Art work: Another dimension in the treatment of psychiatric patients

Abstract

Art work, as an integral part of a holistic treatment program, reflects the changes a person makes in therapy, and is also a medium which promotes the individual’s awareness of his own feelings and interactions with others so that he may choose whether or not to change. Art work can also facilitate change in therapy. Four major principles of Social Psychiatry are mherent in the interpretations of the art work to be described. These principles include the following: (1) Every person should be the subject and not the object of an interaction. (2) What one person does affects those around him. (3) No problem can be solved without the involvement and contribution of all fields, including medicine, social work, architecture, education, and research. (4) Isolated information about any person becomes meaningful only when incorporated into the total fabric of that person’s life (Carleton). Two group projects to which ail members contributed wiIl be shown and discussed in terms of the group process which culminated in each project. Each individual’s unique contribution to the group project and the relevance this contribution has .in terms of his personality structure, role in the group, and current psychotherapeutic changes, will be discussed. The group projects also reflect attitudes and events in the larger therapeutic community or in other areas of the social network impinging on the art group and its members. Also a detailed description of the course of treatment for one patient will be presented, utilizing photographs of her art work to hi~i~t the discussion.