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 NewYork 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…