[net.suicide] self-portraits

kenr (03/03/83)

I had an interesting telephone discussion last night with a 
friend of mine who administers psychological tests.  One
particularly interesting test is to ask the subject to
draw a picture of himself.  In the interest of brevity I
won't describe *everything* psychologists look for
in a subject's self-portrait, but one important clue
that may reveal suicidal tendencies is the resemblance
of the drawing to a popular cartoon character.  For example,
many potentially suicidal subjects tend to draw themselves
as one of the characters from "Peanuts", often Snoopy.

Those of us who draw self-portraits that resemble bathtubs
full of brightly-colored machine parts are diagnosed differently,
as you might expect.

Your pal,

Ken Rhodes

P.S. Van Gogh doesn't count.