Creativity-Arts Therapy: Annotated Bibliography
ATS 1017
Vivek Menon Narayanan
Annotated Bibliography
Creativity – Arts therapy as an alternative to treat mental illnesses
By Vivek Menon Narayanan (25655191)
This annotated bibliography is a collection of multi-disciplinary sources that look into the creativity of the application of the field of arts into an outcome of the field of science; specifically the use of arts therapy to treat mental illnesses. I have always been interested in activities related to the above mentioned fields and wanted to find an issue that creatively links them both together. All of the articles presented in this bibliography indicate two commonalities – firstly, they acknowledge that it is rather difficult for people with mental illnesses to …show more content…
adhere to medical treatment as they are confined by very specific rules and secondly, due to confinement, they tend to be misread by society. Hence, scientists, psychologists and therapists have recently discovered (through randomized research and related studies) that arts therapy might just be the breakthrough for a steady recovery for the affected patients.
Aldridge, D. (2001). The creative arts therapies in the treatment of neuro-degenerative illness. Music Therapy Today, 86(2), pp 93-108.
In this journal article, Aldridge expresses his concern about how ‘medical ways’ of solving an issue, for instance sedation, may result in the suppression of a mentally-challenged individual. Rather than allowing them to express their concerns, he argues that they may distance themselves from their personalities and therefore creating a barrier that would simply be hard to break down. Aldridge then brings up the issue of empowerment as an effect of arts therapy because they are able to control their senses and diminish any of their insecurities. He also discusses how music, drama and dance help the neurologically-troubled improve their motor skills, communication, physiological irregularities and even spiritual enlightenment. Besides that, he highlighted the effect of music saying that the rhythm of music induces a time structure that is able to activate brain connections that appear to have failed in
ATS …show more content…
1017
Vivek Menon Narayanan
people with neurological problems. Aldridge concludes, based on his extensive research, that arts therapy will in fact improve the quality of life for people suffering such illnesses.
Although this article focuses on neurodegenerative diseases, this source is particularly useful to the topic of the bibliography in that most mental illnesses are actually neurodegenerative, therefore a correlation can be established.
Barton, E. J. (2011). Movement and mindfulness: A formative evaluation of a
Dance/Movement and yoga therapy program with participants experiencing severe mental illness. American Journal of Dance Therapy, 33(2), pp 157-181.
Barton emphasizes the use of body-based psychotherapy to improve the status of mentally challenged individuals. She argues that their uncontrollable reactions to stress-inducing situations can be replaced by the combination of the physicality and spirituality of yoga with the artistic and endlessly imaginative body movements and dance. She claims that the patients can get in touch with their inner sensations and this causes them to react mindfully. Barton also pointed out that these activities are easy to follow up and distractions hardly disrupt the continuity of their progress. She adds that the patients are first introduced to basic yoga movements and slowly to more progressive dancing whereby it becomes the main component of the activity. Barton concludes based on her findings that her exercises induce interpersonal communication and that it allows her patients to internally connect with themselves as well as being able to use that self-expression as a healthy way to convey a message to society. Although this study involved collecting data from both patients and clinical staff to view different perspectives, however the fact that there was no control group to compare the findings of this study with makes it hard to determine whether or not the data signifies a substantial breakthrough.
ATS 1017
Vivek Menon Narayanan
Lloyd, C., Wong, S. R., & Petchkovsky, L. (2007). Art and recovery in mental health:
A qualitative investigation. The British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 70(5), pp 207-214.
Lloyd, Wong and Petchkovsky concentrated on the individualistic recovery in mental health rather than a group of individuals. Lloyd and colleagues first distinguished between the medical recovery model - comprising a fixed set of regulations and the personal recovery model defined by solitary satisfaction. Based on their observations, the authors have initially discovered that the involvement of the mental healthcare clients in art have brought forward a concept of surrealism where subconscious emotions are highlighted in the activities that they are involved in. They argue that that the artistic exercises, most importantly, have the ability to create more subjective-thinking individuals, whereby they are able to accept the fact that they will be scrutinized in the real world and rather than erratically reacting to criticism, they seem to be more calm and accepting it as constructive advice. They conclude by saying that art is a generative solution in mental health recovery because they create individuals who embrace their illness as a part of themselves and who now believe that they, in their own right, are just as normal as everyone else.
The research, due to its generalization, applies to a wider range of situations as it did not focus only on a specific demographic i.e. people of all ages and backgrounds have willingly participated in the study.
Odell-Miller, H., Hughes, P., & Westacott, M. (2006). An investigation into the effectiveness of the arts therapies for adults with continuing mental health problems. Psychotherapy Research, 16(1), pp 122-139.
Odell-Miller and colleagues conducted both a qualitative and a quantitative research in this journal article. They begin by explaining that arts-based parameters do not measure changes according to specific diagnoses, thus being the reason of conducting a general diagnosis study which focuses on mental illness as a whole. The authors emphasize on the fact that arts therapy can ameliorate mental illnesses but in a
ATS 1017
Vivek Menon Narayanan
perspective where they are suddenly able to assume realistic and attainable goals. This is because of the questionnaires provided to the patients, however limited, makes them realize that there are various options that could suit their interest that may not coincide with their imaginations. Odell-Miller and colleagues also mention that the reason why the quantitative study is possible, besides the usual qualitative interviews, is due to the fact that satisfaction levels are easily quantified on a scale. In conclusion, the authors have come up with a value as well as positive-worded responses of how the patients feel after undergoing arts therapy.
Although Odell-Miller and colleagues managed to prove their theories using extended interviews with the patients, however they have failed to realise that difficulties in monitoring and executing generalised conclusions using numerical statistics would require an unbelievable amount of resources and therefore should have focused on one type of diagnosis or one type of arts medium.
Twardzicki, M.
(2008). Challenging stigma around mental illness and promoting social inclusion using the performing arts. The Journal of the Royal Society for the
Promotion of Health, 128(2), pp 68-72.
Twardzicki, in this article, ran a three-year study with the objective of eliminating the negative perceptions against those suffering from mental illnesses by using art to create a unified community. She adds that the inclusion of the mental healthcare clients together with school students will boost their self-esteem in that their contributions to the various arts productions are deemed significant by the people they consider ‘normal’. Furthermore, she states that their ability to make choices in their involvement of the production gives them the freedom and releases them of their mental space constraint. Twardzicki also mentions repeatedly that the effect should be noticed not just on the healthcare clients but the students and tutors in that population as well. In the end, the outcome of her study does reveal that the stigma around mental illness has taken a turn for the better as the students, especially,
ATS 1017
Vivek Menon Narayanan
have moulded their mentality in that they have become more empathetic and the
vast majority declined the idea of classifying the mental health clients as outcasts.
This study is proof that integration is key to eradicate negative impressions of a minor part of a society and that collaborative artistic activities are capable of helping such patients to express themselves in a less forceful manner.
Vivek Menon Narayanan
Annotated Bibliography
Creativity – Arts therapy as an alternative to treat mental illnesses
By Vivek Menon Narayanan (25655191)
This annotated bibliography is a collection of multi-disciplinary sources that look into the creativity of the application of the field of arts into an outcome of the field of science; specifically the use of arts therapy to treat mental illnesses. I have always been interested in activities related to the above mentioned fields and wanted to find an issue that creatively links them both together. All of the articles presented in this bibliography indicate two commonalities – firstly, they acknowledge that it is rather difficult for people with mental illnesses to …show more content…
adhere to medical treatment as they are confined by very specific rules and secondly, due to confinement, they tend to be misread by society. Hence, scientists, psychologists and therapists have recently discovered (through randomized research and related studies) that arts therapy might just be the breakthrough for a steady recovery for the affected patients.
Aldridge, D. (2001). The creative arts therapies in the treatment of neuro-degenerative illness. Music Therapy Today, 86(2), pp 93-108.
In this journal article, Aldridge expresses his concern about how ‘medical ways’ of solving an issue, for instance sedation, may result in the suppression of a mentally-challenged individual. Rather than allowing them to express their concerns, he argues that they may distance themselves from their personalities and therefore creating a barrier that would simply be hard to break down. Aldridge then brings up the issue of empowerment as an effect of arts therapy because they are able to control their senses and diminish any of their insecurities. He also discusses how music, drama and dance help the neurologically-troubled improve their motor skills, communication, physiological irregularities and even spiritual enlightenment. Besides that, he highlighted the effect of music saying that the rhythm of music induces a time structure that is able to activate brain connections that appear to have failed in
ATS …show more content…
1017
Vivek Menon Narayanan
people with neurological problems. Aldridge concludes, based on his extensive research, that arts therapy will in fact improve the quality of life for people suffering such illnesses.
Although this article focuses on neurodegenerative diseases, this source is particularly useful to the topic of the bibliography in that most mental illnesses are actually neurodegenerative, therefore a correlation can be established.
Barton, E. J. (2011). Movement and mindfulness: A formative evaluation of a
Dance/Movement and yoga therapy program with participants experiencing severe mental illness. American Journal of Dance Therapy, 33(2), pp 157-181.
Barton emphasizes the use of body-based psychotherapy to improve the status of mentally challenged individuals. She argues that their uncontrollable reactions to stress-inducing situations can be replaced by the combination of the physicality and spirituality of yoga with the artistic and endlessly imaginative body movements and dance. She claims that the patients can get in touch with their inner sensations and this causes them to react mindfully. Barton also pointed out that these activities are easy to follow up and distractions hardly disrupt the continuity of their progress. She adds that the patients are first introduced to basic yoga movements and slowly to more progressive dancing whereby it becomes the main component of the activity. Barton concludes based on her findings that her exercises induce interpersonal communication and that it allows her patients to internally connect with themselves as well as being able to use that self-expression as a healthy way to convey a message to society. Although this study involved collecting data from both patients and clinical staff to view different perspectives, however the fact that there was no control group to compare the findings of this study with makes it hard to determine whether or not the data signifies a substantial breakthrough.
ATS 1017
Vivek Menon Narayanan
Lloyd, C., Wong, S. R., & Petchkovsky, L. (2007). Art and recovery in mental health:
A qualitative investigation. The British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 70(5), pp 207-214.
Lloyd, Wong and Petchkovsky concentrated on the individualistic recovery in mental health rather than a group of individuals. Lloyd and colleagues first distinguished between the medical recovery model - comprising a fixed set of regulations and the personal recovery model defined by solitary satisfaction. Based on their observations, the authors have initially discovered that the involvement of the mental healthcare clients in art have brought forward a concept of surrealism where subconscious emotions are highlighted in the activities that they are involved in. They argue that that the artistic exercises, most importantly, have the ability to create more subjective-thinking individuals, whereby they are able to accept the fact that they will be scrutinized in the real world and rather than erratically reacting to criticism, they seem to be more calm and accepting it as constructive advice. They conclude by saying that art is a generative solution in mental health recovery because they create individuals who embrace their illness as a part of themselves and who now believe that they, in their own right, are just as normal as everyone else.
The research, due to its generalization, applies to a wider range of situations as it did not focus only on a specific demographic i.e. people of all ages and backgrounds have willingly participated in the study.
Odell-Miller, H., Hughes, P., & Westacott, M. (2006). An investigation into the effectiveness of the arts therapies for adults with continuing mental health problems. Psychotherapy Research, 16(1), pp 122-139.
Odell-Miller and colleagues conducted both a qualitative and a quantitative research in this journal article. They begin by explaining that arts-based parameters do not measure changes according to specific diagnoses, thus being the reason of conducting a general diagnosis study which focuses on mental illness as a whole. The authors emphasize on the fact that arts therapy can ameliorate mental illnesses but in a
ATS 1017
Vivek Menon Narayanan
perspective where they are suddenly able to assume realistic and attainable goals. This is because of the questionnaires provided to the patients, however limited, makes them realize that there are various options that could suit their interest that may not coincide with their imaginations. Odell-Miller and colleagues also mention that the reason why the quantitative study is possible, besides the usual qualitative interviews, is due to the fact that satisfaction levels are easily quantified on a scale. In conclusion, the authors have come up with a value as well as positive-worded responses of how the patients feel after undergoing arts therapy.
Although Odell-Miller and colleagues managed to prove their theories using extended interviews with the patients, however they have failed to realise that difficulties in monitoring and executing generalised conclusions using numerical statistics would require an unbelievable amount of resources and therefore should have focused on one type of diagnosis or one type of arts medium.
Twardzicki, M.
(2008). Challenging stigma around mental illness and promoting social inclusion using the performing arts. The Journal of the Royal Society for the
Promotion of Health, 128(2), pp 68-72.
Twardzicki, in this article, ran a three-year study with the objective of eliminating the negative perceptions against those suffering from mental illnesses by using art to create a unified community. She adds that the inclusion of the mental healthcare clients together with school students will boost their self-esteem in that their contributions to the various arts productions are deemed significant by the people they consider ‘normal’. Furthermore, she states that their ability to make choices in their involvement of the production gives them the freedom and releases them of their mental space constraint. Twardzicki also mentions repeatedly that the effect should be noticed not just on the healthcare clients but the students and tutors in that population as well. In the end, the outcome of her study does reveal that the stigma around mental illness has taken a turn for the better as the students, especially,
ATS 1017
Vivek Menon Narayanan
have moulded their mentality in that they have become more empathetic and the
vast majority declined the idea of classifying the mental health clients as outcasts.
This study is proof that integration is key to eradicate negative impressions of a minor part of a society and that collaborative artistic activities are capable of helping such patients to express themselves in a less forceful manner.