From the very beginning I must declare that I am no expert concerning children’s drawings. However, in acknowledging this,  I want to share with you some of the remarkable drawings which children have given to me over the years for the purpose of opening up a discussion about the language of children’s developing intrapersonal intelligence. (“Intrapersonal intelligence entails the capacity to understand oneself, to appreciate one's feelings, fears and motivations. In Howard Gardner's view it involves having an effective working model of ourselves, and to be able to use such information to regulate our lives.” Reproduced from the encyclopaedia of informal education [www.infed.org]) Children do have an inner life. It is difficult for us to fully comprehend it because we are locked into the adult habit of thinking in words and concepts and, to some extent, we are burdened by adult fears and self consciousness. Children love the visual spatial language of drawing. It is a natural and spontaneous expression for them, a joyful thing without heavy self consciousness and sometimes, when the need is  there, when life is confusing or a question needs an answer, children will pose the question and the answer in the  language and code of drawing.

As we adults do, children seek clarity and will ask questions to  find that clear safe path through the sometimes deep and dark forests of experience. One five year old boy who was in the care of his grandparents, because his father had died and his mother was incapable of caring for him,  put one of those questions. When I said to him that in the photos he showed to me that he and his dad seemed to be having so much fun together, he replied “ If bad people kidnap me and tie me up will my dad come in the room and untie me?” Here is a child grappling with experience and trying to make some sense of it so he can navigate his way.  What is death?  What will happen to me? Who will protect me? It is so poignant when we hear from little children the same questions which the adult world struggles with. We, in the adult world, turn to the imagery  and coherence of literature, art and religion for comfort and understanding. We construct contexts of meaning into which we can nestle experience. Children are doing the same and they use their inner language, which adults might term ‘metaphor’ and ‘symbol’, to describe and communicate their reality. As you will see it is extraordinarily beautiful, strong and sometimes confronting.

Drawing 1.

Karlene is an eight years old girl. I asked her “Karlene, if you could be a tree for a whole day, from sunrise to sunset; what would that tree look like?” Would you like to draw that tree?" This question is asked only after rapport is established and emotional safety is obvious to the child. Then the unconscious and the intrapersonal intelligence are given permission to respond to the stimulation of this question.

Paper and drawing materials were already on the table. I turned to talk with her mom and Karlene happily busied herself. This is a question to invite Karlene’s sense of herself at this particular time. Psychologists, counsellors and teachers often ask children to draw a house for a similar purpose. I find the image of the tree to be the best for my purpose. Here is Karlene’s drawing:

TREE DRAWINGS

Karlene proceeded to draw two trees. One tree in the left visual

field is brown in color with black dots emanating from it. The other tree in the right visual field is white with fruit growing on it. The two trees are joined with a hammock, which is like a bridge or a tunnel. A baby, or small child, in black is on the hammock, bridge, or in the tunnel close to the knot hole of the brown tree with fruit nearby. My comment to Karlene about her drawing was:

"Karlene, you are the first person to draw two trees."

Her comment in reply was:

"Yes, this is the one with the seeds,"(pointing to the brown tree)

"and this is the one with the fruit." (pointing to the white tree).

The power of symbol and metaphor and the language of the intrapersonal intelligence is such that we have a ‘sense’ that we understand the drawing before we are conscious that we are. This becomes apparent when we feel that the following explanation of Karlene’s life situation seems to reinforce what we already knew and sensed when looking at her drawing.

The emotional potency of this drawing becomes apparent when we know that Karlene is an Aboriginal Australian girl adopted and living in a white Australian family. She is clearly telling us all, in her beautiful and cogent non verbal visual/spatial language, that she needs to and wants to return to her origins. The only sense of cultural identity that she had known was that of her loving adoptive family which is white, English origin, immigrant Australian family. Now the kids at school are making her aware of the colour of her skin and her aboriginality. This is a drawing about wholeness and completeness. She wants to return to the 'tree of the seeds'. Notice too that in her return she acknowledges and takes with her the fruits and love of her adopted family. Karlene’s adopting mother (whom Karlene loves very much) exclaimed “Oh Barry, I thought this might be it, but I just brought her along because she was mucking up at school!” If we can be respectful of the child’s intrapersonal language then we can give her or him authentic communication, which is directly responsive  to their need. We proceeded to connect her to her larger aboriginal family but to this day I do not know if she has made contact with her birth mother.

Drawing 2

A man called me on the phone and expressed concern about his son. When I inquired what he was noticing in particular about his son that was causing concern, he replied,

" He's  got no guts. He’s in state athletics but he doesn't do his best in  anything; especially in his sport.

"What do you feel when you see him doing what you think is not his best?"  I asked.

"Well, I certainly let him know what I feel!”

I inquired if there were any other children in the family.

"Yes, two sisters, one older and one younger than William, but they are all right."

“So, why are you calling me?’ I enquired.

“ Look, if I had his body at his age I could have done anything.  If he had my guts he could do anything."  He blurted.

“So, this is the reason you are calling me?”

After a pause he replied, “Well, umm, the other day I approached my son and he stepped back from me as though he were........ afraid of me." 

At this point there was a long pause in the conversation then his voice noticeably changed.  It trembled and, holding back a sob, he said,

"...and I don't want to lose my boy." He was crying.

You can see the projection here by this man into his son's life, and his fear that he may be "losing" him.  William is showing awareness of this with child honesty in his drawings.

I met this man and his son, William. William’s mother came too, but, curiously she said nothing. She looked wide eyed and knowing but she, at that point in the family drama, was not speaking to her husband and in the whole meeting she said nothing..in words. William’s sisters also came to this meeting and they adopted an exaggerated pose of politeness and ‘good’ behavior. This observation becomes significant in a little while after we notice William’s drawing. Dad appeared tense. I asked William if he likes to draw. He replied “Yes, what will I draw?” I said, “you can draw anything you like. Your brain is so clever that you can listen to me talking to mom and dad and draw at the same time.” Then I added “Do you know why we are here?” He shrugged an affirmative reply. My heart went out to him at that moment. After dancing around his dad’s perception of life for some time I turned to William and he showed me the two drawings he had made.

Here is his drawing number one:

This drawing immediately grabbed my attention.

"That's  my house on top of the mountain" said William, pointing to the right-hand side of the drawing.

"Over there is another house.  Looks like a rocket, doesn't it?  In the middle is a skyway with birds flying."

Let’s examine this drawing. I had noticed in some children’s drawings that there was a distinct separation of aspects of the drawing into features in the left visual field of the page and those in the right visual field. I wondered if the two eyes when converged and focused in the left visual field would activate neural activity different to that when the eyes are both focused in the right visual field. I conjectured that if the page were directly in front of the child and there were no  accommodations such as shutting one eye, then the features in each visual field might give different aspects of the emotional drama facing the child. This thinking was simply a theory which is difficult for me to validate as true and consistent. In this supposition, the left visual field would activate directly neural fields in the right hemisphere and access the cognitive priorities of that hemisphere’s organization. Similarly, the right visual field activity would stimulate the neural organization of the left hemisphere. So I am surmising that, if all the conditions are right,  there will be discernible and coherent insights evident from the two sides of the drawing concerning the emotional issue facing the child. The left visual field features, drawn while the right hemisphere neural organizations  are directly stimulated, would emphasize the priorities of that organization, which, for most people, has strong links to the limbic areas of the brain and large muscle control. The left hemisphere organization, for most people, prioritizes conscious alertness necessary for such abilities as close focus work, fine motor control and attention to detail. Simply put, the cognitive organizations of this hemisphere are primarily engaged when someone is consciously ‘trying’ at some activity or effort. This aspect could be described as ‘deliberate self conscious awareness’. I do not want it to be thought that this separate hemispheric specialization is dramatic and clear in a functional whole brain activity (as it is in clinical experiments) but  the specialization seems present and evident enough to be discernible in some children’s drawings.

Let's look at this drawing. On the left, in the left visual field, the house, "like a rocket", reveals his  (gestalt,big picture, survival priority, large muscle control etc) world. It shows tremendous energy. See the energy coming out of the chimney. Notice the rising stairway which looks like a snake, a symbol in some cultures of rising energy. All of this is William's energy; his emotions. The right hemisphere has stronger connections to the Limbic System, the emotional center of the mid-brain, than the left hemisphere has. The right hemisphere controls the large muscle groups of the body, so this is also the energy of sport and movement in William's life. Sport is very important to him. It channels great energy positively.

The Right Visual Field of the drawing reveals William' consciousness about his personal concern emphasizing the cognitive organization of the left hemisphere for most people. This organization is engaged when he ‘tries hard’  in any deliberate,self conscious effort .  In this visual field he has drawn a craggy and dangerous mountain. On the top of this difficult, dangerous mountain William has perched, precariously, his home. This is the location of his "Try Hard", self-conscious world; his own home. Linking these two worlds is a skyway cable with a gondola in the middle. "1 am in there"  he commented when pointing to the gondola.

William had drawn one more drawing which he said is a large drawing of the house on the mountain.

This is his house, the centre  of his domestic drama, his 'Try Hard' world. Why is he so self-conscious here? His drawing tells us. On the walls, in the frames, are photos of his sisters, ( "They are all right!') The person with the large hands is his father, saying "William!" William is sitting at his desk and out of his mouth comes a poignant,"Oh!  ( "What have I done now?!   or  "What haven't I done now?!").

In this sad personal drama, William can never satisfy his father's projections and expectations. There is NOTHING! he can do which will allay his father's constant criticism and disappointment.

William's father complains that his son "has no guts; he doesn't do his best in anything". Here in this transparent and poignant drawing we see William's perception of the relationship with his dad. There is so much energy in this boy. He loves his sport. It is an important expression in his life, but his father has confused even this joy in his life by his fearful projections and expectations. The house which "looks like a rocket" is also a symbol of the immense emotional energy surrounding his wounded heart. It is difficult to feel all the time that you are failing someone else's expectations, especially of someone you love. Because William has learned that nothing he does will ever satisfy his dad, disappointment and frustration blocks expression. Because the symbols in the left visual field of William’s  first drawing are are so powerful indicating intensity of energy and emotion, I asked William, “Can you tell dad how you feel?”

“No way!” he replied.

“What do you do with your feelings?” I asked. He replied, “I cry in bed at night and bight my pillow so no one will hear me.”

”The staggering intensity and lucidity of these drawings compels us to agree with Carl Jung's comment that "The unconscious psyche of the child is truly limitless in extent and of incalculable age." (C Jung. Collected Works 17 para 94).

There are many other drawings I could show you which demonstrate the extraordinary inner life of children. There is one drawing from an eleven year old boy which answers profound adult questions such as: ‘If a child suffers does it follow that the remainder of life will be a misery?  In the human baby most brain growth and organization happens after birth. The developing brain of the child is ‘plastic’ in readiness for learning and sensitive to experience.  Moishe  Feldenkrais expressed this state thusly: “The Human nervous system is the least rigid of all structures; it grows and forms itself while we undergo experience.  It is more affected by personal experience than the nervous system of any other animal.

Personal experience is the key to our greatness and to our misery.” (M. Feldenkrais)

Does it follow that if suffering, or ‘bad things’, should happen in the early years of a child’s experience  that suffering and/or unhappiness should continue for the rest of life. This boy’s drawing answers the question with a profound  ‘No’. It is a most extraordinary demonstration of  intrapersonal intelligence I have encountered.

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