ART IN PSYCHOTHERAPY
IRVING BIEBER M. D., and
JESSIE K. HERKIMER M. S. S
A psychotherapeutic team consisting of a male psychiatrist, a female psychiatric social worker, and a male artist, operating in a military setting, selected a group of patients who were willing to draw from the psychiatric section of a general hospital. All "open ward" patients willing to draw attended art sessions conducted by the art member of the team, and were seen in therapeutic sessions by the psychiatrist, psychiatric social worker, or both as the patients desired. The art productions of all patients were collected and studied. A case report detailing the progress of one patient is given. The value of a team of therapists working through the medium of art is discussed. The value of art as a diagnostic therapeutic agent and as an objective means of following therapy is likewise described.
