Sometimes, a person in the drawing can have a head that is too big for the body, and relatively short arms and legs made of triangles: this is a sign that the brain is overheated and hands and feet are cold, and that is a typical symptom pointing to the state of anxiety.
Fig. 5. A big head as a sign of anxiety in the constructive drawing of a person
A circular head and an oval body point to phobia.
Fig. 6. The reflection of fright and fear in the constructive drawing of a person. A round head and an oval body, big eyes, and a navel as a place affected by frightening information; periphery seems to be reduced and drawn with triangles.
A square head and a circular body are signs of conflict involving anger, outrage, or an insult.
Fig. 7. The outline of a protest and anger in a constructive drawing of a person: a square head, an “inflated’ body, energy moved from the arms to the place of the trauma, the legs look like pillars and signify the decision to “stand on one’s ground.”
The age of the person in the drawing sends us to the period when the given symptom appeared. As a rule, this is a period of certain life changes or significant events13.
When working through the neurotic tensions, we will return to this test, but for now, we will just use this information as a certain point for the future work with some references for interpretations.
Now, let’s turn to another specific configuration of the drawing with “a hat on the head.”
Cerebral ischemia
A head with ‘a hat’ on top of it can be a sign of the cerebral malnutrition. This can also be the cause of bad grades. The main source of the problems here is the impulsion from the intervertebral discs, which causes tension in the muscles of the back, neck, and can cause spasm of the blood vessels feeding the brain. Neurologists call this “a vertebral artery syndrome,” or “a vertebrobasilar insufficiency.” The zones of discomfort are usually shown, as a triangular neck, or as a triangular body with its vertex, touching the neck, or as a body composed of several shapes. Places, where shapes are narrowed, or two elements are connected, point to the level of the spasm.
Fig. 8. A big head and shortened limbs: this is how people feel when they experience anxiety or information overload; a narrow place, where the neck is a sign of the problems with the spinal cord. A combination of the heightened brain activity and its insufficient blood supply due to the vasoconstriction leads to energy deprivation of brain tissues, and this, in turn, creates the risk of hypertension and panic attacks to compensate for this syndrome. The “hat’ on the head points to the fact that the brain is suffering from oxygen deficit due to its large consumption and lack of its supply. Tension in the temporal region compensates for the sensation that the head is swollen.
The conflict between big nutritional demands of the brain and its relatively small supply is rather dangerous.
Panic attacks
Lack of oxygen supply to the brain is a serious condition, which not only leads to the decrease of brain efficiency, but also increases the risk of high blood pressure and so-called sympathoadrenal episodes: that is when an adrenaline rush takes place in order to improve brain nutrition. Such states are also referred to as ‘panic attacks’. According to my hypothesis, hypertension and recurrent adrenaline rush simply execute the “order’ of the “starving’ brain tissues. Their signals are processed by the thalamic structures (which are also “a conductor’ of all neurohormonal processes), and this subsequently triggers chain reactions leading to panic attacks or permanent high blood pressure. This is one of the many ways, how our body regulates its activity to save its starving tissues. The ischemized tissue dies and stops screaming for help. Some time ago, I described these phenomena in several publications, referring to them as “a syndrome of unclear head,” or “cerebral energy deficiency syndrome’ (Ermoshin, A., 2002, 2008).
We have planned to take some action aimed at decreasing the level of stress and maintaining the healthy condition of the blood vessels. These actions can help us re-establish the efficient functioning of the brain and prevent panic attacks, hypertension, or a brain haemorrhage as well as establish an effective learning pattern.
Influence of upbringing
Speech block can manifest itself not only in case of a foreign language, but it can also be connected with the conditions of one’s upbringing. There are families where communication does not really seem to play such an important role. Parents and kids either simply have no time to talk or, what is much worse, children are asked to “keep their mouths shut’. There is a syndrome called “alexythymia,” where a person suffering from it is not capable of identifying emotions and expressing them. There are also cases when a child stops talking, as a result, of a deep emotional trauma. These reactions are called “selective mutism’ (Shevchenko, Y.S. et al., 2007/ Шевченко Ю. С. с соавт., 2007).
A gag in the mouth
A colleague of mine once told me that he had to work with a girl who involuntarily stuffed handkerchiefs or paper tissues into her mouth. From their sessions and the conversation with her parents, he found out that she had often been told to “keep her mouth shut’. When she did not obey, she was often punished. It is no wonder this patient developed a major neurosis14.
Tensions in the relationship with the parents or with the teachers can often have a negative effect on the speech.
Influence of historical associations
A language can be seen as attractive or repellent because of the associations it evokes.
For example, in the USSR in the 70-ies, the English language was often associated with rock’n’roll and freedom. “I would learn English only because Lennon spoke it” was a famous phrase among fans of the Beatles back then (which is a changed quote from Mayakovsky’s “I would learn Russian only because Lenin spoke it”). Nowadays, English is the language of international communication, and people seem to have a more neutral reaction to it. We will have to wait and see what it will be associated with in the future.
Not so long ago, German was closely associated with fascism, tragic moments in the history of Russia and pain.
The soldiers are fighting back
Inna lived in the South of Russia, and these are her impression from her trip to Germany. She went on a ferry cruise on the river Rhine.
As she was standing on the deck and listening to the ubiquitous German speech, she was trying to feel this language. Suddenly, she felt that every cell of her body was trying to resist it. It felt as if, as on some round screen, she saw the following picture: “Russian soldiers organized an all-round defence and were shooting back from every available weapon at the German words, which were trying to get into my mind and body.” She was surprised to experience such a sensation since there had not been any particular stories connected with WWII in her family history. “After this experiment, my body was filled with this obsessive vigilance and a wish (just in case) to leave this very hospitable country15.”
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