ABSTRACT
These papers cover many aspects of the psychoanalytic views of culture and the arts. Several papers in this first part have an immediate sense of being in touch with childhood experience and with the process of making art, which for us demonstrates the duality of art therapy – the importance of working with the early experiences of our patients whilst maintaining the awareness we, as artists, bring to the art therapy process. A dominant theme is the degree to which it is necessary to allow space for the voice of the artist him/herself when using analytic theory to understand the nature and content of an artist’s imagery.
