ABSTRACT
How to define art therapy has been a somewhat vexatious question from the beginning of its history. The reasons for this lie in the specific social, cultural, and political contexts in which the early pioneers developed their practice.
This chapter looks at early influences on the development of the profession in the UK and the dialectical relationship between studio-based practice and the rise of art psychotherapy as a definition of practice. The authors investigate the idea of a ‘psychoanalytic turn’ away from studio practice during the later development of the profession, using personal recollections from a small number of art therapists about their practice from the 1970s onwards. In exploring this it becomes clear that things are more complex, and practice more nuanced, as different ideas were integrated. Their accounts also reveal supporting detail for the impact of social as well as psychological influences on the studio art therapy approach.
