VISUAL COMMUNICATION OF INNER SELF: 2 CASE STUDIES

Ms. Subhra Banerjee PaulMr. Hurit BasuDr. Debasis Bhattacharya

www.danakolkata.org

Introductory note• Art-therapy or Art-psychotherapy is firmly rooted in

Psychodynamic and Humanistic concepts. It also involves the knowledge of perceptual psychology or Gestalt Psychology. Our present therapeutic approach used elements of different philosophies with special emphasis on Gestalt which emphasizes first on developing and expressing images that come from inside the person rather than those he or she sees in the outer world

• The art-work symbolizes the past, present and future aspect of the patient

• The visual image-making is an important aspect of human learning

• That art made, in presence of an art-therapist, may enable a person to get in touch with feelings that cannot be expressed in words

• That the creative process helps patients to resolve conflicts or to live with their problems in better way

METHODIt is a prospective service-oriented project , where a group of inmates of a halfway home, Paripurnata, have been included for Art-therapy session. The therapeutic group comprising of one psychologist and an artist dealt with each patient individually with verbal discussion, support and encouragement to facilitate free expression. It was in no way Art-teaching class and the therapist-artist played the role of non-directive friendly guide. There was no set way to begin with the session. The therapy was tailored to the individual. The individual patient followed following steps

(a) contact with art-materials (b) organize & handle the art-materials (c) a theme emerges and the patient invests more attention and effort to particular aspect of drawing (d) final step is to elaborate and finish the art-work.

In the present study consecutive seven sessions at weekly interval were conducted. The duration of each session was one and half hour. In total eight inmates were included for art-therapy. The therapy was given as an adjunct to their psychiatric treatment. Among them two cases are presented here

CASE: (Brief history)

Mrs. J.D. studied up to class IV. She was married but separated for last 9yrs & was staying at a slum with her widow mother who earn by working as a maid-servant. JD was ill-tempered, could not adjust even in any petty job, neither could look after her 10 yr. old son. She was treated intermittently at Govt. Psychiatric OPD. AS she had periodic relapses with agitation , she was brought to Paripurnata Halfway Home, where she has been staying since 27th. May,2013.She is under treatment for Bipolar Mood Disorder and at present relatively stable. She now attends at counseling and activity sessions.

JD | 1JD | 1stst Session (10.07.14) Session (10.07.14)

Picture 1 Picture 2

1st. Session. (10.07.14) On the first day Mrs. JD . was jovial and eager to do some art-work .She was asked to pick up 3 pastel sticks according to her own preferences. She chose Lemon Yellow, Sap-green & black. She started drawing hastily and put bold yellow strokes occupying the lower half of middle portion of paper. These strokes have expanding character of a blooming flower. On the centre of the yellow orbit she confidently put some black dots adding a magnetic stability. Then she finished the picture by quickly drawing some faint calligraphic interrupted lines using intuitively the white of the paper to enhance the brightness of the ground. The arrangement and the impact of the ‘figure’ & ‘ground’ is befitting with her expansive, elated temperament. At the end of session she expressed her satisfaction and liked to draw another picture. Next picture was more abstract using colored triangles in juxtaposition imparting a dynamic sensation of movement. The blue and brown on the two opposing margins bind the whole space in indivisible , compact form. She exhibited conformity during discussion with the therapist.

JD | 2JD | 2ndnd Session (24.07.14) Session (24.07.14)

Picture 1

2nd.session (24.07.14.)• In between first two sessions , she exhibited frequent

swinging of mood with minor confrontation with other inmates.

• On 24th. July she had less enthusiasm and did her work slowly and half-heartedly.

• At the end of session she told the psychologist that she was feeling sad and was brooding on the memory of her son.

JD | 3JD | 3rdrd Session (28.07.2014) Session (28.07.2014)

Picture 1 Picture 2

3rd. Session (28.07.14.) Picture 1.• On this day she was in high mood and a bit restless.

She swiftly picked up her three favorite colors and started making shapes – square, triangle and hastily drew a serpentine line suggesting a flowing thread of a lost kite floating in the space. Here the forms and colors are vibrating with high spirit and transmitting a sensation of movement or restlessness.

• The content intuitively reflects her own world of sweet-home, a flower-tub, a bucket and amug.

• 3rd. Session - (cont.): 2nd. Picture • She was so eager to continue to draw , that she was

given another paper. • Now she felt more free to play with abstract forms

focusing specifically on a magenta-color bright circle suggesting her concentration and inner stability.

• At the end of the session she was cooperative , smiling during interaction with therapist.

JD | 4JD | 4thth Session (07.08.14) Session (07.08.14)

Picture 1

4th. Session (07.08.14)

• Here again we find the repetition of bright yellow circular form , representing a yellow blooming flower.

• In the meantime we have learnt to empathize and read her visual expression of expansive, extrovert temperament.

JD | 5JD | 5thth Session (14.08.14) Session (14.08.14)

Picture 1 Picture 2

5th. Session ( 14.08.14)- Picture 1. & 2.• On this day, before the session, she had some altercation

with another inmate. She was fidgety, distractable . On persuasion she started drawing but could not concentrate adequately.

• Gradually she gained interest and liked to draw the second picture, where again she exhibited assertiveness by the use of bold contrasting color-forms.

• The 1st. picture reflects her own world dominated by herself whereas the 2nd one fill up the space with abstract forms imparting a sense of stability with interlocking triangular forms of bold color-blocks.

JD | 6JD | 6thth Session (21.08.14) Session (21.08.14)

Picture 1

6th. Session ( 21.08.14)• On this day she was in pensive mood. She did not

exhibited her usual flow of energy. However she was neither in bad mood. She slowly and quietly drew with soothing, fresh colors and stopped doing work before time.

JD | 7JD | 7thth Session (18.09.14) Session (18.09.14)

Picture 1

7th. Session (18.09.14.)• On the last day she was in good mood and hastily started

her work by drawing a triangular-shaped flower vase simulating an arrow-head. The branches of a plant also appearing to be erupting like a bunch of arrows covering interestingly a broader triangular space. She finished her drawing by putting some swirling curved linens on the opposing corners. The sharp upward movement of the composition surely imparts a sense of expansiveness projecting perhaps her inner sense of grandiosity.

CASE – (brief history)

Mrs. MG. 72 yrs. Old lady MA (Eng.) retired as a teacher from a Govt. High School . Her husband is also a retired Govt. officer. They lived in their ancestral house. Both of them get pension and their two married daughters and son-in-laws are also supportive. Since last four years she gradually became withdrawn with gross impairment of recent memory and orientation. Since last one and half year she became impulsive with unpredictable behaviour and whimsically distributed unaccountable amount of money to beggars. She also expressed periodic paranoid delusion and excitement. All these problems progressively aggravated and domiciliary management was difficult. So her family members brought her to Paripurnata Home on 16th. Nov.’14. Since then she is staying here as an inmate.

MG | 1MG | 1stst Session (10.07.14) Session (10.07.14)

Picture 1

1st. Session (10.07.14.)

• On the first day Mrs. MG. was neither excited nor aversive to art-therapy. She slowly but steadily started drawing small color strokes almost in the manner of scribbling. The strokes represent repetitive, stereotype forms. The arrangement is linear, disciplined reflecting an organized mind . The total expression suggests the idiosyncrasy of thought and emotional bluntness.

MG | 2MG | 2ndnd Session (07.08.14) & 3 Session (07.08.14) & 3rdrd Session (14.08.14) Session (14.08.14)

Picture 1 Picture 2

2nd. & 3rd. Session (07.08.14 and 14.08.14.)

Sometimes she deciphered some letters repetitively, expressing her idiosyncratic thought

MG | 4MG | 4thth Session (21.08.14) Session (21.08.14)

Picture 1

On 4th. Session she after continuous encouragement and sharing of ideas, tried to come out of her encapsulated self by representing some simple, culturally shared motifs with somewhat detached attitude and temporarily showed interest about her present and past memories. It was reflected to her art-work by an attempt to draw some meaningful motifs.

MG | 5MG | 5thth Session (28.08.14) Session (28.08.14)

Picture 1

• On subsequent session she again withdrew into her own inner-world. Her visual idioms suggest apparently calm and bizarre idiosyncratic language with flat mood.

• However she liked to participate and felt comfortable in such activity.

COMMENTS

• In the present study, if we compare these two cases, we find they have remarkable differences.

• The case one is young, less-educated, slum-dweller, separated from her husband , suffering since her young-adulthood from periodic episodes of mood-disorder.

• Case two is an highly educated married lady from a stable, well-to-do family, who worked as teacher and retired in due course. Now she is having personality changes due to her cognitive deficit and has become withdrawn with flat mood and paranoid anxiety.

• Case one likes to create art-works in profusion with impulsive projection of wide variety of content and expression whereas the case two is reserved with significant poverty of thought and lack of emotional warmth.

• At the end of the day, both the cases enjoyed the activity and felt complacent.

• The impact of Art-therapy on individuals must be understood through the person’s context

• Reduction in self-destructive behaviour and development of more constructive relationships were found

• With the progress of therapeutic session, the patients, involved in art-work, showed better relationships with the therapist, care-givers and other inmates.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

Limitations

• Data from single case series make difficult to generalize the results. However long-term follow-up definitely suggest that some patients do well while others who have less inclination to visual expression , do not show much change.

• It has been appreciated by almost all art-therapists that it is impossible to be consistently correct for the internal lenses through we view

• I apologize for any distorting effect on my theoretical explanation

We are thankful to Mr. Prabir Basu, Secretary,

Mrs. Jhuma Bhatta (Mukhopadhya) & Other staff of

Paripurnata Halfway Home

for their whole-hearted support and assistance to our present project on Art-therapy.

Creation of a composed space projecting the inner self offer a meaningful refuge from unmanageable confusion of outer reality.

“ART MAY NOT BE HEALER BUT CERTAINLY MAY BE USED AS A HELPER IN THE TIME OF TROUBLES”

- Rudolf Arnheim