lol u can tell that this book is right up my alley just by how many of my shelves its in

this work is characteristic of 70s-80s elite white postmodernism (before postcolonialism, 4th wave feminism, new financial crises, (official) wars on drugs/terrorism, etc). it lacks some critical awareness, its attempts at syncreticism often tend towards orientalism, and its a little too optimistic/blase wrt how this therapy can work for "beginner artists"

but i think its also the best of what that sort of applied postmodernism has to offer. the way this book pulls together such a wide swathe of eclectic ideas into a coherent, consistent, and simple framework is stunning. it does assume some confidence and spirit on the part of the analysand/patient/client/whatever, but unlike many stereotypes of postmodernism this book nails down its process into specific, concrete, programmatic sections and steps. thus while its new-agey ramblings on expressiveness and the psyche might seem inaccessible or impractical, it builds off of a robust foundation of motivating interpretive techniques that can unambiguously b executed by anyone, regardless of artistic background

and more than being a therapy, this work aims to transform the way one lives every moment of life--moving, speaking, seeing, interacting, writing, creating

its biggest weakness (aside from the general failings of white postmodernism addressed above) is its hurried and overly-simple treatment of trauma and recovery. given the contemporaneous state of the arts in western psychiatry/psychotherapy and the "mystery" (at the time) of PTSD, i cant exactly fault it for that. but i do think it provides a rich framework for therapy generally, with which one could dive deeper into trauma. im interested to read more current theoretically-informed texts on art therapy to see how this is realized ( )