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

Abstract

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..