Chapter One
In My Defense

In art therapy one accepts as basic to treatment the psychoanalytic mechanisms of repression, projection, identification, and sublimation (Naumburg, 1953). These mechanisms, used unconsciously, are incorporated to defend against feelings of anxiety that have become uncomfortable, humiliating, or shameful. Removed from the ego, experiences may be isolated, but they are never forgotten. They creep into our relationships and have the power to both protect and stifle. This repression, however, "will make itself felt sooner or later in some manner if it is at all vital to ... development" (Whitmont, 1969, p. 107).
It is to this end that the art experience offers its invaluable service. The ability to vent emotions through the process of art allows for both distance and perspective. As Judy Rubin (1984) points out, "in the doing part of art therapy, patients do not talk about feelings or relationships from a distance, but they get into them and feel them" (p. 140). Thus, art ... read full excerpt from Drawing the Line: Art Therapy with the Difficult Client ebook