Developing the Language of Metaphor
One cannot explore consciousness, or self-awareness, without asking how we arrive at such a state. It is widely believed that the portion of our personality that dictates our thoughts, memories, feelings, impulses, and desires is built upon a sequence of phases. As infants we respond on a pri- mary level of consciousness, which mainly encompasses sensations, instincts, and movement. As adults we become increasingly free to experience memory, language, and symbolization. All told, as humans, we...
Summary Wwd
In this chapter I have outlined three distinct assessment tools to illustrate the power of art and symbolism. In my work with the difficult client I have not found any singular projective test, therapeutic intervention, or isolated process that applies to the whole population. Instead, it is often the use of varied methodology that offers a path for the clinician to begin the process of personality integration. Although the debate on projective testing rages on, I hope that I have shown that a...
Condensation
As previously discussed, symbols are the cornerstone of art therapy. The nonverbal language of symbols speaks to us on a multiplicity of levels and incorporates not simply one memory, object, or feeling but many, which are united through the unconscious process of creation. This emotion and affect give the art its power. It is in this vein that we arrive at condensation, often classified as a minor ego defense. It is defined as a process by which several concepts, ideas, or needs are condensed...
Freud And Art Therapy
Unlike Piaget with his structured stages, Freud viewed his psychosexual stages as overlapping and therefore deficient in organized configuration. His theory is based upon the belief that deprivation of nurturance specifically maternal during infancy results in neurotic difficulties that persist well into adulthood. In a strict sense Freud was not proposing stages in personality development but tracing the vicissitudes of the sexual energy which he posited and termed libido and deemed a...
S 1
When abandonment feelings well from within, but the black roof added to the white building gave room for hope. At this point the therapist remade the butterfly and stated, The butterfly came back and now it's stronger. This use of metaphor was less intrusive than if the therapist had attempted to explore the client's feelings of loss and abandonment in a direct manner. After noting that the blue man was now completely separated from the other objects, the therapist placed the butterfly at the...
Illustrations
1.2 Outside Mask Sessions 1 amp 2 6 1.3 Inside Mask Sessions 3 amp 4 7 1.6 Memories of Sexual Abuse 12 1.7 The Winds of the Sun 13 1.4 Feelings of Loneliness 24 1.7 Converting Memories of Sexual Abuse 28 1.10 The Blue Man and the Anger Microphone 32 1.11 The Blue Man and the Butterfly 32 1.12 He Tells Him to Do the Right Thing 33 1.13 Compartmentalizing His Emotions 33 1.14 Abandonment Feelings Well 34 1.15 The Symbol Remains the Same 35 1.17 The Snail Only Knows the Box 38 1.18 Erasing the...
In My Defense
In art therapy one accepts as basic to treatment the psychoanalytic mechanisms of repression, projection, identification, and sublimation Naumburg, 1953 . These mechanisms, used unconsciously, are incorporated to defend against feelings of anxiety that have become uncomfortable, humiliating, or shameful. Removed from the ego, experiences may be isolated, but they are never forgotten. They creep into our relationships and have the power to both protect and stifle. This repression, however, will...
DrawaPerson DAP Examples
Those of you who completed the DAP from the introduction will refer to those renderings. Everyone else should use Figure 3.2 which was completed by a healthy female who works in the mental health field see disk to view these figures in color . If you completed your drawings when first reading this book, you may not have any free associations at hand, but with a client these are of the utmost importance. How we approach a new, requested task is central to how we approach anything original and...
There Was There Was and Yet There Was Not
One must remember that an individual's chronological age can be very different from his or her developmental age. Thus, the use of art therapy and its concentration on symbolization, freedom of expression, and verbal and nonverbal communicative components is perfectly suited to aid in resolution at any stage of development. In addition, the use of fairy tales aids the developing personality to branch out into the world, helping patients to understand others' feelings and thereby removing them...
A Difficult Client Defined
Drawing the Line Art Therapy with the Difficult Client is intended for all who have felt frustration when faced with a resistant or difficult client. In my experience as a practicing therapist, supervisor, and lecturer I have had the opportunity to listen to a myriad of clinicians discuss this very topic. What defines the difficult client Is there a set of criteria that can be applied to the whole of the population One common definition that fits each individual In fourteen years of clinical...
Case Illustrations Jbg
The following profiles illustrate the use of the 8CRT in specific situations. The client is a teenaged male in therapy due to extensive drug use with a series of juvenile arrests and probation violations. His parents are presently separated, but both are appropriately involved in his treatment. Throughout the initial interview, the client presented with an elevated and grandiose mood, an animated affect especially when recalling his probation violations glorification of past substance abuse,...
Info Qfo
Therefore, as part of treatment planning, the clinician should not overlook the use of stories in the therapeutic hour. If you have assessed the stage of development properly, the client will be mesmerized by these timeless stories that speak gently to internal struggles regardless of age . I prefer to utilize the metaphors within the fairy tale, fable, myth, or legend by choosing the story that meets the client's needs. From time to time as I read the story I stop reading and direct the...
Jean Piaget
Piaget's stage theory of cognitive development in children outlined four major stages 1 sensorimotor, 2 preoperational, 3 concrete operations, and 4 formal operations. However, for the purposes of this book I will break down the two phases within the Preoperational stage, as these phases are exceedingly important to the growing child's development. All of these stages not only occur in continuous progressions but allow the individual to interact with the environment with increasing levels of...
HouseTreePerson HTP Examples
The client is a single young adult male. Records indicate that his parents were divorced when he was a toddler, and he has focused his anger on his mother. She states that while in preschool he threw a burning stick at her and was later found standing over her with a pair of scissors. These episodes never resulted in any physical injuries but would end in screaming matches. From this time forward he lived with his father, who physically abused him on numerous occasions. He has been incarcerated...
Info Fbc
Both of these drawings after an evaluation of the complete House-Tree-Person assessment, which will be further discussed in Chapter 3 indicate the possibility of organicity the oversized head being simply one indicator even though both of the clients spoke well for themselves on a purely verbal level. In addition, the drawn person on the left side of Figure 2.2 was the client's second attempt. In Figure 2.3 this patient slowly completed a rendering of a circular head with pinpoint eyes, a...
Intellectualization
Intellectualization is defined as an emotional response, or impulse, that is controlled by thinking instead of experiencing. The thoughts are a protection, or defense, against anxiety due to unacceptable impulses. Intel-lectualization seeks to make a connection between drives and ideational content. In this way drives are perceived as more under ego control which can operate in the area of words and intellect as an active coping device to handle aggression Malmquist, 1985, p. 58 . Simply...
Directives
Just as art projective assessments offer the clinician guidance for treatment planning, directives provide a framework for the therapeutic hour. Throughout the first part of this book the great majority of drawings resulted from directives. These directives were not offered haphazardly but were designed around the client's maturation process. Based upon Erikson's premise that emerging conflict must be mastered in order to prepare the individual for future growth and integrity, the use of...
Case Illustrations
As with all case illustrations within this book, the information concerning clinical matters is factual. However, the client's personal information has been replaced to retain confidentality. This case involves a male in midadulthood. When he was a preteen his father died from cancer. He lived with his mother until the age of majority, when he married. Within a few years he divorced and was diagnosed with Bipolar disorder. From this period forward he began to experience hallucinations and...
Info Qmu
Perspective improves in accuracy exaggeration of detailing sible, just by looking at a client's drawing productions, to deduce the cognitive level of the artist by applying the principles of normative art expectations. To that end, I have provided Table 3.1 compiled from DiLeo, 1973, 1983 Gardner, 1980 Levick, 1983 Lowenfeld amp Brittain, 1982 as a basic guide to the normative stages of children's art. However, this table is not all inclusive, and I direct the reader to Lowenfeld and Brittain's...
HouseTreePerson HTP Art Assessments
Not unlike Karen Machover's DAP assessment, the HTP has been modified from its original design and now tends to be shortened both in degree and application. However, as outlined earlier, this modified version can still yield accurate data when combined with Buck's scoring system for aptitude and intelligence. In the end the HTP yields both conscious and unconscious information concerning the client's personality, interpersonal relationships, and interactions with the environment. As a result,...
EightCard Redrawing Test CRT
The last projective test that we will review is the 8CRT, developed by Caligor. Unlike the HTP or the DAP, this assessment procedure never gained favor among working professionals. In fact, in my schooling experience I never even heard of the 8CRT it was only through a fluke that I stumbled upon a review of the process in a journal article. However, once I began incorporating this test into my routine, I found it to be an indispensable tool. In 1957 Caligor lamented the restriction posed by the...
Interpreting the Art
If one believes that experience dictates our self-concept and this self-concept dictates our growth and wholeness, then how does a clinician tap into this sense of self This ethereal quality that lives nowhere but exists within us all changes for the better or the worse with time and embraces our anxieties, joys, resentments, responsibilities, pleasures, and fears. How does one break through the well-honed defenses that protect us from psychic pain and emerge with an unvarnished view Art. Art...
HouseTreePerson HTP
The HTP art assessment was introduced by John Buck in the late 1940s and was designed to aid the clinician in obtaining information concerning an individual's sensitivity, maturity, efficiency, degree of personality integration, and interaction with the environment, specifically and generally Buck, 1966, p. 1 . The structural elements of DAP interpretation explained in the DAP section and Appendix A remain the same in the HTP. However, this is where the similarity ends. The HTP's formal details...
Info Kga
Able to draw a square head and limbs little or no trunk navel makes an appearance objects seem to float on the page no understanding of proportion, placement, or size relationships one-dimensional arms and legs Able to draw a triangle beginning of sexual differentiation of figures recognizable figure representation draws hands with fingers navel is generally not drawn any longer no understanding of proportion, placement, or size relationships one-dimensional arms and legs
