The Beginnings of Art Therapy

Art therapy is a relative newcomer to the therapeutic field. Art therapy as a profession began in the mid-20th century, arising independently in English-speaking and European countries. Many of the early practitioners of art therapy acknowledged the influence of a variety of disciplines on their practices, ranging from psychoanalysis through to aesthetics and early childhood education. However, the roots of art as therapy go back as far as the late 18th century, when arts were used in the 'moral treatment' of psychiatric patients. It wasn't until 1942, however, that the British artist Adrian Hill coined the term 'art therapy', as he was recovering from tuberculosis in a sanatorium. He discovered that therapeutic benefits could be derived from drawing and painting whilst recovering. Art, he claimed, could become therapeutic since it was capable of 'completely engrossing the mind... releasing the creative energy of the frequently inhibited patient'. This effect, argued Hill, could in turn help the patient as it would 'build up a strong defence against his misfortunes'. In 1964, the British Association of Art Therapists was founded. Proponents of art therapy fell into one of two categories: those who believed that the therapeutic effect of art lay in its effectiveness as a psychoanalytic tool to assess a patient through their drawings and those who held the belief that art-making was an end in itself, the creative process acting therapeutically on the patient. The two practices, however, were not incompatible, a degree of overlap occurring between the two. A patient, for…