Critical Thinking: Obligation to Inquiry

After we finished our sandwiches in the car, Cheryl Doby-Copeland and I quickly made our way to the front of the museum. We figured we would be among the first there, so we were disappointed when we discovered 40 people already ahead of us. In the crisp warmth of mid-October, 2017 in Washington, DC, we waited on the sidewalk as more people joined the line. When the doors finally opened we hurried to find a seat in the immense atrium of the National Museum of African American History and Culture to listen to Ta-Nehisi Coates talk about his newly published book, We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy. In typical fashion, Cheryl and I continuously looked up at him, commented to each other, and scribbled notes. When at one point an audience member asked for his opinion on a matter, he uttered one phrase that has continued to reverberate in my mind: “Don’t outsource your critical thinking to me … in a republic, the people are responsible.”

Coates is a consummate researcher who makes intricate connections among history, systemic racism, and current events. If there is anyone who I might defer to, it would be him. Yet, here was a renowned social and political scholar reminding an audience to judge information for themselves. Even though it is difficult to classify and assess, critical thinking has been conceived as a process more so than a product (Lamont, 2020). For example, Samson (2021) highlighted the holistic integration of personal values and lived experience with established theories and reputable evidence that can result in purposeful undertakings. Many definitions emphasize two components—critique and critical perspectives. Kirschner (2011) differentiated these functions as being critical-in, grounding in scientific methods, and critical-about, applying social justice and emancipatory viewpoints. In addition, Teo (2011) mandated both reflexivity and self-reflexivity; the former involves a staunchness to question others, whereas the latter demands a curiosity about one’s position—no matter how open-minded an individual supposes to be. When brought together, critical thinking involves seeking information from a variety of sources, subjecting material to analysis based on multiple perspectives, reviewing social justice implications, and scrutinizing one’s own stance.

To hone critical thinking, art offers a potent tool. Creativity enhances critical thinking in the pursuit of discovering meaning (Dumitru, 2019) and can be a means to tempering authority and absolute certainty (Ho & Ho, 2008). As art therapists know, art making can disrupt an artist’s presumptions by fostering opportunities for introspection, experimentation, and provocations. Likewise, art viewing can challenge an audience member’s assumptions, preconceptions, and expectations. As much as art can be degraded for propaganda, it can be uplifted for truths.

Breaking down Coates’s comment offers implications for critical thinking in art therapy. The edict “don’t outsource” speaks to making a personal commitment to pursuing knowledge. For art therapists, appropriate skepticism is important for evaluating information for their clients and selecting trainings for professional development. In their review of strategies for assessing best practices and new interventions in psychotherapy, Meichenbaum and Lilienfeld (2018) advised practitioners to adopt “a well-calibrated sense of self-confidence—one that balances appropriate self-assurance with healthy self-doubt” (p. 23). Critical thinking calls for the stance of a cynical optimist or skeptical believer. Art therapists can put some of their trust in vetted sources, such as reliable news sites, known social media presences, erudite colleagues, and reputable publications. However, too much trust may be an indicator that individuals have forfeited their obligation to inquiry.

The component of “the people are responsible” defends against authoritarian attempts to quash independent thought, free press, and schools of thought that challenge the status quo. Holdo (2018) identified three necessary citizen types. The virtuous citizen is focused on engagement and the trustworthy one is engrossed with rules. However, the critical citizen seeks to gain multifaceted knowledge and help others to do so, as well. Instead of indoctrination, the self-reflective posture encourages confrontations that calibrate reproach with prudence in order to “avoid the weaponization of suffering that prevents constructive healing” (Ross, 2019, para. 18). Critical thinking provides art therapists with the means for engaging introspection and honoring relationships while still disrupting and revitalizing organizations, communities, and society.

Far from the limits of hesitation, admonishment, or quasi-relativism, critical thinking offers the freedom of educated choices based on a secure foundation of knowledge mitigated with humility and counter perspectives. In times of polarized politics, siloed news sources, misinformation campaigns, expectations of immediate statements, sensationalism, and desire for the next best thing, discernment almost feels like a rarity or a luxury. Yet, it is in the face of these forces when reasoned deliberation is so necessary. By centralizing reflection, curiosity, perspective taking, and evidence-based argumentation, critical thinking promotes well-informed actions.

In This Issue

The contributions to this issue exemplify and amplify Kirschner’s (2011) dual approach to critical thinking. Four contributions offer the critical-about stance to investigate critical perspectives related to power and social justice. Ashley Resurreccion’s Cover Art, Cultural Telephone, offers a powerful testimony to the ways in which art making offers a process for questioning while creating a lasting artwork for raising new perspectives. Mitra Reyhani Ghadim examined notions of art therapy by introducing how the arts reflect Deluzian philosophical construct to identify connections among a range of theories and practices that she conceived as nomadic art therapy. Gioia Chilton, Kristin Lynskey, Erica Ohnstad, and Elizabeth Manders completed arts-based research that demonstrates how the El Duende process painting enhances supervision by offering safe space and promoting transformation when working with clients struggling with substance abuse. Elizabeth Hlavek’s arts-informed investigation serves to connect how spontaneous art making in response to political trauma, in this case the Holocaust, can inform art therapy practices by examining notions of identity, survival, and witness.

Three articles in this issue demonstrate the critical-in stance by demonstrating ways to apply various forms of investigation to both quantifying and qualifying evidence for art therapy. Rebecca Bokoch and Noah Hass-Cohen conducted an experimental study to determine how a school-based mindfulness and art therapy group program benefited student well-being and academics while also demonstrating effects for parents. Liat Shamri-Zeevi and Dafna Regev offered a brief report that emphasizes the importance of engaging parents of child art therapy clients in art making that ultimately enhances therapeutic outcomes and parent–child relationships. Through a descriptive case study, Michelle Nuttall and Lise Pelletier investigated their observation of a patient’s reoccurring symbol usage to arrive at renewed understandings regarding trauma and power. Although each of these contributions are enhanced by the assurances offered by the peer-review process, the tenets of critical thinking encourage readers to evaluate and reflect how the ideas presented can best inform their own art therapy practice.