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Posted On Monday, November 23, 2009 at 02:30:23 AM

Susan Bullough-Khare

I was in town recently when a woman came and said, “I hear you are having another of your art therapy workshops.

It sounds interesting but I won’t be coming because I‘m not an arty type.” She left before I could go into my explanation about why you do not have to be ‘arty’ to gain the benefits of art therapy.

At the workshop in question, we had a wonderful time. Fourteen of us, of different ages, cultures, educational backgrounds and experiences of art. This is the pleasure of art therapy workshops — it’s the sharing and bonding that is important.

In art therapy, emphasis is always on the process rather than the product. We work with a variety of materials. Participants may explore colour mixing in relation to emotions, produce a collage related to childhood or work together on a group picture.

Some verbal communication usually takes place later and we support each other to uncover meaning.

Sometimes, just sharing a disturbing experience is enough to reduce anxiety. Holding on to anger, anxiety or grief can have harmful effects on the body and mind.

Art serves as a way to open up about feelings, especially those which might not be shared.

Who has the opportunity in a busy life to talk about those guilty feelings? Brain scans show additional benefits, blood flow to the brain increases, during periods of creative thought and the chemical that alleviates feelings of depression is increased during creative activity.

Visual art therapy has its roots embedded far back in history. The need to make art is a basic human urge, as natural as language, social interaction, sexual activity and aggression.

Figures and forms were sketched on cave walls, not only to decorate but also to make magic and as protection. Humans have created art to express and control emotions.

In recent times, psychiatry became increasingly interested in the connection between imagery, human emotion and the unconscious. Freud noticed that his patients often said that they could draw their dreams but could not describe them in words.

Jung felt that dreams, memories, stories and art could bring forth images hidden in the unconscious and it was important to bring to consciousness emotionally laden images because if left unconscious, they could have a negative effect on a person’s behaviour.

In 1920, Brinzhorn, an art historian, turned to psychiatry and collected thousands of art work from his patients. This was the beginning of what is now known as ‘Outsider Art’ — spontaneous art by untrained artists.

He believed that the creative process is basic to all people, with or without mental illness, and that art is a natural way to achieve psychological integration, wellness and self-discovery.

While artists have always searched their images for meaning, the advent of psychiatry and psychology in the 20th Century had a impact on many artists’ work.

Surrealism is based on the idea that imagery comes from the unconscious. Artists like Salvador Dali were interested in dream imagery and included symbols in their work.

Joan Miro used the technique of spontaneous drawing. Later Jackson Pollock produced his famous drip paintings while undergoing psychoanalysis.

Kandinsky felt, “The artist’s eye should always be turned in upon his inner life.” And Paul Klee said, “My hand is entirely the instrument of a more distant sphere… the secretly perceived is made visible.”

Of course, I wasn’t able to explain all this to the lady I met but the impression I get from the people who come to my workshops is that the therapeutic value of art is relevant, and starting to be acknowledged, in India today.

— Susan Bullough-Khare is an international expert on Art and Intercultural Education