Dr. Frank Katz clicked the lights out, and told the first-year students in Dr. Paul Mazeroff’s freshman Psychology seminar “Drugs and the Mind” to close their eyes.

“You don’t need to see anything to draw,” he said.

Dr. Katz, a social worker that deals with post-traumatic stress and addiction in war veterans uses drawing exercises to dig into his patients’ subconscious.

He’s a guest in Paul Mazeroff’s first-year seminar, where students are examining a range of drugs; from caffeine and nicotine to antidepressants and illegal drugs.

Katz asked the class to doodle for 15 seconds with their eyes closed, and then assign a word to their drawing.

One student scribbled in the center of the page and wrote the word “crazy” above it. But when Katz analyzed the drawing, he concluded that because the scribble was centered on the page, the student artist was probably quite the opposite of crazy. Katz explained why pictures are so revealing.

“All human beings see before we talk,” Katz said. “We form our vision of the world and then put words to it.”

Katz explained how addicts are often liars and manipulators, but they can’t hide the truth when using art to express themselves.

Art is one of several lenses through which the first-year class will examine drugs. Later in the semester, they will also explore the pharmacology, legal aspects, and ethical issues involved in drug use.