Pictures at an Exhibition (Psychology Revivals) Selected Essays on Art and Art Therapy

Originally published in 1989 Pictures at an Exhibition brings together a rich collection of essays, representing the diversity of views and approaches among professionals towards art and psychoanalysis and art therapy. The editors, both of whom are practising art therapists and art therapy educators, have arranged the contributions so that they may be read in a way similar to looking at pictures in a gallery: they can be glanced at briefly or lingered over, read consecutively or dipped into at random. Artists, art therapists, psychotherapists, psychiatrists and art historians will all find something of interest, and something to stimulate thought and discussion. Contributions include innovative papers on the relationship between artists’ lives and the subject-matter of their work; the work of Kandinsky, Picasso, Magritte, Moore, Lear and Genet is looked at in particular. Generously illustrated, the book also highlights the importance of language and culture in attempting to understand imagery. Each contribution is linked by editorial comments drawing together the threads of concern which are common to art and psychiatry.

List of Illustrations. Notes on Contributors. Foreword by Anthony Storr. Introduction Part One: Psychoanalytic Views of the Arts Commentary 1 Peter Fuller Mother and Child in Henry Moore and Winnicott 2 Brandon Taylor Early Modern Painting in Europe: The Psychopathological Dimension 3 David Maclagan Fantasy and the Figurative 4 John Birtchnell Chagall’s Erotic Imagery 5 Annie Hershkowitz Symbiosis as a Driving Force in the Creative Process 6 Joan Woddis ‘More or Less a Sorrow’: Some Observations on the Work of Edward Lear 7 Michael Edwards Art, Therapy, and Romanticism 8 Roland Littlewood The Imitation of Madness: The Influence of Psychopathology upon Culture Part Two: From Theory into Practice Commentary 9 Roger Cardinal The Primitive Scratch 10 John Matthews How Young Children Give Meaning to Drawing 11 Mary Levens Working with Defence Mechanisms in Art Therapy 12 Joy Schaverien The Picture Within the Frame 13 Gerry McNeilly Group Analytic Art Groups 14 David Edwards Five Years On: Further Thoughts on the Issue of Surviving as an Art Therapist 15 Diane Waller Musing Cross Culturally 16 Rosemary Gordon The Psychic Roots of Drama 17 Michael Donnelly Some Aspects of Art Therapy and Family Therapy 18 Paola Luzzatto Drinking Problems and Short-term Art Therapy: Working with Images of Withdrawal and Clinging 19 Muriel Greenway Art Therapy In Search of a Lost Twin. Index