by Thérèse Woodcock

Paper given at the 1983 Autumn Conference of the British Society for Projective Psychology and Personality Study, London

The Lowenfeld Mosaic Test was first introduced over fifty years ago; since then a great deal of research has been conducted into its possible uses. Besides its continued use at Dr. Lowenfeld’s Institute of Child Psychology before its closure, workers from all over the world have employed this Test; anthropologists in cultural and cross-cultural studies; psychologists in the study of normal children and adults as well as mental defect; psychiatrists for differential diagnosis and the study of mental disorder. This paper is confined to one use of the Lowenfeld Mosaic Test, namely as a communication tool in the diagnosis and psychotherapeutic treatment of children.

Administrative Procedure: The mosaic pieces are laid out ready for use in a box, grouped by shape and displaying all the colours in each shape. There are five shapes, all bearing a mathematical relation to each other (Figure I). The basic shape is a square from which the isosceles, equilateral and scalene triangles are derived: the sides of the diamond are the same length as the square (30mm). Each shape is available in red, blue, yellow, black, green and white and arranged in the box in this order. This box is presented to the child alongside a tray (fitted with plain white paper) whose dimensions were chosen so that complete edged patterns could be made with certain shapes and the tray could be entirely covered, though this is very difficult to achieve satisfactorily.

To administer the mosaic, the child is shown the box and the variety of pieces available and then asked to ‘do something with these pieces, using as few or as many as you choose, on this tray. You can make anything you like.’ In treatment I usually allow a maximum of one hour for the child to complete a design or designs, the time being dictated by the conventional length of a consultation rather than any intrinsic factor arising from the mosaic material. In practice, most children finish in much less than the hour allowed.