Content accumulated by:

Johanna Czamanski-Cohen, MA ATR LPC (AZ)

Art therapy is influence by three main fields of study:

1.Psychiatry
2. study of children ’s drawings
3.Art education
 I. PSYCHIATRY
Art of the insane
• Romanticism: Madness as a glorious state
providing access to forbidden realms.
• Asylums: provided fertile grounds for the
observation of the art of the “insane”
and the development of the field
of psychiatry.

Phillipe Pinel
• 1794 'Memoir on Madness‘: careful
psychological study of individuals over time,
insanity isn't always continuous, and calls for
more humanitarian asylum practices
• 1806 (1801) “The treatise on insanity”.
• Noticed that institutionalized
patients often wrote and
painted.
 Dr. Benjamin Rush-
Father of American Psychiatry

• the development of insanity could sometimes

unearth hidden artistic talents: it could throw
‘upon its surface precious and splendid fossils,
the existence of which was unknown to the
proprietors of the soil in which they were
buried’

Rush B. Medical Enquiries and Observations upon the Diseases of the Mind. Philadelphia:
Kimber & Richardson, 1812

Dr. Max Simon

French psychiatrist

• The first psychiatrist to study and analyze art

and writing of mental patients. 1876
published” The imagination and madness”
• Created 5 separate categories of artistic style
that he classified together with 5 types of
mental illness
• Parallels to art of children and primitive
societies
 Cesar Lombroso
Italian psychiatrist
• Followed art of 108 patients. 1880 published an article in
which created 13 characteristics of the art of insane.
• Found connection between “primitive” and “insane” art as
well as “insane” and genius.
• Reaffirmed Simon’s findings and talked about the
prevalence of sexual symbols in art of “insane”.
• Imagery is related to ψ conflicts.

“The appearance of a single great genius is more than

equivalent to the birth of a hundred mediocrities...
Good sense travels on the well-worn paths; genius, never.
And that is why the crowd, not altogether without reason, is so
ready to treat great men as lunatics...Genius is one of the many
forms of insanity.” (Lombroso 1889)

Fritz Mohr 1906

• German psychiatrist who developed a series

of 20 tasks as a formal assessment. Asked the
patients to interpret their work for him.
 Paul Schilder
Austrian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst
• 1918 formulated and studied the concept of body
image. Moved to NY and worked at Bellvue
Hospital in inpatient and outpatient psychiatry.
Also considered one of the fathers of Group
Therapy.
• Wrote a case study and compared the art work of
patient to avant-garde artists of the
time.
• Looked at how the concept of body
image was portrayed in artwork

Hanz Prinzhorn
German psychiatrist
• Gathered art from insane asylums all over Europe. At
the time Klee and Picasso were also studying art of the
mentally ill.
• 1922 “Artistry of the Mentally Ill” Most comprehensive
publication. Focused on egocentric and autistic side of
patients.
• Found connection between content and formal
attributes (meaning and how they looked)
• Was more interested in aesthetics than content for
fear of analyzing a patient without knowing them
“blind analysis”.
• Spoke of the scribble technique of Winnicott.
 Sigmund Freud

• 1909 “The analysis of a phobia of a five year

old boy”. “His widdler is longer”
• 1910 “Leonardo DiVinci and the memory of
his childhood”
• 1918 “ The Wolfman” in
“The history of a childhood
neurosis”.

Ernest Kris
Austrian psychiatrist and art historian
• 1930 Studied art from a psychoanalytic
perspective. 1952 published “Psychoanalytic
explorations in art”. Loosened relationship
between the ego and reality. Spontaneous art
making is an attempt to counteract the
loosening.
• Art historian and then became a director of a
large art museum in Vienna, Became a
psychiatrist and then a psychoanalyst.
• Moved to the US and worked with children
 II. Ψ STUDY OF CHILDREN’S ART
1885-1920
• Focus on the developmental stages in changes
of children’s drawings.
• 1926 Florence Goodenough developed a test
for intelligence based on drawings.
• Detail= intelligence
• 1960-1970’s Harris elaborated these tests
“Goodenough/Harris test” emotionally
handicapped not performing as “normal”.

Projective tests 1940’s

• Psychoanalysts of Europe fled to the US

before and during WWII. Looked at what the
drawings were telling us, not numbers or
ratings.
• 1937 as part of the “New Deal” Roosevelt created jobs
for artists in schools and hospitals “Work projects
administration”. People began to notice the positive
effect of this.
• Altschuler & Hattwick 1947 ψ study of children ages 2-
4 with teachers observing children drawing with case
histories. Found meaning behind the drawings: color
choices, line and form, use of space.
• 1948 Buck published the H-T-P.
• 1949 Machover “Personality
projection in the drawing of a human
figure”

III. Art Education

• Late 1800’s “Progressive Education” was
developed.
• Froebell (1782-1852 invented “kindergarden”
education that emphasizes the whole child,
emotions and intellectual development
• 1897 Franz Cizek opened an art class for
children in Vienna. Enhancing creative ability,
huge influence on Viktor Lowenfeld.
• Anna Freud- began her career as a teacher
and later became a ψanalyst. Refused to get a
degree in medicine to prove that it wasn’t
necessary working in a school setting as a
child analyst. “Psychoanalysis for parents and
teachers” and “Normality and pathology in
childhood”. Extremely influential on Maria
Montessori (education based on creative
activities.

Margaret Naumberg
• Studied with Montessori and began her career
as a progressive educator. Established the
“Children’s School” which became the
“Walden School”.
• Influenced by ψanalytic theory she
encouraged her teachers to be in therapy.
• Children feel free to learn when using
creativity and therefore feel free to express
emotions.
 Florence Cane
• Naumberg’s sister, also a progressive educator.
After WWI an increase in progressive ed. The war
broke down social codes and women
dominated the workforce during the war.
• 1920 Naumberg asked her to come
help at the Walden school.
• 1951 published The Artist in Each
of Us
popularized the scribble technique

Viktor Lowenfeld
• “Creative mental growth” published in 1947.
Detailed elaboration on the emotional and
cognitive development of children as
expressed through their art.
• Teachers who can facilitate children’s growth
while working through art.
– Creative development influences growth
– Growth of child influences creative development
 Art Therapy Founders
• Dr. Nolan Lewis integrated the use of art therapy
in a mental setting. Mentor of Naumberg.
• Mary Huntoon- 1930-40’s worked at the
Menninger foundation and trained nurses and
psychiatrists on the use of art.
• Naumberg- “Analytically oriented art therapy”
• Edith Kramer- art educator and artist. 1950’s
started working as an art therapist at the
“Wiltyck School”. 1958 published” Art Therapy in
a children’s community”.