Are Arts Good for Your Health?
Modern art can be used to procure health for infirm suffering from different ailments. The performances and creation of drawings creatively communicate to the people, who might be emotionally disturbed. In the traditional practices, the human race was seen to be primitive because the methods which were embraced to restore health were the conventional chemical drugs. The understanding of the conscious and unconscious mind of people has emerged in the recent time, where physicians and other medical practitioners have embraced the need to understand the psychological well-being of the patients (Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine, 2008) supports the idea of art therapy enabling persons to acquire insight into their feelings and therefore resolve their apprehensions.Considerable emphasis is laid on the use of music and other forms of art such as drawing to relax the minds of the patients and improve their recuperation (Cutler, 2011)
Although the therapeutic nature of art has not entirely been integrated into the health system, there is a significant improvement compared to some ten years ago. According to Staricoff(2004), the examination into the therapeutic effects of art therapy has advanced profoundly in the recent years. The progress is expected to linearly increase with time, as the practitioners and other administrative departments continue to get awareness of such programs. Since the discovery of this practice in 1940, there have been copious understandings of the word. Adrian Hill, the earliest therapist to berecognised determined the positive impact of image drawing on health improvement.He creatively employed his skills to overshadow his misfortunes. Through his discovery, he concluded that artistic work could be used to develop enormous strength against the adversities. The breakthroughwould be a preface to a plethora of findings from different theorist such as Freud, Carl Jung, and Klein. To understand the newlyfound concept of art therapy however, there is need to craft a definite margin between art therapy and art education.
Schools today facilitate the learning of art as a subject with the aim of understanding it and its concepts. Such learning is vital as students get a perspective into the world of producing art,and so gain knowledge, skills and an outlook towards the subject. While education focuses on the production of art and its quality, therapy targets the experiences involved in the production process. Its healing abilities have been associated with the conscious and unconscious elements (Essame, 2010). The relationship between these two vital areas of mental and emotional development hence allow a person who is undertaking the process to use accompanied thoughts and feelings to solve their internal troubles and calm their minds. Since the whole process involves no verbalisation, there is a higher success rate possibility as it caters for all variables among its patients. Most important among these patients are children. A child with underlying mental and emotional struggles will prove to be a rock if verbal communication is used as the mainstream for getting help. Therapists use art as a conventional and comfortable means to reach into their minds and assist them accordingly (Case & Dalley,2014). A practical grasp of the field can be elaborated by reviewing the concepts of some of the scholars in different phases of art development.
The History of Art Therapy
In the early 20th Century, health practitioners became interested in the artworks which were created by patients who were mentally ill in the wards. At the same period, various researchers were discovering the importance of children’s crafts that contributed to development, growth and knowledge advancement. By the midcentury, hospitals and other healthcare providing facilities integrated the system and at the first time the word ‘art therapy’ was used by a different assortment of writers. Although they had little knowledge about it, they were guided by medical practitioners and analyst who had a profound inclination in finding more applicable methods to administer quality health care services. The following paragraphs will discuss some of the acknowledged writers who developed and contributed mainly to the field.
Sigmund Freud was among the first to deduce a theory based on the practice. Freud`s theory is built on the ground that within the psychological make of human beings, there exist both conscious and unconscious minds(Freud et al.,2001). According to him, the structures which contain these thoughts are id and ego. ID contains all desires of people, which evokes pleasure and in most instances, are not satisfied. On the other hand, the ego is stationed to regulate the instincts that emanate from external influence (Freud et al., 2001). There is a constant pressure to balance between the two structures, which make individuals to suppress their mind, hence resulting in frustrating situations. Psychoanalytic theory suggests that the best way to strike a balance between the two different aspects is to make senseless mind conscious, through activities which are soothing and relaxing to the brain (Braddock, 2011).
Freud designed a method through which patients could disentangle themselves from the traumatizing experiences, which he classified as verbalisation and transference. Additionally, he further advanced his thinking by suggesting the method of sublimation to lower the pressure on the ego structure that is responsible for controlling the psyche. Freud theory is based on the fact that deprivation of nurturance has detrimental effects on the people, in this case, the patients. He hypothesizes that what the person is exposed to at early stages persist over an extended period. Through music, performances, and drawings, an ill person can replace the bad thought with the humor that comes along with these arts. External factors have a direct implication on the period of recovery from an ailment and any problematic issue.
His work became foundational for most of the experts in the field, and he has even been coined the “grandfather of art therapy.” With his design, Freud became among the first to distinguish between two types of unconscious thought; the preconscious and the unconscious. Preconscious ideas are those that are latent and can become conscious while unconscious beliefs cannot be made aware without the assistance of psychoanalysis. They are mostly repressed. What distinguishes these two ideas is their connection to language. Sigmund stipulated how within therapy there is need to communicate every idea despite it sounding unimportant or irrelevant.
Doing this helps in transforming the abstract thoughts into real ideas and thus defines the concept of verbalisation. According to Freud, verbalisation was detrimental in making a person aware of transference. Transference refers to strong accommodated feelings of either type that one holds against a particular person or thing that are not justified by any reason. Through transference, Freud stipulated that a person is made aware of their decisions and why they are likely to behave in the same manner in different familiar situations. As a final step in his design, Sigmund Freud stated that sublimation was crucial in solidifying the new understanding into future decisions. Sublimation involves the redirection of instinctual energy towards social goals. It acts as the sophisticated ego defense system in case of a traumatic occurrence.
Freud`s work was taken up by a psychologist, Margaret Naumburg in the USA. Her model involved the use of art in therapy. Naumburg suggested the release of the unconscious ideas through extemporaneous art manifestation. Based on the roots of Freud`s work, Naumburg`s model had a close relationship to the psychoanalytic theory. However, unlike other Freudian therapists, Naumburg did not support placing a strong emphasis on verbalization. Instead, she had clients make art as an expression of their experiences (Junge, Asawa, &American Art Therapy Association, 1994, p. 159). Patients passed their transference onto canvases and drawing books depicting a symbolic speech. Naumburg`s stipulations might look conflicting when compared to pioneers like Adrian Hill who discovered the healing abilities of art. However, it is crucial to understand that this distinction is fundamental in evolving the practice. Naumburg`s model suggested and emphasized the healing potential in art while Hill`s defended the notion of a therapeutic triangle. This triangle involves the art therapist, the patient and the artwork produced. Verbalisation was still an essential part of her model, working in tandem with symbolic communication. The triangle becomes central in asking where therapeutic changes take place. Some art therapists argue that the triangle is an indicative element of thedynamic and delicaterelations between the creative process in art therapy, and the relationship existing between the art therapist and the patient.
Carl Jung was yet another critical individual in the development of art as a therapeutic procedure. Jung had an overreaching emphasis on the enormous potential and creativity residing within individuals in the society. He emphasized how delicate and cautious the unconscious was. The Jungian analytical psychotherapy was an attempt to create utilizing a symbolic approach, a relationship between the unconscious and the conscious (Jung, In Adler, & In Hull, 1967). To many experts, the Jungian approach spiritualized the world of nature, drive, and instinct. Jung strongly maintained the notion that the most basic human experiences and mental understanding were mainly derived from images according to(Edwards & Wilkins, 2014). He also insisted on the errors of analyzing the unconscious and substituting it with known conscious methods. Jung`s work distinguished between the two kinds of the unconscious. He believed that our personalities are organized by specific mental functions and attitudes that determine how we orient ourselves habitually or preferentially. Jungian analysis had individuation (transcendence or self-actualization) as its ultimate goal (Sommers-Flanagan, 2012, p. 21). Concepts of introversion and extraversion come alive due to these sentiments. From the Jungian theory, arose the creativity aspect in regards to the impact of art therapy. Marion Milner, a distinguished psychoanalyst, deduced this theory.
Milner primarily used doodling and painting for the goal of therapy (Milner & Shelbourne, 1988). Her work corresponds to the obligation of the art therapist to be familiar with artistic expressions. Therapist who have not interacted with art as form of therapy fail to understand the assessment (Malchiodi, 2007, p. 4). Milner related the importance of the free drawing as a means to create art in the linking of inner and outer worlds. To her, the illustrations did not only convey clues to the unconscious but also represented life problems through the concept of creativity. Milner`s study led her to believe that through a surrendered in-between state, an inanimate, unconscious human striving for an ideal state could be realized (Puckey, 2014). Millner`s theory correlated individual components in the art to matters affecting the artists. It purports the idea that drawing as a form of art connects some missing or conflicting aspects in an individual`s reality. Also, she pointed out the relationship existing between external factors and their effect on the imagination. Moreover, art as therapy took form in children, pioneered first by Anna Freud. Later she was joined by Melanie Klein.The latter`s work proved definitive in understanding how play therapy held a significant position in determination of childrens` psychology.
According to Klein, play among children associated to expressive interpretations of their unconscious (Klein & Steiner, 2017). Her work mostly focused on the child`s emotional and mental experiences. Klein believed that in play children represent fantasies, wishes, and experiences symbolically. She perceived that in playing, children employed the same archaic and phylogenetically acquired mode of expression. Klein`s work became foundational for other experts in the psychotherapy of children like Donald W. Winnicott. Her interpretative technique was based, as with the adult, predominantly on the transference. Transference in Klein`s work translated to suitable links made between current experiences, the child`s phantasies and its connection to external reality, present and past. Klein`s approach to child psychoanalysis was new; a variance with the ethos involved in the rational understanding of children and thus controversial. Her work with children confirmed first-hand some of Freud’s (Anna) views of childhood, which was in a way theoretical since they were based mainly on the analysis of adults.
Klein paved the way for yet another psychoanalyst, Donald Winnicott. Winnicott produced case studies that exemplified the practice of play therapy as well as substantial theoretical contributions to play and imagination (Winnicot & Stronk, 2003). Winnicott derived his theory from previous clinical work that related a transitional object with a unique status vital in soothing children. He theorized the importance of transitional objects on the relationship existing between a mother and a child. The creation of a transitional object in children is perhaps the first genuinely creative act in children as it uses nothing but imagination to depict reality out of nothing. His analysis suggested the development of a healthy false individual, depending on the quality of early care from an averagely caring maternal figure. Furthermore, it supported the idea that the role of the mother was to help the illusion of a fused unity that was undifferentiated. Play, therefore, has a significant role in allowing disillusionment where the child realizes its individuality. A strong sense of identity is vital in building self-esteem, confidence, finding meaning and reason for living (Case & Dalley, 2014, p. 69). Winnicott`s ideas differ from those of Jacques Lacan. Donald`s ideas prioritized the function of transitional objects to define individuality. Lacan, on the other hand, supported the use of other-ness as a key to dualism.
Contemporary forms of art therapy
Today, there is a need to apply the outstanding work done by such pioneers to help children with poor social and emotional health. Psychological and mental issues are known to hinder the development of children both socially and in education. There are a large number of children affected by mental issues in the United Kingdom as stated by (Saba, Byrne, & Mulligan, 2016). Therefore, there is a dire need to facilitate the rehabilitation of such individuals as they are considered a risk to themselves and others. Early intervention is meant to promote social and emotional health to the early stages of an individual`s life (Waldman & Collins, 2010). It should be noted, however, that the provision of such assistance does not end with the young.
Art therapy in schools
These initiatives aim at improving the well-being of the children during their early years. Since it is problematic to identify and assist these children from a home setting, schools provide a sufficient forum where such repressed issues can be solved. Interventions vary with modality, scope, frequency, and intensity depending on the target population. Many of these programs focus mainly on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) techniques. According to (Great Valley Publishing Company Inc. & Phelps, 2017), children develop awareness and self-expression which helps by accelerating psychological and physical healing. Studies into art therapy have found out that it helps in improving children`s social, mental and spiritual attributes. Children’s drawing abilities according to (Asim, 2012), can effectively be used to improve their communication. (American Art Therapy Association, 2011) further instigates that the symbolic images produced allow students to express their feelings and ideas, regarding psychological conflicts that are not easy to articulate through verbalization. School counseling is a crucial element in successfully integrating art therapy. The introduction of art education in the curriculum is essential in providing a venue for mainstreaming education students designated to acquire art therapy as a related service. (Isis, Bush, Siegel, & Ventura, 2010) compiled a report indicating how the introduction of this form was successful in the Miami-Dade schools.
In the health department, various forms of art therapy have been implemented. According to the American Art Therapy Association (AATA), the use of art as a therapeutic procedure produces revolutionary results. Children with autism use art as a means of communication; children with deficit disorders indicate improved focus and those with cancer soothed by it (American Art Therapy Association, 2011). Trauma can also be countered with newer forms of art therapy. By facing their Jungian shadow, individuals with trauma realize that whatever they depicted as fears, are not scary anymore. Studies in adults have further indicated improvement in the general perspective. These have been done on individuals going through the loss of a loved one, addiction, and other medical complexes.
Expressive art has over the years evolved as instigated by (Learmonth, 2009). Activities like drawing emotions, meditative painting, putting together journals and line art are just some of the improved method provided by psychotherapists today. There are also fields that have integrated these procedures like music and dance to fulfill the goal of settling emotional and mental issues. There are some uncommon but growing forms of healing through art like poetry and bibliotherapy, sandplay therapy and other integrative processes (Malchiodi, 2007, p. 3). Many societies today have embraced this practice due to its remedial abilities. The use of various forms of art for healing rituals has been recorded throughout history as stated by (Graham-Pole & Adams, 2000). Favorable outcome is visible for the use of art to promote healing. Through art therapy, self-expression, feelings, and emotions are developed. Furthermore, art therapy builds on personal independence and self-reliance and ensures that adequate techniques to self-image are employed. There is, however, need to research and understand the use of art in healing, in the areas of anxiety control, improving recovery time, advancing communication and pain control.
