Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Art History Therapy: The Role of Art History in the Psychotherapy Process

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Unconscious processes lead to maladaptive behaviors, while people use various defense mechanisms to cope with stressful and traumatic memories. Bringing the unconscious to consciousness is essential for treating such inner conflicts. Art history therapy, which brings together art history and psychology, aims to accelerate clients’ self-disclosure to the therapist by bringing their unconscious to consciousness through artworks, thereby establishing the therapeutic alliance. As objects of art history, artworks can trigger associations with childhood experiences in clients. Discussing an artwork can enable clients to express their repressed feelings, thoughts, and memories more easily without fear of being judged by the therapist. The therapy also aims to increase psychological well-being through an aesthetic experience using plastic or visual artworks as the materials. Moreover, clients can benefit from the healing power of art in psychotherapy that self-disclosure provides catharsis to enable clients to discharge the negative emotions connected to traumatic events. After a preliminary client interview, an art historian and clinical psychologist create a repertoire of artworks that are generally appreciated in art history and reflect the characteristics of different periods and artists. The artworks used depend on each client’s psychological state and symptoms. However, the main factor in selecting the artworks is to make it easier for clients to remember their experiences and increase their psychological well-being by providing an aesthetic experience. During therapy sessions, first of all, clients interpret the artwork while the therapist makes connections between these interpretations and the client’s experiences. Then, clients are informed about the artworks within the framework of art history.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abbing, A., Baars, E. W., de Sonneville, L., Ponstein, A. S., & Swaab, H. (2019). The effectiveness of art therapy for anxiety in adult women: A randomized controlled trial. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1203. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01203.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Alessi, E. J., Dillon, F. R., & Van Der Horn, R. (2019). The therapeutic relationship mediates the association between affirmative practice and psychological well-being among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer clients. Psychotherapy, 56(2), 229. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000210.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cameron, I. D., Dyer, S. M., Panagoda, C. E., Murray, G. R., Hill, K. D., Cumming, R. G., & Kerse, N. (2018). Interventions for preventing falls in older people in care facilities and hospitals. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 9. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.

  • Çelikkan, Ş. (2017). Sigmund Freud’da yaratmanın psikolojisi: Psikanalitik sanat. The Journal of Social Sciences, 11(11), 225. https://doi.org/10.16990/SOBIDER.3446.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Christensen, J. F., & Gomila, A. (2018). Introduction: art and the brain: from pleasure to well-being. Progress in Brain Research, 237, XXVII-XLVI. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-6123(18)30032-3.

  • Cupchik, G. C., & Winston, A. S. (1996). Confluence and divergence in empirical aesthetics, philosophy, and mainstream psychology. In E. C. Carterette, & M. P. Friedman (Eds.), Handbook of perception & cognition, cognitive ecology (pp. 62–85). Academic Press.

  • Di Giuseppe, M., Perry, J. C., Conversano, C., Gelo, O. C. G., & Gennaro, A. (2020). Defense mechanisms, gender, and adaptiveness in emerging personality disorders in adolescent outpatients. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 208(12), 933–941. https://doi.org/10.1097/NMD.0000000000001230.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Freud, S. (1983). I. Creative writers and daydreaming. (E. Kurzweil & W. Phillips Eds.), literature and psychoanalysis, New York Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press.

  • Funch, B. S. (2022). Emotions in the psychology of aesthetics. In Arts, 11(4), 76. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts11040076.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gorodeisky, K., & Marcus, E. (2022). Aesthetic knowledge. Philosophical Studies, 179(8), 2507–2535.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gülüm, V., Uluç, S., & Soygüt, G. (2018). Terapötik ittifak ölçeği-kısa formun psikometrik özelliklerinin incelenmesi. Türk Psikiyatri Dergisi, 29, 47–53.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Harrison, N. R., & Clark, D. P. A. (2016). The observing facet of trait mindfulness predicts frequency of aesthetic experiences evoked by the arts. Mindfulness, 7, 971–978. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts11040076.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huber, H. D. (2019). Towards a theory of the aesthetic situation. Art Style: Art & Culture International Magazine, 3(3 (September)), 27–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kabashi, A. (2019). ICONCLASS-classification system for art and iconography (Doctoral dissertation, University of Zagreb. University of Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Department of information and Communication sciences).

  • Karver, M. S., De Nadai, A. S., Monahan, M., & Shirk, S. R. (2018). Meta-analysis of the prospective relation between alliance and outcome in child and adolescent psychotherapy. Psychotherapy, 55(4), 341–355. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000176.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kazantzis, N., Dattilio, F. M., & Dobson, K. S. (2017). The therapeutic relationship in cognitive-behavioral therapy: A clinician’s guide. Guilford Publications.

  • Kivity, Y., Strauss, A. Y., Elizur, J., Weiss, M., Cohen, L., & Huppert, J. D. (2021). The alliance mediates outcome in cognitive–behavioral therapy for social anxiety disorder, but not in attention bias modification. Psychotherapy Research, 31(5), 589–603. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2020.1836423.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Leder, H., Carbon, C. C., & Ripsas, A. L. (2006). Entitling art: Influence of title information on understanding and appreciation of paintings. Acta Psychologica, 121(2), 176–198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2005.08.005.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mastandrea, S., Fagioli, S., & Biasi, V. (2019). Art and psychological well-being: Linking the brain to the aesthetic emotion. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 739. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00739.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Moeskjær, H. J., & Roald, T. (2022). Aesthetic empathy: An investigation in phenomenological psychology of visual art experiences. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 53(1), 25–50. https://doi.org/10.1163/15691624-20221397.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oh, H. R., & Chung, Y. J. (2021). A single case study of art therapy in a child with Crohn’s disease. Arts Psychother, 72, 101751.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oral, E. A. (1994). İntihar girişimi olan kadınların duygularını açma davranışı ile kaygı durumları arasındaki ilişki [Master’s thesis, Hacettepe University Graduate School of Social Sciences].

  • Panofsky, E. (1955). Meaning in the visual arts. Doubleday Anchor Books.

  • Richards, A. G., Tietyen, A. C., Jicha, G. A., Bardach, S. H., Schmitt, F. A., Fardo, D. W., Kryscio, R. J., & Abner, E. L. (2019). Visual arts education improves self-esteem for persons with dementia and reduces caregiver burden: A randomized controlled trial. Dementia, 18(7–8), 3130–3142. https://doi.org/10.1177/1471301218769071.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Şahin, Z. C. (2023). Sanat terapisinde fotoğrafın i̇yileştirici amaçlarla kullanımı. Bodrum Journal of Art and Design, 2(1), 28–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Soulsby, L. K., Jelissejeva, K., & Forsythe, A. (2021). And I’m in another world. A qualitative examination of the experience of participating in creative arts groups in Palestine. Arts & Health: An International Journal for Research Policy and Practice, 13(1), 63–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/17533015.2019.1624585.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Telef, B. B. (2013). Psikolojik iyi oluş ölçeği: Türkçeye uyarlama, geçerlik ve güvenirlik çalışması. Hacettepe Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 28(3), 374–384.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomson, L. J., Lockyer, B., Camic, P. M., & Chatterjee, H. J. (2018). Effects of a museum-based social prescription intervention on quantitative measures of psychological wellbeing in older adults. Perspect Public Health, 138, 28–38. https://doi.org/10.1177/1757913917737563.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Verhaeghen, P. (2018). Once more, with feeling: The role of familiarity in the aesthetic response. The Psychological Record, 68(3), 379–384.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weiser, J. (2018). Phototherapy techniques: Exploring the secrets of personal snapshots and family albums. Routledge.

  • Winner, E. (2019). How artworks: A psychological exploration (p. 375). Oxford University Press.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Bartın University, Bartın, Turkey

    Gizem Akcan

  2. Department of Art History, Bartın University, Bartın, Turkey

    Abdül Halim Varol

Authors
  1. Gizem Akcan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Abdül Halim Varol
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gizem Akcan.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Akcan, G., Varol, A. Art History Therapy: The Role of Art History in the Psychotherapy Process. J Contemp Psychother 54, 77–82 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10879-023-09600-y

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10879-023-09600-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation