HISTORY OF ART THERAPY

The term “Art Therapy was originated in 1942 by Adrian Hill, a British artist and teacher who started his therapeutic work with his fellow patients in a tuberculosis sanatorium. In the United States, Margaret Naumburg was the foremost pioneer in the field; she began to work in the early 1940s at the New York State Psychiatric Institute under the sponsorship of psychoanalyst Nolan D. C.Lewis, M.D. Other prominent American figures are Edith Kramer — outstanding both as a general theoretician and as the leading specialist in child Art Therapy — Lauretta Bender,and Paul Schilder.Schilder contributed to theory while Bender, in her work with autistic children,was among the first to put art to therapeutic use. In Europe, Lombroso, Simon, and Prinzhorn, with their early investigations into the art of mental hospital patients, were important precursors.

The development of Art Therapy in the United States coincided with, and to some extent was related to the rising influence of psychoanalysis on psychiatric thinking. Today Art Therapy is associated with many kinds of psychotherapy and extends, as well, into nonpsychiatric areas.