Introduction: How the twain meet
Kaplan describes her first chapter with how the ideas of art therapy and social action came together. Both ideas we conceived from feminist origins and from progressive political leanings. The relationship between the two are not "entirely self-evident." Art therapy does not really get brought up with social justices and social action does not specifically address psychological and intrapsychic wounds of the people so as the author ask "how exactly does the healing profession of art therapy intersect with the political praxis of social action?"
This question is the main idea of chapter one. Kaplan goes into great detail about how the relationship came to be and how over all the both ideas have worked together to help individuals and society.
The image and social action:
One way art therapy and social action are linked together is through the idea and power of image. "Images can concurrently heal personal- collective wounds while demanding a response to injustice."(22) The image is meant to be shown and between the individual and the collective. Cassirer, a author how studied art therapy, believed the image could be transformed through symbolic forms. Carl Jung., another scientist who studied art therapy, believed the image could connect the unconscious. According to Jung, the image can help the people in two ways. One way would be to heal the individual's conscious if that individual denied the aspect of an idea or thought. The second way is to use the image to connect to the unconscious mind. "Throughout the seeing of the image.... the patient's relationship to unconscious material begins to change." (Jung) Kaplan uses these two authors/ researchers as an example of how art therapy and social action are linked together as one method. Image is the way people see things and how the individuals can grasp the idea of the method.
Kaplan describes her first chapter with how the ideas of art therapy and social action came together. Both ideas we conceived from feminist origins and from progressive political leanings. The relationship between the two are not "entirely self-evident." Art therapy does not really get brought up with social justices and social action does not specifically address psychological and intrapsychic wounds of the people so as the author ask "how exactly does the healing profession of art therapy intersect with the political praxis of social action?"
This question is the main idea of chapter one. Kaplan goes into great detail about how the relationship came to be and how over all the both ideas have worked together to help individuals and society.
The image and social action:
One way art therapy and social action are linked together is through the idea and power of image. "Images can concurrently heal personal- collective wounds while demanding a response to injustice."(22) The image is meant to be shown and between the individual and the collective. Cassirer, a author how studied art therapy, believed the image could be transformed through symbolic forms. Carl Jung., another scientist who studied art therapy, believed the image could connect the unconscious. According to Jung, the image can help the people in two ways. One way would be to heal the individual's conscious if that individual denied the aspect of an idea or thought. The second way is to use the image to connect to the unconscious mind. "Throughout the seeing of the image.... the patient's relationship to unconscious material begins to change." (Jung) Kaplan uses these two authors/ researchers as an example of how art therapy and social action are linked together as one method. Image is the way people see things and how the individuals can grasp the idea of the method.
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