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Most of us think that art psychotherapy means interpreting a painting to reveal the hidden secrets of the mind. Well, we are slightly off the mark, says art psychotherapist Oihika Chakrabarti

Art psychotherapy is basically the merging of two apparently unrelated disciplines — art and psychology. The partnership and interaction of this dynamic duo has proved most rewarding in a treatment set-up.

Art psychotherapy is based on the knowledge that every individual, whether trained or untrained in art, has a latent capacity to project his/her inner conflicts into visual form. The need for communication is universal to man. However, when this need is impaired or rejected in a normal mode of communication, art activity substitutes it in the form of ‘symbolic speech’.

This non-verbal mode of communication can generate images, which symbolise emotions and experiences that are otherwise difficult to come to terms with. Art therapy can be used with a trauma victim as well as a difficult child. The outflow of inner feelings is the key.

There is one basic underlying difference between art and art psychotherapy. In the former, the prime focus revolves around the aesthetic considerations of the artwork, where the process of creation is entirely secondary.

In art psychotherapy, the prime focus is on the individual and the entire process of creation, as it is through this process that he/she comes to mirror his/her subconscious self. Art psychotherapy is therefore a form of catharsis and it is this cathartic import that is the basic principle underlying this therapy.