ABSTRACT
This chapter draws upon the author’s personal history as an art therapist in the NHS to explore how the three different studios he worked in were influenced by the social and political contexts that constructed the frames within which they sat. These contexts are mirrored in the history of changing attitudes towards mental illness – from the rise of psychiatry through to the antipsychiatry movement and a contemporary interest in psychological idioms to explain human suffering and provide cost-effective treatments. The elements of art therapy practice that a studio ethos enables are explored. How such practice can survive in a system of healthcare whose funding is increasingly dependent on short-term fixes and financial constraint is a matter of urgent debate – the importance of such practice to alleviate suffering is not.
