Art as therapy; museums and galleries as places for psychodynamic art therapy

ABSTRACT

Galleries and museums house objects and artefacts of potential benefit to the practice of psychodynamic psychotherapy. This paper reflects on the notion of art as therapy, the ability of artistic elements to address the unconscious, and the utility of developing a phenomenology of psychodynamic art therapy.  The case of Jonathan (‘fictional case composite’)  is described, i.e. his psychotherapy as prompted and furthered by the use of gallery images. According to the psychoanalytic theory of Freud, the language of words, and that of images, may well correspond to the workings of conscious and unconscious. The therapeutic experience of art is likely to include psychoanalytic phenomena (reverie, reflection, reverberation, the uncanny) that may be redirected to self-awareness, personal change and growth..

KEYWORDS:

• Psychodynamic psychotherapy
• art therapy
• museums and galleries
• object relations theory
• projective methods

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums (UK) Collections:

Sadee, P.L. The Hague; 1837-1904. Dutch peasants. Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums, Accession Number: ABDAG003900. (Alexander Webster bequest, 1921). [Figure 1]

Hitchcock, G. Providence, Rhode Island; 1850-1913. Maternite. Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums, Accession Number: ABDAG002756. (Purchased in 1913). [Figure 2]

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David A. Walters

David A Walters, PhD (University of Aberdeen), has spent much of his career as a clinician and as an educator in Clinical & Counselling Psychology. Dr. Walters has earned postdoctoral qualifications in both Psychoanalytic Studies (University of Sheffield, 2011) and in Museum & Gallery Studies (University of St Andrews, 2006). He has worked previously with the National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh; Dr. Walters now works primarily as a psychodynamic psychotherapist.