Thirty-Year Study Links Neuroscience, Specific Trauma, PTSD, Image Conversion, and Language Translation

Abstract

Despite voluminous literature on trauma, studies on specific trauma and art expression remain sparse. Recurring graphic forms produced by sexual abuse victims have appeared in art therapy publications dating back to Naumburg (1958), but links between sexual abuse-assault and recurring graphic forms were not considered. In 1973, this author began a 30-year study of recurring graphic forms in drawings by this incidentspecific group. Results reveal victims produce an artistic language not produced by nonvictims. Analyses using repeated ANOVAS determined frequency of occurrence of graphic forms across 225 drawings of 45 adult females. Findings indicate distinct graphic forms symbolize sensory-perceptual elements and stimulate integration of traumatic effects by image conversion through language translation, artistic to linguistic.