History of Art Therapy

Art therapy is an effective form of self expression and is at once considered to be a viable psychological tool in resolve inner conflicts, and p inventionistryicularly helps in the rehabilitation of emotionally disturbed or mentally ill patients.Through the arts, thoughts, feelings, and needs be communicated. It must be know that the cornerstone of this mode of therapy is depth psychology, which will be lookd in detail below.Art therapy has been supplementing the cathartic programs in the hospital settings. It is now widely habitd in psychiatric hospitals and rehabilitation centers, and, is practiced by qualified art healers or by psychologists. But when and how did it begin?To begin to understand the discipline of psychology, and the role depth psychology played in the practice of psychotherapy in general, it is noteworthy to reference work that while psychoanalysis and psychology subscribe to a common priming coat in nineteenth century science, they were independent of on e another for a number of years because of their differences in focus or interests.Psychology was looking at sensation, perception, memory and thinking all elements and processes of consciousness.Whereas, psychoanalysis focused on the unconscious motivation, emotion, conflict, neurotic symptoms, dreams and character traits. Following human race War II, and perhaps, due to the demands of the time, the porta between the two disciplines began to diminish, and thanks to the opportunity offered to psychologists to train in psychoanalysis (Hall & Lindzey, 1978).While the arts as a form of human expression hold in been around for thousands of years, the merger of psychotherapy and arts therapy was realized in the 1940s during the World War II. Adrian Hill, a professional artist, coined the term art therapy. Hill dark to his art for his own therapy while he was recovering in a health sanitarium for tuberculosis patients.He later had the chance to introduce film to other patients. He be out that, not only did the patients found satisfaction in their work, merely they were able to use it to reveal their subjugate feelings and trauma of the war (Borowsky,1984).It was Edith Kramer who made observations on the importance of art for traumatized children. In the late 1930s, Kramer has worked with children of refugees from Nazi, Germany, and she has observed firsthand, how the children responded to stress.The artwork of these children revealed patterns of unresolved conflicts, regression and even enmity . It must be remembered that these children have seen the horrible damage done by Hitler (Kramer, 1971).Kramer emphasized that art expression is an emotional journey toward self-discovery. In her approach, art as a process is a catharsis. Recreating scenes and images from ones past traumatic capture helps bring the unconscious conflicts unto consciousness, and once catharsis is experienced, relief and positive throw follows (Moreno, 1946).The concept of catharsis is associated with the early psychodynamic theories. Catharsis is defined by the American Psychological Association (2007) as the discharge of affects connected to traumatic events that had been keep down by bringing these events back into consciousness and reexperiencing them (p. 153). In this approach, painful experiences are released in therapy, by reliving the suppressed emotions. Its therapeutic effect is seen in various forms religion, medicine, literature, theater and the arts.Margaret Naumberg founded the Walden School in New York City in 1915. She believed that children best learn and develop when they are encouraged to express themselves through and through creative pursuits.She just knew that art is a window to the subconscious mind, and the therapist can best understand the difficulties one is going through by utilizing art as a tool of expression. For her, what is important is what one is consciously or unconsciously expressing through his artwork.Theories of Carl Ju ng, Sigmund Freud, and the other psychoanalytic thinkers of the time seemed to have been of great influence to Naumbergs approach to art therapy. The idea that art could be used to enhance diagnosis encouraged not only Naumberg but other early practitioners to study these images and their meanings. Diagnostic drawing and protocols were later developed that led art therapy onto its clinical direction.Jung believed in the healing power of imaging and creativity. He gave importance to archetypal symbols, and even encouraged his patients to fantasize and to explore (Feder, 1981).It must be recalled, archetypes are thought forms that create image that lay out to normal waking life, such as an image of a become figure, that is then identified with the actual mother. Jung pointed out that feelings are explored through a variety of ways. Flow of images are represented in drawing, painting, sculpture, music and private road .Meanwhile, Freud provided the foundation for understanding psy choanalytic processes when he discussed much about symbols in dreams through his writings.Freud believed that dreams are predominantly visual. However, much of the dream experience is disoriented in the interpretation of these images into words. He believed that patients could best draw an image, what they were unable to show in writing (Feder).Naumberg came to realize through their theories that art expression is a technique that has the innate capacity to unavel repressed material, much like oral therapy. She recognized that ones unconscious feelings and thoughts are best expressed in images than in words. Also, to further illustrate its parallelism to psychoanalysis, take for instance the created images in artworks.These are seen as external symbols of ones thoughts and a skilled therapist could best use these images to elicit feelings, much like the idea of transference. Integrative transformation or healing is made possible when this experience is made part of an art therap y session.The concept of transference is the cornerstone of the theory and practice of psychoanalysis which originated with Freud. Simply, transference is reacting to a person in the present as though he or she were a person in ones past. Freud opined that during therapy sessions, patients were unconsciously transferring the feelings and attitudes they had toward early evidentiary figures onto their therapist.Since then, he knew that the transferential relationship between the patient and the therapist is actually the curative element in psychoanalysis.