![]() At first her art is despairing and very personal. Her drawings chronicle her growth and awakening. Her depression never returned and she exhibited her artwork at the Smithsonian Museum. After six months of painting daily, she was relieved of her lifelong experience of depression. As a certified expressive arts therapist, I would add that for this process, a student or client is to write, draw, paint, act, sing, or say everything that crosses your mind without editing, no matter how seemingly insignificant.īy focusing on sorrow and loss in her drawings, Elizabeth created paintings that were authentic, painful, and powerful. Ludwig describes free association and/or stream of consciousness writing in the following manner, “write down, without any falsification or hypocrisy, everything that comes into your head” (Wikipedia, Feb 12, 2015). This first drawing by Elizabeth is reminiscent of the painting, The Scream by Edvard Munch.įree association is a technique that was practiced and made known by Sigmund Freud. Her first drawing was of herself standing alone in the hospital corridor. Elizabeth studied and practiced a blind contour drawing technique, commonly used in most college level art programs, and unknowingly, spontaneously, she incorporated a form of free association. While grieving the loss of her beloved son, and the circumstances of his death, she took a drawing class. Through large portions of her life, Elizabeth had been in and out of psychiatric treatment for bipolar disorder with poor results. Just before the moment of her son’s death, the nurse “pushed” her out into the hallway, where Elizabeth waited, standing alone as her son died. While there are many ways to draw the self, for therapeutic purposes, my favorite is one that was used by Elizabeth Layton, blind contour self-portraits.Įlizabeth Layton first began drawing at age 68, while depressed over the death of her alcoholic son. Self-portraiture, no matter the technique used, can facilitate the: identification of self and affect (functional or not), establishment and strengthening of a recovery identity, foreshadowing of a deeper level of recovery and/or potential for relapse or violence (toward self or others), grieving, processing of addiction, trauma, physical illness, and chronic pain, processes for self-soothing, affirmations, and self-love, and a place to anchor positive visualizations for the future. Now, with over three decades of facilitating art, at various times for graduate students, psychotherapists, medical doctors, and clients,…. I have found that self-portraiture is one of the greatest tools in my repertoire of psychotherapeutic techniques. This is especially true in an age when appearance is deemed to be so important.īut Aristotle said, “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” ![]() To a person looking from outside in, self-portraiture in therapy could appear to reinforce egotism and narcissism.
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