The Childhood Hand that Disturbs (CHaD), a new projective test, is a diagnostic and therapeutic tool that is broadly applicable, but particularly effective with abused, depressed, and suicidal subjects. While the CHaD has the advantage of being quick and easy to administer--it takes an average of ten minutes to perform--it is reliable and applicable to both young and old. It is a useful complement to traditional batteries such as the Rorschach and Draw-a-Family, and self-assessment questionnaires. What makes the CHaD different is that it is a free drawing exam, and one that taps one of the most highly symbolic parts of the body: the hand.
A little baby sleeps through everything from a beeping car and a barking dog to a ringing telephone, but when a tiny buzzing fly disturbs his slumber, the baby cannot be lulled back to sleep by anything but a kiss by his big sister.
Finding refuge in a quiet rural backwater, Dr David Hunter hoped he might at last have put the past behind him. But then they found what was left of Sally Palmer. It isn't just that she was a friend that disturbs him. Once he'd been a high-profile forensic anthropologist and all too familiar with the many faces of death, before tragedy made him abandon this previous life.
