226 • Introduction to Art Therapy
participates in a uniquely shared journey, and bears witness as the patient comes to terms
with his fate—with the help of art and her presence (Waller & Sibbett, 2005).
For youngsters with cancer, making art is a natural way of “helping normal children cope
with abnormal circumstances.”^8 Rachel, dying of leukemia, shared her spontaneous draw-
ings and writings with her home/hospital teacher (Bertoia, 1993).
Usually the creative activity is introduced by an art therapist, as in work with AIDS
patients (Landgarten & Lubbers, 1991). Occasionally, art is provided by a physician, as in the
painting therapy for cancer patients offered by a doctor in Germany (Hauschka, 1985). For a
dying person, when art making is watched over by a sensitive clinician, even deeper healing
can take place. In Cancer Stories, Esther Dreifuss-Katan (1990) offers eloquent examples of
her subtitle: Creativity & Self-Repair (cf. Waller & Sibbett, 2005).
Although the body may not be curable, art is a wonderful way to repair the injured soul.
Art, after all, is an expression of the human spirit, and both have their own kind of immortal-
it y. In addition to work with patients, art therapy can also help the family—during the dying
process as well as after their loss. Three generations, for example, were helped to deal with
their feelings about a terminally ill grandparent through family art therapy (Landgarten,
1987). Dreifuss-Katan (1990) also describes art therapy with the grieving family. Indeed, all
of the arts help people to face death and to deal with grief (Bertman, 1999).
Both children and adults with life-threatening illnesses rarely give up all hope of recov-
ery, no matter how faint. One of the bravest women I have ever known was also one of the
best art therapists I had the privilege to train. In Susan Aach-Feldman’s battle with ovarian
cancer, she often turned to making her own art.
Fighting Cancer With Art and Imagery: SUE (37)
Susan Aach-Feldman was a young art therapist who did brilliant work with blind children
(B), and who, at age 39, died long before her time. Her fatal illness, ovarian cancer, was diag-
nosed two years before it finally conquered her body; perhaps delayed by the brave spirit she
mustered to fight it.
While still in the hospital following her first operation, Sue asked for art materials, and
we would talk about her drawings during my visits. Actively using imagery as a tool in
her fight against the disease, she worked at visualizing the cancer cells and her immune
system. Sue also drew bold and powerful pictures in her sketchbooks, trying to beat the
challenge of cancer as creatively as she had met the challenge of helping children with
multiple disabilities.
One year after her first operation and a course of chemotherapy followed by a welcome
period of comfort and energy, Sue was due to have a routine follow-up called second-look
surgery. Just before she went into the hospital, she requested a meeting at my office. During
an intense two-hour session, she drew and discussed a series of three chalk drawings, which,
like her courageous spirit, were realistic, yet full of hope.
The first was a glowingly healthy portrait of her body, “What’s Happening Inside:
Visualizing the Best” (C). The second was a representation of her T-cells (Figure 10.8) enti-
tled “My Fighters: The Swordsmen” (D). And the third was a boat plowing its way through
rough waters, “The Narrow Path: An Odds-Beater on a Sturdy Ship” (E).
Sue did beat the medical odds, staying alive more than twice as long as the doctors had
predicted before succumbing to the cancer. Though there is no way to prove it, I believe
that Sue’s passionate use of imagery and making of art helped to extend her life. As noted
earlier, some studies support the power of mental and artistic imagery to strengthen the
human immune system. And there is considerable evidence that such a spirit, a will to live