191CHAPTER 9
Problems We Address
Wherever there is a spark of human spirit—no matter how dim it may be—it is our
sacred responsibility as humans, teachers, and [therapists] to fan it into whatever flame
it conceivably may develop... .We are all by nature more or less endowed with intrinsic
qualities, and no one has the right to draw a demarcation line which divides human
beings into those who should receive all possible attention in their development and
those who are not worth all our eἀorts. One of these intrinsic qualities is that every
human being is endowed with a creative spirit.
Viktor LowenfeldLiving With Mental Illness
Introduction
Art therapy cannot cure psychotic disorders. If they are chronic, the person is fortunate to
find a medication that helps to keep the condition under control. As noted earlier, those
with chronic mental illness were the first to “speak” through art, alerting psychiatrists to
what was going on inside them (Prinzhorn, 1922). If the breakdown is temporary, like the
experience of Canadian artist William Kurelek, then the story can have a happy ending
(Adamson, 1984). Kurelek ended up in one of the first art therapy studios, that of Edward
Adamson at Netherne Hospital in England. He found his way out of madness through paint-
ing, and his story was told in the film The Maze. On the DVD (9.1), you can hear about some
of what happened from Kurelek himself, as he discusses one of the many powerful paintings
he created during his illness.
A Story of Bravery and Creative Coping: KAREN
While I was working on the adolescent unit at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic
(WPIC) in the early 1980s, a depressed girl named Karen was admitted after a suicide ges-
ture. She was unwilling to talk to anyone, although she was not mute. She came to an art
therapy group and discovered that art allowed her to say things she couldn’t put into words.
She asked the physician in charge of her treatment if she could have individual art therapy
as well and he agreed (DVD 9.2).