Art Therapy Prestention Outline - I. The Foundation of Art Therapy

What I put together from my partner and my notes. She's doing the Powerpoint slides.


I. The Foundation of Art Therapy

A. Reasons for Development.

1. As a means to further psychoanalytical analysis. (Kahn, ¶ 4)
a) Because of the resemblance of aesthetic creations to dreams, art therapy has traditionally fitted well with either analytic psych of Jung or Freudian psychoanalysis. (Reich 1960)
2. As a means to communicate what cannot be spoken clearly by the client. (Ulman, 1961:II)


B. Summary of the History. (Fuller et al, 1984)

1. ADRIAN HILL started art therapy, turned to his own paintings as a release from boredom and stress while in a tuberculosis sanatorium during WWII.
2. The term: "Art Therapy" coined in Britain during 1940’s, in 1980 criteria for the professional training of art therapists were founded.
3. In a state psychiatric hospital, Netherne, first art therapist employed in 1946 was EDWARD ADAMSON.
4. Art therapy gradually moved in direction of psychotherapy in 1970’s, totally separating from art teaching.
5. In 1980, according to the Dept of Health and Social Security (DHSS), art therapy officially separated from occupational therapy.


C. Key Theorists.
1. SIGMUND FREUD
a) "For there is a path that leads back from phantasy to reality- the path, that is, of art." (Freud 1973: 423).
b) "Nothing takes place in a psychoanalytic treatment but an interchange of words between the patient and the analyst." (Freud 1951:17).
c) Latent meaning, a concealed psychodynamic, might rhetorically "manifest" itself in a behavioral expression. (Freud 1951:17).
2. CARL JUNG
a) Developed active imagination technique. (Allen, p 76)
b) Introduced mandala drawings to modern psychology. (Fincher, p 19)
3. D. W. WINNICOTT
a) Suggested that there is a need for third area of human experiencing that is a combination of "subjective fantasy" as well as "objective knowledge".
b) "If only we can wait, the patient arrives at understanding creatively and with immense joy, and I now enjoy this more than I used to enjoy the sense of having been clever. I think I interpret mainly to let the patient know the limits of my understanding. The principle is that it is the patient and only the patient who has the answers. We may or may not enable him or her to encompass what is known or become aware of it with acceptance." (Winnicott 1971:102.)
4. FRITZ PERL
a) Exposure and self-revelation. "Dare I reveal my true self to the world?"
b) "Take responsibility for your every thought, your every feeling, your every action." (Perl 1978)
5. EDITH KRAMER
a) Used art with institutionalized children. (Allen, p xv)
b) Suggests "that art as a form of therapy has arisen to fill a void created by the depleting nature of contemporary work in tandem with the demise of the participatory folk art tradition and the rise of spectator recreation." (Allen, p xvii)
6. MARGARET NAUMBERG
a) Worked with institutionalized clients. (Allen, p xv)
b) Her sister, FLORENCE CANE, created methods to help her art students access authentic personal imagery, which Naumburg adapted to her own clients with mental illness. (Allen, p xvii)
7. WILHELM REICH (1960)
a) Stressed upon value of catharsis, or the dramatic release of powerful emotions.