Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

Art Therapy

Tamanna Saxena
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

• Art therapy is a modality emerged from the interacting of art, creativity and
psychotherapy.
• It uses art media to express internal images, feelings, thoughts and sensations
in a concrete form.
• It provides the opportunity for non verbal expression and communication,
which can assist in improving the client’s functional abilities and resolving
emotional issues.
• The use of art as therapy implies that the creative process can be a means both
of reconciling emotional conflicts and of fostering self awareness and personal
growth.
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• The use of art can be traced all throughout history, from prehistoric eras to the
present, but art therapy first received significant attention due to the theories of
Freud and Jung (Wadeson, 1980).
• These psychologists believed in the importance of symbolism, which is very
prominent in art forms.
• Art therapy has continued to evolve and became a recognised profession in the
1960’s.
• According to Wadeson (1980), “the creation of the American Journal of Art
Therapy and the establishment of the American Art Therapy Association” were
responsible for art therapy’s rise to a recognized profession and therapeutic
intervention.
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• Art therapy is based on the idea that the creative process of art making is healing and life
enhancing and is a form of nonverbal communication of thoughts and feelings (American Art
Therapy Association, 1996).

• It is the therapeutic use of art making, within a professional relationship, by people who
experience illness, trauma, or challenges in living, and by people who seek personal
development.

• Art therapy uses art media, images, and the creative process, and respects patient/client
responses to the created products as reflections of development, abilities, personality,
interests, concerns, and conflicts.

• It is a therapeutic means of reconciling emotional conflicts, fostering selfawareness,

developing social skills, managing behavior, solving problems, reducing anxiety, aiding
reality orientation, and increasing self-esteem (American Art Therapy Association, 2004).
What to expect in Art Therapy
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 Symbolism
Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

• The capacity to form and to use symbols distinguishes man from other species.
• “Instead of defining man as an animal rationale, we should define him as an animal
symbolicum. By so doing we can designate his specific difference, and we can
understand the new way to man—the way to civilization” (Cassirer, 1974, p. 26).
• According to Beres (1968), “A Symbol is a reprentational object that can be evoked
in the absence of an immediate external stimulus”
• Visual imagery—the essential stuff of symbolism—is the raw material of Art
Therapy.
• By encouraging production of artwork, promotion of the development of the capacity
to ‘symbolize’ is undertaken.
• Symbolism is viewed as a critical link between the world of reality (as stimulus) and
human behavior, thought, or fantasy (as response).
• This capacity is linked to a number of critically important ego functions
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Pathology of the Symbolic Process

• Dysfunction in symbol formation characterizes severe disabilities ranging

from schizophrenia to aphasia.

• A brief look at some specific forms of pathology can help in understanding

the value of making visual images in treating them:

• Beres (1965) notes three clinical areas in which pathology of the symbolic
process may be seen: retarded ego development, schizophrenia, and organic
brain disease. In all, “the essential element is a concurrent disturbance of the
reality function of the ego” (p. 16).
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Retarded Ego Development

• In retarded ego development the child does not develop the capacity to distinguish
the representative object from the real object.

• It is clearly with the mentally retarded, whose crippling incapacity in this area
(among others) interferes with the normal development of language, thought
processes, and object relations.

• Clinical vignettes describing art therapy with patients who had these syndromes are
presented to show how the making of visual images helped develop their capacity to
symbolize, a crucial ability in the attainment of linguistic communication.
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Case Example
• Elena, a severely retarded, 22-year-old woman with an IQ of 20, had been
living in institutions for 18 years (Cf. Wilson, 1977). Her records documented
Elena’s prolonged fixation at the oral phase. She could not be weaned from a
bottle until age five, and shortly thereafter developed a habit of collecting and
chewing or swallowing bits of string and buttons. In adolescence Elena still
collected such objects, but she no longer put them in her mouth. By age 22
she had abandoned this habit; instead she constantly carried, or wore around
her neck on a chain, a ball-like clump of metal jingle bells. Elena herself wove
the bells together with wire, and from time to time would increase or
decrease the size of the cluster. If the bells were taken from her or she
accidentally left them behind, she would cry inconsolably or angrily hit or
overturn tables or chairs.
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Case Work
• In addition to this fixation, Elena had a repertoire of gestures that included rubbing her hands
together, stroking her cheeks, mouth, and nose, and holding and rubbing her breasts. Often
she began to make these gestures when distressed, but her pained expression usually gave
way to one of pleasure or comfort. Elena appeared to be attempting to comfort herself, with
caresses that had in the past been given her by others.

– When Elena began Art therapy sessions, she was fixated on one image: a circle with a
pattern of radial lines imposed on it.
– She repeated this pattern steadily in her artwork for a year and a half, covering sheet
after sheet with numerous examples, almost always using red.
– Although she willingly varied the medium (using crayon, paint, or chalk), she would rarely
alter the image or the color.
– She was also very clingy, needing constant reassurance and praise
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Experience of the Art Therapist

• Over the course of two years, Elena gradually progressed, in both her art expression
and general behavior, from an infantile dependency to greater maturity.
• The key to helping was understanding the psychological meaning of her art.
• By partially satisfying some of her needs, both artistic and personal, and by leading
her toward small, but appropriate changes in these two areas, Elena was gradually
able to become more flexible and independent, eventually travelling unassisted to
the art room.
• Her graphic vocabulary also expanded to include concentric circles, images of
bodies, squares, and ultimately a rich combination of circles, triangles, squares, and
hybrid shapes that she used to draw full figures, clothing, and ornaments.
• She was able to modify her radial schema, and to include it in different
configurations as eyes and breast.
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Experience of the Art Therapist

• Elena’s perseverative radial schema stood equally for breast, mother, and
bell, The clump of jingle bells was understood to be her transitional object.

• A desperate attachment to her bells as a failure of the symbolic function,

since at the start of treatment the bells stood for her as a substitute, not a
symbolic object.

• Elena then developed—through art therapy—a capacity for symbolization,

whereby the function of the transitional object shifted from substitute
(standing as equal) to symbol (standing as representation) for the original
object—mother.
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Conclusion
• The persistent making of visual images in art therapy sessions actually seemed to
spur the development of her ability to symbolize.
• As long as the clump of bells and the radial schema functioned as a substitute for
mother, they were experienced as essential, and could not be given up or altered.
• When Elena finally developed the capacity to symbolize and thereby evoke the
absent mother, she was freed to function more flexibly, her security consisting now
of symbolic rather than concrete reminders of an absent object.
• Thus, she was able to leave her bells behind in her room, and to come to sessions
unaccompanied either by this transitional object or an actual attendant. We also saw
her replace the bells with a pocketbook—another symbolic transformation of the
original substitute object.
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Art as Empowerment: The Virtue of Art Therapy | Ann Lawton | TEDxUWRiverFalls
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• Judith Aron Rubin (2016), Approaches to Art Therapy: Theory and Technique ,
3rd Edition (Edt)