The Impact of Art Therapy on the Elderly Population

Introduction: A History Of Art Therapy

Art therapy is the oldest form of creative arts therapy. Although it was discovered in America in the early 1900s, art therapy even has roots in the Paleolithic Era. Those religious cave paintings expressed the emotions of the painters who hoped for salvation from the gods. Years later, Plato was the first to recognize that art can influence emotions (Packard, 1980, pp. 10). However, even so, it was not until thousands of years later that modern art therapy was discovered and established.

Modern art therapy is first rooted in the work of early nineteenth-century American philosopher John Dewey. Like Plato, he recognized that art could soothe a troubled soul. However, more than that, Dewey taught that children must be allowed to express themselves freely. He encouraged the child to produce art freely, without the restrictions of a teacher and lessons. Similarly, educator Frank Cizek of Vienna urged teachers to support children from afar to offer them free reign to express themselves as they wished through their art.

In truth, Dewey’s perspective was based on the teachings of Sigmund Freud, a contemporary of Dewey. Freud is known as the “Father of Psychology,” particularly for his psychoanalytic modality. He discussed the unconscious mind established in young childhood that set the course for the rest of life. Psychological issues arose due to the pull between the id and the ego, the lower and higher parts of the self. Freud prescribed catharsis as the cure as it would unleash the unconscious mind from the tyranny of the conscious. Although Freud, himself, was not a proponent of art therapy, the idea behind it, of releasing the unconscious, emerged from his perspective.

Hans Prinzhorn, a German psychiatrist, had quite a different perspective on art and psychology. At that time, people believed that the scribbles drawn by psychiatric residents were no more than just another symptom of their madness. He saw them as the residents’ form of communication to the outside world. Unlike Freud, he did not see any psychoanalytic function within the art. Instead, it was the need for a creative outlet and communication for people, usually those with schizophrenia, who could not easily express themselves. Through Prinzhorn’s writings, the value of expressive art became more recognized.

Margaret Naumburg was a twentieth-century American psychologist and artist who took art therapy to the next level. She began as an art teacher at the school she started, the Walden School. Like John Dewey, she taught that art was a form of free expression for children, as essential as free speech. Later, she developed this as a part of psychotherapy and called it “Analytically Oriented Art Therapy.” The patient sat at an easel and drew or painted. Afterward, the patient would free associate and discover parts of themselves that they may not have had the courage or insight to express verbally. Because of Naumburg and her writings and lectures, art therapy has become widely accepted and practiced today.

The last art therapy pioneer was Edith Kramer. Like Naumburg, she began as an art teacher at the Wiltwyck School for Boys. However, her opinion was that art therapy is a kind of catharsis in that the act of drawing or painting healed the unconscious. In her words, “Through the creative act, the patient is able to graphically pictoralize inner sensations, desires, etc., and experience feelings which will become satisfactory and desired substitutes for their earlier more destructive feelings… It is an area where experience can be chosen, varied and repeated at will. In the creative act, conflict is re-experienced, resolved and integrated. . .” (Kramer, 1958, p. 6). Her writings, along with Margaret Naumberg’s, were the first to be published in The Bulletin of Art Therapy, later renamed The American Journal of Art Therapy.

From there, art therapy only grew and expanded. In 1969, the AATA, or the American Art Therapy Association was founded. At the same time, the first graduate training program was opened at the Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital. As of January 1, 2021, there are over 4,000 members of AATA, who define art therapy as “a mental health profession that enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities through active art-making, the creative process, applied psychological theory, and human experience within a psychotherapeutic relationship” (AATA National Office, 2021). Their mission is to advance art therapy as a mental health profession and build a community of art therapists so that all can access art therapy for a better quality of life.