What's up with the crazy Russian painter?

May 8, 2008 6:39 AM

About a year ago there was a thread bouncing around the net about a Russian painting that some psychiatrist claimed contained clues to the painter's psychological condition(s). Anyone recall this?

The painting was a winter scene in the 18th or 19th century, presumably in Russia. There were several horse-drawn sleighs and children playing in a park of some kind. The psychiatrist was mum on the condition, making folks guess about it, and lots of blogs had people's theories, even here on MeFi. What was the condition, or was it just a hoax?

posted by zardoz to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

Here is the painting.
posted by iconomy at 6:46 AM on May 8, 2008

Related (though in reverse, person describes ambiguous painting to reveal him or herself) is the idea of projective tests in psychology, such as the Thematic Apperception Test or the Rorschach inkblot test.
posted by ALongDecember at 6:53 AM on May 8, 2008

Here is the MetaFilter post about it, btw. Not sure if there ever was a resolution.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 7:47 AM on May 8, 2008

Nothing came from it because it was bogus to begin with. The site that made the original claim is in the big spam frying pan in the sky.

There is no projective drawing/painting test that can give you the concern or diagnosis the person who drew/painted it. It was an intriguing but patently ridiculous claim to begin with.
posted by docjohn at 10:25 AM on May 8, 2008