INTERPRETATION OF THE CONTENT OF THE TECHNIQUE

GRAPHIC PROJECTIVE 'HOUSE-TREE-PERSON'

Traditionally, for a technique to be considered an instrument

projective, must confront the examinee with a stimulus or series of stimuli the
sufficiently unstructured or ambiguous for their meaning to emerge,
part, of the interior of the examined.

Asking an individual to draw a house, a tree, and a person constitutes a

a more ambiguous structuring than one might initially think. Although the
examined is told to draw a house, a tree, or a person, it is not clarified what
type of house, tree or person must represent. That is to say, since the examiner does not give
no indication, the answer arises from within the examined, whether regarding size
type, placement or presentation of the tree, or to sex, facial expression, body posture,
age, race, size, clothing, presentation (from the side, three-quarters profile, of
front) or action of the person.

It also depends exclusively on the examined the inclusion or exclusion of the

different details of the house, tree, of the person, as well as the importance given to them.
To take a recent example of sexual offenders, which I conducted with the HTP.
I will mention the fact that, just as normal people draw in houses.
chimneys that do not attract attention (clinically) I have observed that criminals
sexual experiences directly express the sensation of phallic maladaptation*.
Through drawings of chimneys that can take on the following variety of shapes: without
back part, or as if cut diagonally, transparent, for through them one can see the
ceiling (which expresses the feeling of little consistency that the examined has with
regarding your penis); leaning or falling off the edge of the roof, two-dimensional, but
placed in a three-dimensional cube (which conveys the feeling of the examined that
his phallic image has less substance than the rest of his body image); or else
they mask their feelings of phallic maladaptation under a disguise of virile efforts
compensatory** through the drawing of many chimneys (instead of one, which is the
conventional number) under one roof or from a huge elongated chimney; or from a
funnel-shaped chimney with a round tip; or a chimney that stands out greatly
due to the pressure of the line, the shading or the prominent placement (such as for example
a chimney that runs the entire length of the house, as it starts from the ground, or
It happens in some drawings that it is the focal point of the page.

However, this does not mean that the chimney is always a phallic symbol. In
the drawings of people with good fit usually the chimney is nothing more than a
more detail about the house. But in the cases of people who suffer from psychosexual conflicts,
is suitable due to its structural design and the way it emerges from the body of the
house, for the projection of internal feelings regarding the penis.

As a consequence of everything said, we can conclude that while in the technique of

In HTP, totally familiar stimuli are presented to the examinee, which at the same time are
so specific that in order to answer them it is necessary to project, or at least
to select. Sir John Lubbock said: “What we see fundamentally depends on those who
"we want to see" The same happens with drawing, we choose the house, the tree, or the person with
that we have a certain affinity or sometimes, with those we feel identified.

No matter how young the examined may be, they have never seen such a multitude of houses in their life,
trees and people that at the moment of drawing can only choose what is most meaningful to them
significant from a symbolic point of view. Whether you choose a vigorous oak, a willow
crybaby, a small sprout or a tree that environmental pressures have bent almost to the point of
make him touch the ground; or representing a stern-faced police officer wielding a
cachiporra, a nurturing maternal figure holding a plate of hot soup in her hands,
a helpless child figure, standing and with amputated arms, a naked figure and in
provocative attitude, with legs open, or a disheveled prostitute lying against the
curb of the sidewalk, in all cases he is choosing what he considers to have greater
emotional meaning. The same as in the Thematic Apperception Test, the examined
select from your past experience a topic, and this reflects your needs. Psychologists
clinicians have concluded that although the person offers a topic that has
seen in some cinematic movie, it is offering information of great interest
psychological. The specific topic chosen was primarily fixed in his mind and if later it was
selected from the file of remembered themes was probably due to the fact that it reflected
needs or significant traits of your personality.

When a person is responding to the HTP with the inner eye, they select and
decide the image that your needs will choose from the gallery of your memories.

This projection of direct feelings of phallic inadequacy was observed in the subgroup
pedophilic of sexual offenders, who seek out creatures as sexual substitutes,
due to their feelings of psychosexual inadequacy regarding relationships
with adult women.

Patients who rape women and attempt to do so, that is, by means of the
forced sexual relations test their masculinity, convey this phallic trait
compensatory in the distortions of the chimneys that draw in the houses.
 INHERENT SYMBOLISM OF THE TRIAD HOUSE-TREE-PERSON

Before considering the dynamic meaning of the different elements that

The drawings of the house, the tree, and the person compose, it is appropriate to refer to the areas.
most important aspects of personality that capture the three graphical concepts mentioned.

It has been found that the house as a place of residence provokes associations with the
home life and interfamily relationships. If it concerns children, it highlights the
attitude towards the situation in their homes and relationships with their
parents. An example of this relationship between the drawing of the house and the conditions that the
the examined perceives in his home is a drawing that we have already mentioned, in which
The chimney emits a dark and dense smoke that reveals the turbulent emotional atmosphere.
what was experienced in the home of the examined. When the examined are married individuals,
many times in their drawings of houses they represent the domestic situation with their
spouses however, in many married people, many times in their drawings of the house
is still in force the child-parent relationship. This relationship determines
residual situations that manifest in the drawing of the house. The more neurotic,
Regressive or fixed is the individual, the more likely it is that these attitudes will appear in the house.

Regarding the tree and the person, both concepts capture that core of the
the personality of theorists, especially Paul Schilder, referred to body image and
concept of self. The drawing of the tree seems to reflect the deepest feelings and
unconsciousness that the individual has of himself. As long as the person contributes the vehicle
of transmitting the self-image closest to consciousness and of the relationships with the
environment. In this way, it is possible to obtain a portrait of the conflicts and defenses of
examined, as they are ranked in the structure of their personality. It is considered
that the tree, as a basic, natural, and vegetative identity, constitutes an appropriate symbol
to project the deepest feelings of the personality, that is the feelings
about the self that is found in the most primitive levels of personality, levels of
those that do not reach the knowledge of people. The less profound aspects
together with the resources that individuals use for others and the feelings
Towards the neighbor, it is generally projected in the drawing of the person.

Confirms the hypothesis that the tree captures the most basic feelings and
durable is the circumstance that the graphic concept is least susceptible to change in the
retest. It is also evidenced by the fact that while a non-intensive psychotherapy can
achieve improvements that are manifested in the decrease of pathological signs in the drawings of
there, only extensive and profound psychoanalytic treatment (or very significant alterations)
of the vital situation, especially in children, whose personalities possess enough
elasticity to adapt according to environmental improvements) is capable of
make some changes, although generally, minor, to the drawing of the tree.

Clinical experience has shown that it is easier for the tree drawing to be
they attribute much more conflictive and emotionally disturbing traits and attitudes than
the drawing of the person, because the tree as a self-portrait is further away from oneself
same. The deepest or forbidden feelings are projected onto the tree most
easily than people, with self-defense maneuvers.
 For example, emotional traumas are more likely to manifest through
the drawing of a scar on the trunk of the tree or cutting the branches, that through
marks on the face or body of the person or damaging the arms.

The clinical discovery according to the prohibited feelings is projected with

greater ease in the tree than in the person is consistent with the basis of the test
Blacky de Blum, from the Thematic Apperception Test for children by Bellak and from the fables of
Awake. According to my experience, the animal figures that appear in the techniques
mentioned themes, in a way similar to the relationship that exists between the drawing of
the tree and the person are more suitable for projecting deep feelings and
negatives (that threaten the individual) that the human figures of human stimuli
type TAT, as well as the comparison between the drawing of the tree and that of the person provides data to the
The psychologist allows you to appreciate the hierarchy of the conflicts and defenses of the examined.

INTERPRETATION OF THE CONSTITUTIVE ELEMENTS OF THE HOUSE,

OF THE TREE, AND OF THE PERSON.

The content of the drawings, more than the expressive movements that are used in
drawing reveals the most unconscious qualities that exist deep within
personality.

HOUSE
ROOF
Empirical discoveries with the HTP indicate that individuals often use the
roof of the house to symbolize the vital area of fantasy. The colloquial expressions of
tipo “murciélagos en el campanario” “está mal de la azotea”, “tiene algunas tejas flojas”,
they refer to this symbolism by which the roof is equated with metal life. That is why
talks about those conditions in which fantasy distorts mental functioning
in terms of deterioration in the individual's roof.

Houses with excessively large roofs that protrude to the sides and shrink to the
House (see fig. 1) is typical of patients immersed in fantasy and removed from contact.
interpersonal and manifesto. (Generally the Rorschach of these individuals due to a
experimental balance very tilted towards the intratensive side (with an average portion
of movement color from 7 to 12M and zero to 2C). In the number of movement responses
human almost invariably exceeds the sum of color by four or five times.

Frequently, schizophrenic patients or those with pronounced schizoid traits draw a large
roof and then they place the door and the windows within the outline of that roof, in such a way
that the final result is a house purely roof (see figure 2). This should not be surprising since
both the schizophrenic and the schizoid inhabit a fundamentally
fantasized. They live more withdrawn in fantasy than those who, for example, draw a ceiling.
very large that extends beyond the walls of the house. In these there is a
accentuation of fantasy, which balances the structure of their personalities, while
Those who draw 'houses with only roofs' live a predominantly fantasized existence.
 The absence of a ceiling or ceilings that are just a line connecting both walls
at the ends, in such a way that they have no height (essentially they have only one
dimension instead of two), are characteristic of the opposite end of the continuum that
we could call it the use of fantasy.

The group that most commonly draws that type of roof formed by a single line
it is for the imbeciles, individuals who lack the ability for dreaming or fantasy, and
within the limits of intellectual normality, individuals who possess a
constrained personality and a specific type of orientation. (most likely that the
clinical practice finds this type of ceiling and is given together with a coercive protocol
of Rorschach

We can then affirm that the size of the ceiling reflects the degree to which the
an individual devotes their time to fantasy and turns to it in search of satisfaction.
When the roof appears reinforced by strong pressure on the lines or by a
repeated tracing of the outline (and this does not happen in other areas of the house), the most
It is likely that the examined is defending themselves against the threat of their fantasies.
escape their control (see figure 3). This type of roof appears frequently in the
drawings of psychotics and to a lesser degree in anxious neurotics. Anyway
it always represents the fear that the impulses unleashed in fantasy
begin to appear in manifest behavior or distort perception of the
reality.

DOOR

The door is the detail of the house through which contact is made with the
environment. The small door in relation to the size of the windows and the house in
general reveals a reluctance to establish contact with the environment, a detachment from
interpersonal exchange, and an inhibition of social relationship capacity. The correlate
The behavioral aspect of small doors is shyness and fear of interpersonal relationships.
Sometimes individuals who draw houses with doors that are too small offer
Rorschach protocols in which the reaction of the 'burned child' appears. The relationships
Emotional interactions with others have been painful, and the individual does not wish to try again.

Another attempt that is used to keep the personality separate and inaccessible.
it consists of placing the door well above the baseline of the house and without steps
to facilitate access to this (see figure 4). It is a form of representation
common in individuals who only tend to establish contacts with the environment within
his own terms.

The doors very large (here, as in all aspects of psychology, the

extremes are always pathological) are characteristics of people with an excessive
dependency on others. If the doors are open, a rarely observed statistical fact,
the examined reveals that he feels a great thirst for emotional affection and hopes to receive it
from outside (if the subsequent questioning * after the drawing indicates that the house is occupied). If
the house turns out to be empty, the open doors indicate a feeling of vulnerability
extremes and lack of adequacy of the yoic defenses.

The emphasis on the locks and/or hinges shows a defensive sensitivity.

of the type that is often found in paranoids.

WINDOWS

In the drawing of the house, the windows represent a secondary means of interaction.
with the environment. The emphasis on the locks of the windows, just like that of the
door locks, it is typical of those who excessively defend themselves from fear because of
the damages that may come from outside. This often happens in paranoid individuals. The
the addition of blinds and curtains when the windows are closed expresses the need for
to withdraw and an extreme reluctance to interact with others. When the windows have
blinds and curtains but they are open, or partially open, it must be understood that the
the person tends to act in the environment in a controlled manner. These are individuals with
a type of anxiety that manifests as 'touch' in social relationships. When in
relationship with a study of the personality patterns of different groups
Vocational social workers were interviewed, and their drawings showed a preference for
this attribute, sign of emotional control in contact with others.

The completely bare windows, which have neither blinds nor curtains nor veils,
and that are not even shaded, are typical of individuals who interact with their
environment in a very rude, harsh, and direct way. They have almost no tact, and are
the type of social participant who always 'causes trouble'.

When only the outline of the windows is reinforced, it is likely that the
a person with oral fixation or with oral character traits is examined. However,
sometimes individuals with anal traits also reinforce the outline of the
windows. In these cases, the drawing of the person will allow for interpretation
differential depending on whether the emphasis is placed on the oral area or the anal.

If we consider the size of the windows, according to convention, the one of the
the living room should be the largest and the bathroom the smallest. If the drawings are
drawing from this rule, we will have clues about emotional needs that
they press.

Behind the attempts to downplay the importance of the room by putting in windows.
smaller ones in the house, there is for example, an obvious annoyance regarding the
social exchange. Granting an undeserved importance to the bathroom through its placement
the larger windows imply that in the examined child's background there are certain
experiences related to severe sphincter training. This same detail
it has been found later in individuals who suffer from masturbatory guilt and in obsessives with
the symptom of compulsive hand washing.
 The placement of the windows in such a way that they do not fit with a wall
to the other (and suggesting that the height of a floor seen from the front of the house is not the
the same as if viewed from the side, as happens in figure 5), reveals difficulties
organizational and formal that, empirically, have been seen as indications of forms
early schizophrenia

CHIMNEY

It has already been discussed in the introductory section of this chapter, with the purpose of
illustrate the wide variety of treatments that can be agreed upon for just one of the details
of the drawings.

SMOKE

The dense smoke that billows profusely from the chimney may indicate a
considerable internal tension in the individual, conflicts and turbulence in the situation of the
house, or both things, since the last condition can give rise to the first and vice versa.

The smoke that drifts far to one side, as if there is a very strong wind,
it constitutes an index of environmental pressures, which is often related to the cases
children with reading difficulties, where parental pressures are a causative factor and
massive reactively. This type of smoke has also appeared in the drawings of
adolescents who are subjected to inappropriate parental pressure regarding
social conformity and/or academic achievements. And finally, it has also been found in
the tests of some individuals after having been incorporated into the armed forces.

PERSPECTIVE

The people who basically reject the domestic situation they are in and
the values advocated for there portray the house as if the observer were above
and looked down at it (a perspective that Buck called 'bird's eye view'). In these
people who have a combination of feelings of superiority with thoughts of
attitudes of rebellion against the traditional values that were taught to them at home. The
iconoclastic attitudes occur together with a sense of being above the
requirements of the convention and of the conformity. Buck conducted a study in which
I compare different groups of professionals, and I observe that this bird's eye view was
more common in medical students than in any other group.

People who feel rejected and inferior in the family situation, draw
the house from what has been called 'worm's eye view'. From this perspective the house
It seems as if the observer is below and looking up at it. In these people,
they mix feelings of devaluation, inadequacy, and low self-esteem.
unattainable domestic happiness.

When the house is presented from a distant perspective, that is, far from the
observer may refer to two distinct groups:
a) Those who project an image of themselves in the drawing of the house, and in this way
they represent a feeling of isolation and inaccessibility.
b) Those who in the drawing of the house convey their perception of the situation
familiar, a situation that the individual feels unable to face. In this case of
From a "distant" perspective, the individual expresses their feeling of the impossibility of feeling.
comfortable with those they live with. The perspective of 'absolute profile' constitutes
a significant deviation from the usual perspective. The expression 'absolute profile' is
It refers to the house that is drawn in such a way that the observer only sees one side of it.
The front of the house including the doors or any other entrance is turned around,
in a way that it becomes invisible and less accessible.

Distant people, oppositional or inaccessible from a point of view

interpersonal, they project these traits in the drawing of the house through perspective
mentioned. The evasive paranoids also seek refuge when they perform the HTP in
the perspective of "absolute profile." The house seen from behind and especially, without any
the back door shows the same opposition and distancing trends as
they expressed it in the perspective of 'absolute profile', but in this case it takes on proportions
more pathological. The only cases of 'vision from behind' that have had the opportunity to
I saw the drawings of paranoid schizophrenics, usually when they were still in...
a pre-psychotic state, in which the need for protection is felt very acutely.

LINE OF THE SOIL

The relationship of the drawing between the house, the tree, or the person and the ground line reveals the degree
of the examined person's contact with reality. The same symbolic current responsible for the
equation, ground or earth equals the practical reality manifested in language
colloquial in expressions such as 'he has his feet firmly planted on the ground.' The type of
contact with the ground (firm or weak) has enormous diagnostic value. The
latent or borderline schizophrenics always have difficulties with the presentation of
drawing firmly in contact with reality (represented by the ground line). His drawings
they tend to be weakly supported by a line on the ground placed or drawn sporadically,
either an amorphous and nebulous line, or they are often directly uprooted from the earth and
falling. The most pathological schizophrenic cases with greater distance from reality and
greater delivery to fantasy, they draw suspended entities that touch the line at no point.
drawn below the ground.

ACCESSORIES

There are individuals who directly express their lack of security by surrounding and reinforcing.
the house with bushes, trees, and other details that are not part of the instructions. The
added
From a path that leads to the well-proportioned door made with ease, the
An individual who exercises a certain control and tact in their relationships is common. But if the
the path is long and winding, it involves individuals who in their social relationships in a
at first they remain distant, but at times they warm up and then they can
establish emotional bonds with others. They are slow and somewhat cautious to make
friendships, but once the relationship develops, it comes to possess a great quality.

If the path leading straight to the door is very wide at the end
from the observer and gradually narrows so that upon reaching the door it is
much narrower than her, the drawing reveals the attempt to conceal by using
a superficial friendship the basic desires of isolation.

The fences around the house constitute a defensive maneuver, an 8-year-old child.
Years, very shy he drew a house whose most prominent feature was a fence 'to keep
"to everyone distant." It was as if he were trying to make sure that no one would interfere with the
scarce security that I felt.

SUMMARY
We could say that the drawing of the house generally represents one of the following
fundamental entities:
a) The image of oneself with its corresponding elements: area of fantasy, self,
contact with reality, accessibility, oral, anal or phallic predominance.
b) The perception of the family situation: past, present, desired future or some
combination of the three.

TREE

As Schactel pointed out, the fully mature and differentiated adult mind
To a certain extent, he is able to voluntarily assume different attitudes in his
perception or in their experience of the environment. Just as at a given moment
one can be the distant observer, in another one can open receptively to all the
impressions and the feelings and pleasures that they evoke, and in a third it is possible
project oneself in an experience of empathy with some object in the environment.

Let's take as an example the act of looking at a tree at a moment it can be the
distant botanist who observes, compares, and classifies what he sees in the next moment
can one surrender to the color of the foliage and the bark, to the sound of the leaves that murmur
with the breeze, and the fresh fragrance that arises after a "downpour" and in a third
At the moment, it can be about feeling the solidity or weakness within oneself kinesthetically.
with what it sustains and grows the trunk, the calm with which it extends the branches or the grace with
that moves and delivers to the wind.

We have seen that when the examinee draws a tree, from among the memories of the
countless trees it has seen selects the one with which it has a greater
empathetic identification and at the moment of drawing it, modifies and recreates it according to
his kinesthetic reaction, a reaction that feeds on his own internal feelings.
 For anthropologists, it is no surprise that the 'vision' one has of a
tree has a personal meaning. In myths and in folklore, and even in language.
diary, the tree has always symbolized life and growth.

In Scandinavian folklore, ancient myths tell the story of Yggdrasil, "the

tree of life." In German tales, it is said that the tree has its roots in the
the depths of the earth, in our primitive past; its trunk in the ground, among mortals;
and its branches extending and reaching the heavens, where gods dwell who govern the
humanity.

The symbolic meaning of the tree extends to the 20th century and is manifested.
when we talk about the "family tree", or in certain expressions, "as it leans the
"shoot, thus the tree grows." As we will see later, the individual depicted in the drawing of the tree
Forget the branches, it's him who does not 'branch out', does not mix with others nor enjoys them.
In this way, individuals project themselves during the process of drawing the tree,
thus offering a true self-portrait.

Sometimes the examined draw trees shaken by the wind and broken.
due to the storms, which actually represent the effect that the pressures
environmental impacts they have had on themselves.

In a recent case, it was made very clear through the drawing of the tree
manifested the unconscious emergence of self-image. It was about a woman who,
Under the tree, she drew a basket that contained five shiny fruits. The woman had
five children, and the drawing clearly represented her pride in the maternal role.

This positive evaluation is in stark contrast to the drawing of a tree of a

woman who was examined to find a clinical evaluation regarding a
psychotherapeutic program for his two children; one, a 20-year-old openly homosexual
years, and the other, an eleven-year-old boy with a severe reading disability.
healing. The woman drew a fruit tree with two striking apples lying on the ground,
next to the tree. This demonstrated the unconscious rejection he felt for his children and the
negative evaluation of herself as a mother.

The comment she made about the drawing (“These are two rotten apples that se
"they fell to the ground") brought, from her unconscious to the forefront, her image
mentioned.

The drawing of the tree can be intuitively grasped as a whole; even without a
detailed research is possible to receive an impression that can be of harmony, of
anxiety, of emptiness, of lack or abundance; and it is also possible to receive also a
impression of hostility. This also constitutes the first stage of learning of
method. One should passively submit to the effects that occur in a large
number of tree drawings, "to contemplate them", to simply look at them, without any attitude
criticism. In this way, looking becomes seeing, the differences begin to be seen, already
not all the drawings seem the same, and you start to get to know them more intimately
characters... Some drawings allow for the development of character studies. Others,
they simply constitute a contribution to personality diagnosis.

When Koch talks about the development line of the tree from the bottom up,
indicates that the drawing grows in a development that goes from the roots to the crown, that
development is parallel to the temporal psychic development of the examined, that is, to their history
psychological vital. Note that in the lower part of the trunk traces usually appear
the early experiences, and at the top, the most recent ones.
it aligns with Buck's experience that the lower the scars are in
the trunk of the most precocious tree has been the traumatizing experiences.

Levine and Galanter investigated this hypothesis with hospitalized paraplegics, and,
they compared the trunk height at which the scars appeared with the age at which it had occurred
established the paraplegic state. The analysis of this relationship led researchers to
the conclusion that "... the hypothesis may have some degree of validity in terms of a
broad approach to the time of the illness.

The most extreme case of scars I have had the opportunity to observe was that of
a twelve-year-old boy. He drew a destructive wound approximately in the middle of the
tree trunk. Thanks to a psychotherapeutic treatment carried out with ulteriority
it was known that when the patient was five years old, he had lost his mother, and that
Unconsciously, he had felt it as an abandonment that left him with a deep wound.

The young man was secretly angry with his mother for having abandoned him. At
At the same time, I thought he had been very bad because otherwise, the mother wouldn't have...
left. This feeling of a painful world emerged clearly in the tree that,
the last instance was a self-portrait.

The tree, a living thing or that at some point lived in an elemental environment
(rain, wind, snow, storms, heat or sun) is the most suitable of the three basic concepts
HRP graphics to convey the image that the individual has of themselves in the
context of their relationships with the environment.

Buck adds to this the following postulates:

a) The trunk represents the person's sense of their basic power and their
internal strength (in analytical terminology, "the strength of the self").
b) The structure of the branches represents the ability one feels to possess in order to obtain
satisfactions of the medium, penetrating to a more unconscious level of the area they capture
the arms and hands of the drawn person.
c) The overall organization of the drawing reveals how the individual feels, their balance
interpersonal.

There is a notable parallel between the first two postulates of Buck and the experience.
what Koch did in Switzerland: "The trunk often represents the basic area of
concept of oneself, the strength of the self... It should be assumed that when one draws a
tree the knowledge that is possessed of the wood will lead to everything related to
inherent qualities of this material are projected more clearly in the wooden parts
that, for example, in the foliage of the tree. "It is shaped in good wood." "The wood
that person is good," and similar expressions are very common among people from
speaks German when referring to the nature of people.

From these examples taken from the German language, we can take the famous phrase
American saying 'like father, like son'. Regardless of Buck but in agreement with his
according to the second postulate, Koch observes that 'the outer parts of the cup, the extremities,
they form the zone of contact with the environment, the zone of relationship and exchange between
internal and external.
We will now see the dynamic meaning of the treatment of details in the tree.

TRUNK

In support of the hypothesis that considers the trunk as an index of strength

basic to personality, it has been observed that if the peripheral lines of it are
Reinforced reveal the individual's need to maintain the integrity of their personality.
Reinforcement is a compensatory defense to cover up and combat the fear of
diffusion and the disintegration of personality. The individual tries to avoid them with all
resources at your disposal.
When, on the contrary, weak, sketched lines are used to draw the trunk
or dotted lines that do not appear anywhere else in the drawing, it is another stadium.
advanced fear of the collapse of personality or loss of identity; in
this stadium no longer holds the hope that the compensatory defenses will stop the
imminent collapse. In these cases, there is invariably acute anxiety.
The patients who draw holes and animals looking from them on the trunk,
they may be individuals who: a) internally feel that a segment of their personality
it is out of its control (dissociated) and is potentially destructive (the most extreme case)
frequent is that of people overwhelmed by the feeling of obsessive guilt), or b) it
they primarily identify with the animal that is inside the trunk, instead of
do it with the tree, and in this way they reveal their regressive traits through an existence
retrieved uterus, warm and protected. The identification with the tree is more frequent in
adult individuals and the identification with the animal that is inside the tree, is
more common in children. But the most reliable guides for differential interpretation are the
interrogation after the drawing, the other projective data available, and the history
clinic, as there is often an overlap of both age groups regarding
the figure of identification, whether in immature adults or in obsessive or phobic children (with a }
great potential for dissociation.

ROOTS

The excessive concern for contact with reality is expressed in the

exaggeration with which the roots of the tree are highlighted, since their function is the
contact with the ground. A patient drew claw-like roots (roots that were struggling to
"to cling" to the ground). Shortly after, he suffered a manifest psychotic breakdown and had to be
interned. When he was given the HTP, two weeks before the psychotic collapse, the
the way its drawing roots clung to the ground reveals the contact
hypervigilant of the patient with reality and the panic fear of losing it.

The roots that can be seen through the transparent soil are a direct indication.
a deterioration in the patient's reality judgment. If it is a person with
intelligence medium or higher and who is in the adolescent or adult age, this
deterioration of the criterion of reality should be considered as an indication of the possibility,
but only of the possibility that there are other signs of a schizophrenic process.

TREE WITH BASE ON THE EDGE OF THE PAPER

Insecure individuals, who suffer from feelings of inadequacy, often

use the bottom edge of the paper as a baseline for your drawings, they rely on this
part of the page as if this represented for them a compensatory security. It is
likely that depressed patients generally place their drawings in the section
the lower part of the leaf sometimes reaches the edge as well. For the interpretation
the difference between both possibilities is that it is necessary to take into account that depressive people use
weak lines as an expression of depressive weakening of energy and drive, and that
In general, they choose the weeping willow as their favorite tree.

BRANCHES

The branches represent the resources that the individual feels they possess to obtain
satisfactions of the environment, to extend to others and to "branch out" in achievements
Right. The branches of the tree, with respect to the concept that the individual has of themselves.
they constitute a more unconscious analogy of the arms in the drawing of the person.
Joyce Kilmer, in his epic work, touched the strings of symbolism as a poet by expressing the
next analogy; a tree that 'extends its leafy arms to pray.'

Some individuals sometimes try to mask with superficial optimism.

and compensatory his deepest feelings of inability to obtain
satisfactions. It is likely that in these cases they draw people with very long arms,
extended outside the body in a brave attitude. But they will ultimately betray themselves in the
tree, the one that will probably have broken branches. This will reveal that in reality, the
the patient has no real hope of success.

The high and narrow branches, which stretch upwards and hardly outwards
sides, are typical of drawings of people who fear seeking satisfactions from
environment and in the environment, and therefore they take refuge, more than necessary, in the
fantasy (up to the top of the page to obtain a substitute gratification. The
individuals who most commonly engage in this type of branches are those found in the
a line that goes from introversion to schizoidia.
 The case is different when the branches extend laterally outward, towards the
environment, and also upwards, towards the area of fantasy; here a greater is noticed
equilibrium.

Some people emphasize the extent of the branches upward so much that the
The end of the tree exceeds the upper border of the page. This constitutes an example.
extreme of immersion in fantasy. While introverts and schizoid individuals exaggerate the
extension of the branches upwards, when they extend beyond the upper edge
the existence of a frank schizophrenic state should be considered possible
manifesto or in its development. And even more so if the trunk exceeds the edge
mentioned.

On the contrary, some examined flatten the top of the

foliage or crown, as if they were trying to completely deny or reject the area of fantasy.
Recently this was observed in the case of a patient who felt panic at their
homosexual fantasies, and of another that tried to deny the perception of painful guilt
that brought him fantasies of killing his younger brother. These two patients were seeking
repress fantasies, and deny the threatening contents imposed on them.

The unidimensional branches that do not form structure and are inadequately
linked to a one-dimensional trunk (segmentation) suggest the possibility of symptoms of
organicness (see figure 6). Although the nuances of the other drawings and the others
projective techniques as well as the case history and neurological data suggest or not
organicity, this type of tree always conveys a feeling of helplessness and of
futility, of lack of strength of the self and of a poor integration of resources for the
search for satisfactions, all of which contributes to creating a graphic picture of
inadaptation.

The flexibility of the branch structure, organized in such a way that they extend from
from the thickest to the finest in a distal direction constitutes a favorable piece of information and
indicates a great ability on the part of the examined to obtain satisfactions from their
environment. This is the case as long as the size of the branches is related to the trunk.

Branches of the club type or spear type with sharp tips at the ends or with
Thorns like spikes indicate the presence of intense hostile and aggressive impulses. If the
manifest behavior indicates that the person does not act according to such impulses, but rather, because of the
On the contrary, it is quite gentle and docile; we can assure that it is a fitting.
superficial, achieved at the expense of massive repressive efforts accompanied by a
considerable internal tension. In these cases, the psychologist should analyze in detail
the drawings in order to find indices of uncontrollability that allow for the assessment of the possibility
of emergent actions of these impulses.

The excessive emphasis on control indices may indicate possible disruptions.

impulsive in manifest behavior, as the individual may be on the edge of
exhaustion of its defensive potential.
 The bidimensional branches and open at the distal end reveal poor control.
about the expression of impulses (see figure 7). A deteriorated schizophrenic, with the
intuitive sensitivity of the patients whose unconscious processes have invaded the
awareness commented precisely in relation to the drawing of a tree with open branches in
the extreme: “This is my portrait, without control over what comes out of me, over the things that
I do.
The branches that look more like penises are typical of people with
sexual concerns and/or struggles for the pursuit of virility.

The broken and cut branches express the feeling that the examined person has of being
traumatized and of not forming a complete internal unit. It is about feelings of
"castration" which on a psychosocial level can manifest as feelings of
inadaptation, uselessness, and extreme passivity, and at a psychosexual level, of feelings that
they can range from the feeling of a lack of virility to impotence.

If the trunk is truncated, and small branches grow from the tip, the person feels
that the core of the self is already damaged. I have only seen this type of drawing twice and in both
cases involved children who had started a therapeutic treatment.

This type of tree represented a halt in emotional growth and the

first efforts, although weak, to grow again, efforts perhaps stimulated by the
initial phase of treatment, (one of these patients interrupted treatment when
moved to another city, but the other one, upon finishing his therapy, drew a tree covered in fruits that
he expressed his renewed feeling of capability and optimism regarding growth
future).

Buck recounts a similar experience: a neurotic patient who was going through
a difficult climacteric, testosterone was prescribed to him. After this, he added to the long trunk and
without branches that I had drawn, small unidimensional branches that looked like lace.

When the branches instead of directing themselves towards the environment, do so centripetally,
toward the tree, we are facing cases of egocentrism with strong tendencies to
introversion. This type of tree has only been observed in obsessive-
compulsive.

The very large branches on a relatively small trunk reveal an exaggeration.

concern about the search for satisfactions. Recently, I had the opportunity to
to observe him when he was administering the tests to a person, one night a week.

The patient's projective protocol was extensive and rich, and before concluding with everything
it was already midnight. The patient asked for permission to call his wife, and he
I offered a thousand apologies for arriving so late to your house. I heard with
surprise that I was calling to decide if they were meeting at the Club at one in the morning
from the Stork or at the Twenty-Five Club to start the evening. When I asked him where to
the time their business meetings began the next day, he responded very naturally:
"At nine." Her imperative pursuit of pleasure as an attempt to appease or, at least
masking the inner voice of doubt regarding one's importance as a person, supported
the interpretation (exaggerated emphasis on the pursuit of satisfactions) that emerged from the
unbalanced structure of the branches.

The opposite end, that is, the structure of the very small branches, and the trunk
excessively large, indicates that the patient experiences frustrations due to their
inability to meet urgent basic needs.

A twenty-two-year-old newlywed woman whose husband had been recruited a while ago.
very little time, drew a tree of this type. His feelings of sexual frustration and
Emotional aspects also appeared in the protocols of the Rorschach test and the TAT.

Sometimes, especially in children's drawings, the branches extend towards the

This is common in drawings by young people with a strong frustrated need for affection.
The tree extends its branches seeking the warmth of some significant authoritative figure.
this case represented by the sun) of which the examined is in need.

It is possible for a child to draw a tree that leans away from a big sun.
that is a short distance from him. This is often the case in individuals who are trying
to distance themselves from any parental figure or any type of authority, because they feel
painfully controlled, subdued and, consequently, maladapted.

Before finishing this section, it is worth mentioning a type of branches that occurs
rarely but it has a very clear symbolic meaning: it is about branches
secondary ones that are drawn like spikes and that are inserted into the primary branches.
tips of the secondary branches, instead of being at the distal end, are found
at the point of contact with the trunk of the tree or with the branches from which it grows. These
small branches seem to bury themselves in the larger branches instead of growing from them.

Surely the reader has already anticipated: it is about

masochistic trends.

I remember a drawing of this type. On one occasion, the woman who made it complained about
the inconveniences caused by the kitchen pipes, as they had a malfunction, and
I had to call the plumber many times in just a few days. "If I have to
to call him one more time... (and the author hoped to hear that the phrase would end with some sort of
expression of rage, directed extrapunitively, such as hitting the plumber in
the head with the kitchen stick) ...I pulled my hair out.” This intra-punitive orientation of
the aggression matched the masochistic orientation suggested by the branches of the drawing.

Between the intro-punitive trend and the extrapunitive trend, there are individuals.
predominantly in punitive. This is reflected in the drawing of the tree, because these
people usually wrap the ends of the branches with circles like clouds. The roughness
from the branches is cushioned by a cotton pad. They are people whose aggression
it is not downloaded either internally or externally, as the inhibition prevents it. Often
they accompany this 'impunitive treatment of the branches' with pleasant ways and a gentle
way of speaking.
 In general, we can say that the overall impression of the branches is
correlates with a broad view of the individual's personality.

Whether the branches or the foliage convey a proper impression of liveliness and
softness, that have angular, hard, and firm contours, or that are drawn
spasmodically, with irritation, anxiety, and insecurity, in all cases the sheet of
drawing serves as the fabric from which the individual outlines the most enduring style of
her personality.

LOCK TYPE TREE

Because it resembles a lock, this tree with a trunk and foliage is called that.
drawn with a continuous line, with no separation between the cup and the trunk.

It is an enclosed blank space, with no relevance. The same as the

blank space response on the Rorschach,
It is characteristic of oppositional and negativistic individuals. When the examined person draws
This type of tree obeys the examiner's instruction, but only in part. They are people
that without completely refusing to draw, they do the least possible.

DISCONNECTED TREE

The name of this graphic response is due to the fact that the side lines of the trunk do not
they connect to each other, extending upward, each forming its own branch of
independent structure (see figure 8). It gives the impression of a dissociated or divided tree
vertically in half. They actually look like two one-dimensional trees, one next to the other.
of the other. These trees indicate the existence of a rupture of personality, a
dissociation of its fundamental components, a collapse of defenses and the danger of
that the internal impulses are reflected in the environment. If there is any sign in the HTP that
it can be considered pathognomonic of schizophrenia, that sign is this. Both Koch and
Buck considers that the split tree was an index of schizophrenia.

THEME

There are topics that explain themselves; it is not necessary to clarify the meaning of.
condemnation that implies a tree with a hawk hovering over its top, or the meaning of
degradation that reveals a tree urinated on by a dog or the feeling of impending
bodily mutilation that transmits the drawing of a man identified with a figure.
parent that threatens the tree with total destruction by axe.

We have observed that pregnant women draw with notable frequency.

fruit trees, and that depressed patients show a striking preference for
crybaby sauces. Often children draw apple trees; to be exact, with a
35% frequency at kindergarten age, 9% around 10 years old, and nearly
Grandma, when they turn 14 years old. It seems that children identify with the fruit.
while the tree represents the maternal figure; as we have seen, the children who
they feel rejected, drawing the apple about to fall from the tree already detached from it.

AGE ASSIGNED TO THE TREE

When an adult, instead of a fully developed tree, draws a

little sprout, clearly expresses his feelings of immaturity. But above all
ways to obtain a more accurate index of the evolutionary level that the tree seems to transmit to
The subject is questioned about the age of the tree he drew.
According to your experience, the projected age is linked to the psychosexual level that the
The examined feels ownership. This was confirmed through an experimental study that I directed.

The subjects of the experiment were sixty-four sex offenders from the
Sing Sing prison, half of whom were convicted of the crime of rape of a
adult woman, and the other half, for sexual acts with a girl (pedophilia). The
rapists served as a contrast group with pedophiles in relation to the factors
such as the experience of detention, trial, and imprisonment for a crime
sexual as well as serving in a prison environment more or less common at the time when it
I conduct the study.

Clinical research has shown that pedophiles are individuals who

they feel psychosexually immature. They are fixated, or have regressed to a childlike level. Of
according to normative studies, at that level sexual impulses are expressed under the
the forms of sexual manipulation by pedophiles are limited to those forms. Due to their
immaturity, to satisfy his sexual needs, the pedophilic seeks sexual objects
immature for the age at which he feels psychosexually adapted. In his play
sexual intends to choose, so to speak, another child as a partner.

As a result, if we consider the assumption that the rapist is related

with adults and the pedophile does it with children because psychosexually he feels more
less mature than the other, a comparison between the ages attributed to the trees by both
groups will allow us to investigate the validity of Buck's hypothesis regarding age
ascribed to the tree as a reflection of the level of psychosexual maturity that the subject feels they possess.

The results were highly significant in the predicted direction. The measure
the age attributed to the rapists was 24.4 years while the one attributed to the
pedophiles of the rapists at a reliability level of one percent and serves to
confirm the Buck hypothesis.

DEAD TREE

One of the questions after the drawing refers to what the individual feels in relation
with the quality of life or death of the tree. The examiners who answered the question "That tree
Is it alive?” They reply that no, that the tree is dead, they should be considered as patients.
with a bad fit.
 This response prevails in schizophrenics, depressed individuals, and severe neurotics who
they have lost hope of achieving an adequate adaptation. That is to say, that these
comments have a negative meaning from a predictive point of view, the same
that in any other sign that suggests feelings of uselessness. In another study on
sexual offenders I verified that there was a progression from rapist subjects to
heterosexual pedophiles and from these to homosexual pedophiles in relation to the
frequency with which they saw "dead" trees, which aligns with the increase in distance
regarding the appropriate sexual object.

On one hand, this data confirms the fact that the sickest people
psychologically they are the ones that consider the tree 'dead' and on the other hand allow considering the
the homosexual pedophiles (who deviate from the norm both in age and in
gender of the chosen partner) as the sickest subgroup of sexual offenders
studied. The increase in distance from the appropriate sexual object is parallel to
increase in the likelihood of a serious psychopathology. Likewise, the
the appearance of dead trees in the HTP suggests the possible existence of a serious
pathology.

If in the questioning after the drawing the patient states that the tree is
dead, we must find out if for him the death was caused by something external or internal. If
the patient claims that what caused the tree's death are things such as parasites, the
wind, natural agents, lightning, etc. This is blaming the external environment for their
difficulties. Generally, these patients suffer from intense feelings of
traumatization, if on the contrary they claim that what caused the death was something internal,
for example that the roots, the trunk or the branches were rotting, it is about
individuals who consider their own person as harmful and unacceptable. I have observed
that in general there is a pathology and a much more intense guilt in those patients
they perceive the tree rotting from the inside than those who consider that its death
it was caused by external agents. If all other variables remain the same, the
Forecasting is generally better when attributed to external agents.

When the examinee perceives the tree as 'dead', they should be asked how much
time since he has been dead. It has been proven that the time elapsed since death
the tree can indicate the duration of feelings of mismatch and incapacity of the
examined the massive feeling of uselessness or loss of hope, as appropriate
case.

To conclude this section dedicated to the tree, it may be necessary to make a

Warning; "It should be taken into account that it is not always possible to be sure, based on
of the drawing only, about which of the possible meanings is correct for each
individual case. Some meanings are always correct as general formulations;
others, on the contrary, should be considered as provisional indications in order to
then discover the most exact meaning in a complete examination of the results of
interrogation, observation, test results, etc.
PERSONA

The person constitutes the concept of the HTP most frequently is done in
incomplete form or is totally rejected, as it is the self-portrait that is closest
of oneself." Due precisely to that difficulty, it may determine that in the examined
the fear of failure arises, especially in those individuals who feel that the test "does not
It will go well for them for this reason during the drawing of the people is when most often
the examiner's support is needed.
Regarding the topic, the drawing of the person can motivate three types of themes: the
self-portrait, the ideal of the self, and the representation of significant people for the subject
(parents, siblings, etc.).

a self-portrait that reveals what an individual feels to be.

Often in drawing the person, the contours are reproduced with precision.
corporal (obese or thin), physiological areas, such as a nose
ganchuda, and large ears, etc. Patients with average or below average IQ, due to the
generally reproduce their own physical traits in the drawing of people as
as if they were looking in a mirror. That is, if the individual has their hand
twisted right reproduces this condition in the left hand of the person who
draw. On the contrary, abstract capability allows for representation in image
not spectacular not spectacular (that is, that on the right side of the interviewee there is
represented on the right side of the person's drawing). It is rarely found in
subjects who do not have a high IQ.

It has been observed that physiological diseases and physical disabilities

they are reproduced in the person's drawing only when they have influenced the concept that he
examined has of itself, consequently creating an area of psychological sensitivity.

In addition to physical defects, physical qualities are also projected: breadth of

shoulders, muscle development, general appearance. So much so that even individuals with
artistic incapacity draws people that resemble them a lot.

In the drawing of people, in addition to the physical self, an image of the self is projected.
psychological. Therefore, it is possible that individuals with a normal height or above
They usually draw small figures with their arms hanging down with disinterest on the sides and
with a pleading expression on their face. In this case, they project a psychological image.
of themselves: small, insignificant, useless, dependent, and with little need for support
emotional despite the physical self they possess.

An adult man who was always accommodating, living with his parents and was
controlled by a calculating mother, I drew a puppet.

A nine-year-old boy drew 'a football doll'. The social worker reported
The child was frequently punished by being deprived of food and whipped with a
whip of seven strips. When he urinated, they submerged him in cold water 'so that
He was punished by his brother while his mother was at work. Everything
this determined in him an unconscious self-concept of a 'football doll' whose only
the function is to receive punishments.

In another case, a patient’s self-contempt was manifested in the drawing of 'a

man begging for alms. His feeling of uselessness regarding his fit for the role.
masculine was revealed in the drawing that consisted of a man with clothing
too big for him: the clothes fell from his shoulders and his body did not fill them.

Other examples are: the aggressive ape-like person that drew a criminal
sexual: the staggering person, losing balance of a preschizophrenic; the clothes
of a mannequin that suggests feelings of depersonalization: the drawing created by a
teenager of a person with a baseball bat in one hand and a tennis racket in the other
another one, and with a mustache, all these signs of virility reveal underlying feelings of
inadequacy in that area: the exhibitionist woman who devised a way for the woman of
drawing could be exhibited on the excuse that a strong gust of wind lifted it
skirt over the head: the drawing of a clown as a fusion of attempts of the
examined for representing the harmlessness of their instinctive impulses with the secondary use of
this concept to attract attention; the reduction of energy suggested by the drawing of
a person sitting in an armchair instead of standing on their feet (like
statistically it is the norm), and the need for emotional warmth and security that
It involves placing the figure in an armchair in front of a fireplace drawn in great detail;
the narcissism revealed by the drawing of a woman who caresses her hair with one hand
while she dances alone to the music (confirming with the response from the Rorschach:
Animal looking at its reflection in the water), and the paranoid drawing of a man with the body
of profile and rigidly erect, which manifests his rejection of facing reality and his
rigid lack of acceptance. All these topics support the thesis that the drawing of the
A person can represent a psychological self-portrait.

b) AN IDEAL OF THE SELF INSTEAD OF A PORTRAIT OF WHAT HE

SUBJECT FEELS THAT HE/SHE IS.
A thin, almost fragile man, intensely paranoid, drew a boxer whose
Shoulders had the dimensions of those of a Hercules.
A young single pregnant woman, who felt terrible shame about the extent of her
belly so revealing of her condition, drew a flexible, agile and slender dancer
spinning free of all weight.

Teens often draw muscular athletes in swimsuits, and the

teenagers, movie actresses in party dresses, that is to say ideal states that the
teenagers long for.

Regarding obese patients who seek therapy, I have found that they
they continue to adhere to their ideal of the self (that is, they draw a thin person instead of
an obese person) have a considerably better prognosis.
 c) REPRESENTATION OF A SIGNIFICANT PERSON FOR HIM
SUBJECT IN ITS CONTEMPORARY OR PAST ENVIRONMENT, WHETHER BY
A positive Valencia or a negative one.

The transposition onto paper of the individual's perception of the

significant figures of the environment, in contrast with those of one's perception
the same* occurs more in children's drawings than in those of adolescents or adults. By
in general, the person who draws is a parental figure. The fact that the
representation of the parental figure occurs more frequently in the drawings of
children that in adults probably obeys the greater importance that
parents possess in the child's life the need that the child has to possess a
model to identify with and incorporate into one's self-concept. For this reason, the
type of perception of the mother or father figure that the child manifests in their
drawings constitute a prophetic data, as they predict the traits that years later a
The retest graphic will show that the child has incorporated.

An eight-year-old boy, sent to be examined for being excessively

troublesome with his classmates, he drew a threatening man from every angle.
from a distance: you could see the sharp teeth, in one hand he had a club and the fingers of the other
they were very unconventional; they constituted a clear representation of something akin to the
extremes of scissors, a weapon that could cut and damage vital parts of the patient. The
Research by the social worker revealed that the father was a despot.
in every way, a cruel, punitive, and domineering man. The pugnacious attitudes
the patient was seen to be defending against the threat of the father, invested with
destruction through the universal mechanism of incorporation.

In a compressible self-protective maneuver, he covered himself with the enemy's mantle.

to place oneself out of the reach of harm. He became the one who intimidates instead of the
intimidated. The incorporation process became the bridge through which the
the examined tried to obtain comparative security.

In this way, projective drawings tend to reveal the felt self,

the ideal of the self, and –we dare to say– the future self (except in cases where it is given the
intervention of psychotherapeutic treatments or significant changes in the situation
environmental).

Sometimes both possibilities occur simultaneously in the same drawing.

transmitting a merged image of the self and others.
Adults who draw parental figures are generally found to be 'managed by
the past" and have never achieved total independence from parental control.