Art Therapy
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Even though art therapy has been used in some fashion since at least the first half of the twentieth century its range of helpful effects is still only partially explored and therapists constantly invent new ways to use the arts to assist people with physical disabilities and psychological problems. The depth of possibilities inherent in this therapy are expressed by one art therapist who asks that the reader imagine a medicine so powerful that "it could revitalize your spirit, giving you a dose of self-esteem and a joyful purpose in life" while also "induc[ing] deep meditation, allowing you to forget your pain and resolve any fears about the future, thereby boosting your immune system" (Longman, 1994, p. 64). But in many instances there is a lack of knowledge about art therapy--among caregivers as well as among those who could benefit from it. As Ulman (2001) points out, the term is used to refer to a variety of practices with many different aims and there are numerous different kinds of certification and even many art therapists who practice without extensive training. And art therapists are employed at "psychiatric hospitals and nursing homes, at drug treatment centers schools for the handicapped, juvenile detention homes, and sometimes, even in special education classes in public schools" (DeVore, 1989, p. 20). What all art therapy has in common, however, is that engaging in an art practice is "used in some attempt to assist integration or reintegration of personali
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by the patient's conscious mind. Art therapy is still employed in this fashion as an adjunct to analytic treatment. But this concept has also had a considerable impact on the broader field. In an informal survey of thirty art therapists, for example, Ulman discovered that nearly half of these professionals (most of whom worked as part of psychiatric teams) conceived of their work as aiding in the spontaneous emergence of "symbolic speech" in the form of plastic and graphic art work and many of these therapists also "minimized any other special contribution of art activity to the treatment of the mentally ill" (p. 17).
Other art therapists surveyed by Ulman concentrated, instead, on the healing quality that is inherent in the creative process itself--a rationale for art therapy that was first examined in detail by Edith Kramer, another psychoanalyst, in the late 1950s (2001, p. 17). In this approach the creative act accomplishes at a metaphorical level the kind of working-out of conflicts sought by therapists. The struggle of the mentally ill person is to achieve the proper balance between instinctual urges expressed by the id and the rules the superego tries to apply. The artistic process is one in which the individual ap
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Some common words found in the essay are:
, Edith Kramer, Fittipaldi Naranjo, Margaret Naumberg, Therapy Association, Lisa Fittipaldi, Ernie Pepion, art therapy, Fittipaldi Art, Michael Naranjo, American Artist, art therapists, ulman 2001, mentally ill, devore 1989, longman 1994, art therapist, danger serious depression, danger serious, 2001 17, fittipaldi 2001,
Approximate Word count = 1432
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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