’s discomfort and is this not your fault?

6. Single-parent family. Probably a particularly severe injury in childhood is the divorce of parents. A child simply cannot understand how his beloved father (most often the father leaves) or his mother, without whom
It is generally impossible to live, to leave home, and for a long time, forever. And somewhere in the depths of his soul, considering himself the culprit of the events, he wants and dreams of returning to the past, putting everything in the old, former places, so convenient for him.

In addition, he wants to hide the conflict from outsiders, especially when it is not you who is conducting the drawing test. Therefore, usually all family members are present in the picture, even if they are already ex-members. Moreover, the parent who does not live in the house is depicted last, after long thoughts, pauses, and gnawing on pencils. A child, like Hamlet, must make a choice: “to be or not to be”... to draw... or not to... And if the choice is made to draw, the absent family member is drawn as if he were real and very often even has many similarities with the artist himself. Often such a family member is depicted as a vague outline, and between him and everyone else there are various items, pets, neighbors, relatives and friends or friendly strangers - the phenomena of a child’s magical dreams, in short, all those who can soften the fate of the young artist.

When he gets used to it and, in his own way, comes to terms with the fact that he has an incomplete family, he draws everything as it really is. And in order to show us once again that he doesn’t care, he compensates for the absence of a parent with some other important things for him. at this moment details for him. As a rule, an incomplete family depicted by a child almost always has a buffer zone in the picture, a zone of hope, a zone of conjecture and dreams of the child, so at any moment an incomplete family can turn into a complete one.

7. The only one very often draws himself between mom and dad. When there are no conflicts in the family, he is the main link in the unification of parents. The smaller the distance between the child and the parents, the closer the members of the whole family are to each other, the stronger the family feelings that bind them. When not everything is going well in the family or during a period of romantic love for parents, family idyll in the form of a triad - mom, yours, dad or dad, yours, mom - undergoes collapse. And in the young artist’s drawing, the sequence of arrangement of all family members can have many options. And in a chronic conflict situation, with a pronounced lack of communication in the family, like an alien, he looks for new contacts outside the family and “completes” his family with those who have never lived in their house, but with whom he can vent at least his soul in difficult times . Most often, the only one, when talking about a family, depicts the type of parental upbringing.

Recognizing types of education from drawings

Here are examples of the most common designs: various types raising children.

1. Family idol. With this type of upbringing, he most often begins to draw a family with an image of himself, with his figure in the center of a sheet of paper. His parents are a little further away, admiring him. The size of their figures is lower or equal to the size of the figure of their idol. The artist distinguishes himself with bright outfits; he often wears a crown on his head. And little girl idols almost always identify themselves with young princesses. The parents' outfit is much more prosaic and serves as a gray background for comparison. Against this background, the idol looks like a holiday among everyday life (see below, Fig. 3).

2. Overprotection. The child begins to draw a family from the one who takes care of him the most. Then he draws himself next to him. Usually, overprotected people are close to mom and dad, or at least hold their hands tightly. Or rather, the mother and father themselves hold the child’s hands tightly. When he does something in the picture, his parents admire him, never taking their admiring gaze off him. With this type of upbringing, he is shorter in stature than his parents, only sometimes being on a par with them. His clothes are very similar in color to the outfit of his mother or father, and sometimes both at once: he does not strive, like an idol, to be a holiday against the backdrop of everyday life, knowing full well that overprotection for him is a kind of Chinese wall, instilling once again self-confidence.

3. Hypocare. With this type of education, he most often expresses his attitude to what is happening. various options drawings. There are often cases when he, carefully depicting his entire family, suddenly “forgets” to draw himself among everyone. And to the questions: “Where are you?”, “Why did you forget?” - comes up with the most ordinary versions that justify his absence at the moment: “In kindergarten", "I'm walking in the yard", "The teacher detained me at school."

An option that is polar to this option is when for some reason, out of all the family members, he prefers to draw only himself, while claiming that no one is at home: his parents went to the cinema, visited someone, did not come home from work...

When he nevertheless paints his family in full, he once again emphasizes the disunity of its members with large gaps
the space between them, involuntarily suggesting that each family member here exists only on his own, he has nothing to do with others, especially with the young artist. Drawing his entire family, he places himself at a distance from everyone, quite isolated and lonely. And this creates the illusion of his simultaneous presence and absence among others.

Quite often, with hypoprotection, they depict themselves only as outlines. Their figures are much lower than the figures of others, even when these “others” are actually lower than the young artist. As a rule, a design with hypoprotection contains both cold and warm tones, their different nuances and shades. When an artist, despite this method of education, idolizes his parents, he does not spare them the most bright colors. Even when dressing himself up, he doesn’t see himself festively dressed. In his outfits there will definitely be at least one detail, but painted in cold tones, and of all these tones black predominates.

4. Neglect. Neglected people most often refuse to draw. They just don't know what family is. After much thought, succumbing to persuasion, agreeing to participate in the test, he draws himself in the form of a small, tiny person in a huge space. Completely alone, a little man who can be examined under a microscope, dressed in clothes of cool colors. The mournful color of these tones is like his soul, turned inside out, overflowing with loneliness. Hopelessness and uselessness emanate from this soul.

5. Vos like "Cinderella". With this type of upbringing, the family usually begins to draw from the brother or sister to whom he is contrasted in the house. The parents are drawn behind the brother or sister, and the artist himself leaves a place for himself somewhere far away from everyone or does not leave it at all, thereby emphasizing that he is superfluous and unnecessary in his own family. Everything in the picture is focused on the child's opponent. His figure is taller than the one drawing, more monumental, more significant. He is either in the center, surrounded by relatives, or he is the first among all. They admire him, admire him... especially when he does something (see Fig. 6 below). And even if “Cinderella” does some tasks a hundred times better than him, parents do not attach special importance to “her” tasks. With this type of upbringing, he does not know how and is unable to hide his undermining jealousy. Therefore, the drawing is full of cold tones. And, taking revenge on his opponent, the artist often dresses him up more prosaically and casually than himself, often thereby complicating your analysis and interpretation of this drawing.

6. "Hedgehog gloves." With this type of upbringing, it is very difficult for a child to draw the whole family as a whole. Being afraid of one of the parents or both at once, he wants to “neutralize” his fear at least on paper. Therefore, usually in the picture there is no member of his entire family who is holding him in these “mittens”. But he surrounds himself with any relatives, except his parents, and even distant acquaintances, in short, those people who, at least to some extent, are capable, even if only temporarily, of softening his fate, reducing the degree of discomfort. When a child has to depict his parents in a drawing, then usually he does not leave room for himself in his plot, in any case, he does not reveal the true reason.

With this type of upbringing, the size of the child’s figure in the picture is much lower than the size of the figures of his parents, and not just lower, but deliberately underestimated.

As a rule, the family member who holds the young artist under a tight rein is depicted by him with an unusually large mouth, most often open, or with huge clawed hands.

When he is literally brought to white heat by this type of upbringing by his parents and is so afraid of them that, although he wants to, he does not dare to “forget” to draw the “tormentor,” then he draws him most often without any mouth at all or without hands at all, so that at least in such a naive way to reduce the fear that captivated him.

As a rule, the drawing is full of cold tones. All warm tones belong only to those who give affection and take pity on the young artist, making his life at least a little easier.

7. Vos according to the type of increased moral responsibility. At first glance, it usually seems that all the drawings of such children are just one of many copies of a typical drawing with overprotection. But this is only at first glance. In fact, with increased responsibility, the artist, just like with overprotection, dreams of showing himself to us in a light favorable to him, now busy with something, now doing something, in order to draw at least part of our attention to this.

However, without realizing it, as a rule, in such drawings he highlights all the nuances and shades of parental upbringing in the family. And if, with overprotection, parents really are unable to take their admiring gaze away from the actions of the young artist, with this type of upbringing their gaze is not at all admiring, but rather evaluative and even slightly biased. And the color scheme in the picture can be very different. However, more often than not, the family member who laid the foundation for increased responsibility in the child is much colder than others. At the very least, there is always at least one dark stroke on it, most likely black - a kind of indicator of the child’s true attitude towards the member of his family depicted by him. A simple, ordinary indicator that breaks all masks.

Take a look at Figure 7 (below). You see a kind of arbitration court. The trial of a child who brought home a C for the first time. The parents' eyes are like the barrels of pistols, ready to shoot at one target. And this target is a first-grader, huddled in a chair, dreaming of merging with him, disappearing, dissolving in him, so as not to see this enraged gaze of his parents. A look of torture and a look of punishment. A look that speaks more than words. The plot is saturated with black color. All people look like blacks. And only a vase with bright flowers on the table and the “fire” of the carpet that flared up give us some kind of hope. Someday, a little later, the child will cope with the difficult mission of increased responsibility suddenly assigned to him. He will stand, he will endure, he will win.

8. Vos "in the cult of illness." And in the picture, a cult is always a cult, no matter what it is. Even though this is just a cult of illness. With this type of upbringing, the drawing seems to be permeated with an all-consuming egocentrism. Rules over everyone. And you involuntarily concentrate your attention on his figure. Like an idol or like overprotection - in such a picture it is most often in the center. Around him are those who constantly look after him in the house. Usually this is a mother or grandmother. There is rarely space left on paper for other family members. Quite often, even in the drawing, they depict how they are sick, and next to them are those who look after them all day and all night, or rather, constantly. But no matter how sad such a plot may sometimes seem to us, the “patient” still prefers to paint it with warm tones...

9. Vos as a “crown prince”."Crown princes" are the first to draw things. The world of materialism surrounds them on all sides literally from birth, the world of materialism, and not the world of people. The "crown prince" is then usually shown in a drawing of himself playing with these things. He rarely remembers his parents. Much more often, he places his friends next to him, who are able to share his loneliness, playing with the little “crown prince” with his overseas, priceless toys. There are often cases when “crown princes” “replace” a drawing of their own family with a drawing of a room with things...

10. Controversial. This type of upbringing is quite difficult to capture from one picture. The child most often “groups” individual family members into small groups. He places himself next to the one to whom he is most attached. And those relatives who “disturb him” are usually placed at a distance. There are often cases when an artist draws his grandparents as a “buffer” even when they are no longer alive.

11. Changing parenting patterns(see Figure 1 below). The drawing most often reveals the reason for the change in the type of child upbringing, and not the type itself, a type that actually does not exist.

When a newborn appears in a family, the former idol usually “forgets” to draw him among his relatives or, when depicting the baby next to his parents, does not leave room for himself. When dad leaves home forever, he continues to draw him in the family for a long time, as if nothing had happened, often even starting his drawing with his father. He probably just remembers the good and wonderful past, which he would like to return and make it real again.

		Rice. 1. Drawing of a 10-year-old girl, Saule R. “My Family.” Type of upbringing - change of upbringing models. An idol who was rejected due to the birth of other children in the family. And although the main one in the picture is the House, its Hearth, like Carlson, is somewhere on the roof of the house (or behind it). And there is simply no place for the former idol in the house.
Rice. 2. Drawing of a 6-year-old girl, Lera E. “My Family.” Type of education - neglect. Lonely, unwanted, rejected. And even the girl’s fragile figure resembles the letter “I”. Me, I'm completely alone in this world. And is there really not even a person in the city who would need me...
		Rice. 3. Drawing of a 7-year-old girl, Olya M. “My Family.” Type of education - family idol. The idol of the family in all its monumentality.
Rice. 4. Drawing of a girl 6 years and 7 months old. Sveta T. "My Family". The type of upbringing is closer to hypoprotection. A child who often feels lonely in the family and is jealous of his parents younger sister, to the sister, who gets not only the affection of mom and dad, but even their flowers. Dad's black trousers suggest that the girl is worried and bad habits father - a source of scandals in the house.
		Rice. 5. Drawing of a girl 6 years 5 months. Lera G. "My Family". Type of education - hypoprotection. Another example when, as if in a completely prosperous family, even admiring mom and dad, she feels superfluous, believing that she is not needed by them at all. Against the backdrop of his festively dressed parents, all the time occupied only with themselves, he agreed only at the request of the eldest to portray himself as a faceless silhouette.
Rice. 6. Drawing of a 13-year-old girl, Lena K. “My Family.” Vos like "Cinderella". No matter how Cinderella tries to attract her parents’ attention to herself by playing the piano, mom and dad don’t care about her, and they are completely absorbed in the family by the pampering and pranks of her brother.
		Rice. 7. Drawing of a boy 7 years 6 months old. Aidana S. "My Family". Vos according to the type of high moral responsibility.
Rice. 8. Drawing of a 10-year-old girl, Saule R. “The Family I Want.” The rejected idol (see Fig. 1) dreams of returning to the past, so that the family will be the same as before, with one child, of course, him. But, appearing as black strokes on the figures, the harsh reality haunts him: it is unlikely that this can happen again in his family.
		Rice. 9. Drawing of a 6-year-old girl, Lera E. “The Family I Want.” Dreams and reveries of a neglected child. At least the holiday united the family again. Let mom and dad finally see that they have grown up, become equal to them and dream of living in their own family.
Rice. 10. Drawing of a girl 6 years 9 months. Tanya B. "The Family I Want." The dreams and daydreams of a girl who is kept under a tight rein by her father (for explanations, see the text).
		Rice. 11. Drawing of a girl 6 years 8 months. Olya B. "The Family I Want." I want a family soaked in the sun, so that we are always only together, so that everyone is for everyone, and everyone is for one!

Modification of the drawing technique "My Family" - "The Family I Want"

So, you have taken only the first steps to diagnose intra-family relationships using the “My Family” test, which is so simple and at the same time so universal. However, in order to look even deeper into the child’s soul, you can also use our version of this test, modifying it into the “The Family I Want” technique.

To do this, after your family has finished drawing, turn the sheet of paper over to the other side and give him a new task: let him draw another family with the same pencils, but not a twin family, but the one he would like to have, in other words - “The family I want.”

“The family I want”... With your task, you managed to involuntarily press the levers of the child’s imagination, remove the brakes, lift the veil of his secrets, seeing what is hidden even for a child. And if the first of the drawings is most often something like a lock, which is not always possible to open because of the cipher, then the second drawing is the key to the lock, the code to the cipher. The second drawing is a positive after the retoucher worked with the negative of the first drawing. The second drawing is the “entrance” to what you want, the “entrance” to the “Beautiful Far Away,” which you would not mind having right now. You will not find in the second picture even a hint of the silhouettes of your future husband or future wife artist. You won't find his future children in the second picture. A child is simply not yet able to portray this to you himself.

He imagines “the family I want” only in the present. "Beautiful Far" is desired for him today. And for it to become obvious, you just need to remove the obstacles that stand in the way a little. And he easily “eliminates” them on paper, “neutralizing” them with his own methods. Therefore, usually in the picture “The Family I Want,” someone from the child’s true family often “disappears,” or dubious relatives appear, about whom few people knew. The artist either “shortens” or “lengthens” his family, making only a replacement and change of scenery that is understandable to him. When there is no visible replacement, then usually in the second picture the sequence of arrangement of the figures of the child’s parents, as well as his brothers and sisters, is different and differs much from the one that we saw during the “My Family” sample. As a rule, almost all relatives for some reason change places. And if suddenly the artist’s father kept him under a tight rein and because of this he was the first in the drawing “My Family,” then the second test puts everything in the right place. Therefore, when he nevertheless decides to “leave” even such a dad in the new family, he draws him at a distance from everyone and after everyone.

That relative whom for some reason “forgets” to portray in “The Family I Want”, as a rule, is the source of his discomfort, the cause of all worries and adversity. And, having “excluded” him from the members of his own family and thus completed his “judgment,” the artist seems to be telling us a way out of this situation and “hinting” how to implement it.

Look at the picture former idol(see Fig. 8). In “My Family” (see Fig. 1) he only depicted himself. But in “The Family I Want” he seems to be restoring the past. And dad and mom are next to him again, and not as before, behind a closed door. Indeed, “My Family” is indeed often a locked door. But “The Family I Want” is a gate wide open for others. And now the outcast (see Fig. 2) dreams of uniting a family with a holiday, in which he himself would be like a holiday (see Fig. 9) And the one whom his father kept under a tight rein takes everyone except his dad for a walk , accidentally “forgot” to call her father with her (see Fig. 10), and sends her older sister on urgent, urgent and important matters for her, in order to finally be alone with her beloved mother.

Oh, if only the fairy tale came true! Oh, if reality suddenly turned into a fairy tale! And the sun would always shine on the family. And everyone could not live without each other (see Fig. 11). I want a family soaked in the sun. I want a family that is like the sun. I want HOPE, FAITH and LOVE to always live in my family!

You have probably convinced yourself that most often the “masks” from the analysis of the drawing “My Family” are “torn off” only by the drawing “The Family I Want.” And if you suddenly had to limit yourself to one drawing, you would doubt your own guesses. Therefore, when it suddenly becomes difficult to decode the drawing test “My Family,” use its version “The Family I Want.”