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Review of behavior therapy, vol. II. Theory and practice
554
Book Reviews
Using Drawings in Assessment and Therapy. 1987. 190 pp. Price not known.
G.D.
OSTER and P. GOULD.
BrunnerlMazel,
New York,
IMPLICIT in the creation of an artwork, is a transmission of reality as perceived by the artist to the audience: a fragment of reality is reified by the act of self-expression and made concrete. Through the 19th and 20th centuries, as models of care and treatment for the mentally ill and disabled were developed, the potential was recognised, of self-expression in art as a transmitter of insight and understanding which could be of use in the therapeutic process. This recognition of the psychotherapeutic value of artwork, led to attempts at a more precise delineation of the information which it offered to the therapist, a wider exploration of the possible roles for art in therapy and latterly to the establishment of art therapy as a discrete field of work. Most of the existing literature on art therapy has been written by and for art therapists themselves but as the field has become established, art therapists have begun to share their skills with a wider audience. In this book, Oster and Gould have continued this process and attempt to make some of the techniques developed by art therapists more readily accessible to the non-specialist. The historical and therapeutic context for the use of art is set out in the first chapter with an overview of the field of Art Therapy as it is today. Chapter Two provides a concise guide to the various drawing procedures in common use (particularly those which have been standardised), interpretation of these procedures and their part in overall assessment of clients’ needs. The variety and breadth of information which such procedures may elicit cannot be adequately conveyed in so short a text; however, in their descriptions and case histories, the authors give a fair measure of the potential of these methods but do not shirk from giving their limitations and the need for care in application and interpretation. Chapters Three, Four and Five describe the application of art therapy techniques in group, individual and family therapy. As with Chapter Two, they offer a practical manual for a range of current approaches to therapy, and the apposite use of case studies illuminates the text and makes plain the immediacy of using art as therapy with a range of client populations. The book concludes with an annotated bibliography, which will aid the non-specialist in seeking out primary texts, and there is a comprehensive list of references. My only cavil about the material covered in the book concerns the omission of any mention of Rawley Silver’s work in Chapter 2 though it is included in the bibliography. The Silver Drawing Test of Cognitive and Creative Skills, published in 1983, is the most significant recent work on assessment through art and creative skills, and is a valuable addition to the canon. Oster and Gould set out to offer a field guide to the uses of drawings in therapy and have focussed on four areas which will be most directly relevant to other professionals in mental health work. They have related the use of artistic expression to a broad framework of practice, i.e. assessment, individual, family and group work; which can be utilised in many approaches to therapy, irrespective of one’s particular theoretical orientation. Each chapter provides an uncluttered perspective on the techniques it describes; their role in therapy: their usefulness; and makes clear the essentials of each approach. There are limitations in attempting a summary of such an extensive field but the authors are able to convey the ‘feel’ of it and the clear references direct the reader to sources of more comprehensive information. They not only make the value of drawing procedures in therapy accessible to a wide audience of non-specialists but will encourage their readers to assimilate them appropriately into their own professional practice. The book should also appeal to art therapists, in practice and in training, as a clear, concise primer of techniques and as an aide-memoire. An artwork serves as a link between therapist and client and the authors of this book have described the means by which all professionals in the mental health field may better appreciate and exploit the opportunities for using drawings and art media in therapy. Drawings as therapy are not a panacea but Oster and Gould make out a forceful case for the wider use of these techniques as part of a comprehensive approach to treatment. SIMON WILLOUGHBY-BOOTH Senior Art Therapist Gogarburn Hospital Edinburgh REFERENCE 1. SILVER RA. Si/ver Drawing Test. Seattle:
Special
Child Publications,
1983.
Review of Behavior Therapy, Vol. LI. Theory and Practice. G. TERENCE WILSOV. CYRIL M. FRANKS, PHILIP C. KENDALL and JOHN P. FOREYT. 404 pp. Price $37.50. THIS is the 11th volume in a series concerned with providing an up to date critique of methods of behavior therapy. It contains a survey of experience with a variety of clinical conditions in which
Book
555
Reviews
behavior therapy has been tried. Methods of assessing a client’s needs and the appropriateness of dealing with them by behavioral techniques are thoroughly discussed. There is also a chapter on theoretical issues that justify behavior therapy as a clinical modality distinct from other cognitive psychological and social treatments. In essence, the four authors of the eight chapters offer a handbook for a clinical speciality that is practiced by psychologists as well as physicians. It is clearly intended for those actively engaged in behavios therapies and in research designed to evaluate them. The language is heavy with words and phrases tailored to the initiated. The works cited (including unpublished manuscripts) from the current literature of behavior psychology are carefully critiqued. Citations to papers on psychoanalytic methods and other psychotherapies are made mainly to discredit them. In the chapter on Behavioral Medicine, references are made mainly to published conference proceedings, epidemiologic and psychologic studies with little attention to neurophysiological and other experimental evidence. Apart from its parochial bias, however, the book is well organized, and business-like.
Totts Gap Medical
To Thine Own Self Be True: The Rebirth of Values in the New Ethical Therapy. New York: Anchor Press/Doubleday: 1987. 176 pp. Price $16.95.
STEWART WOLF Research Laboratories Bangor, PA, U.S.A.
LEWIS M. ANDREWS.
THIS book argues for the treatment of a wide range of psychological problems (including depression, anxiety, boredom, loneliness and addiction) by means of a new, ‘ethical’ therapy which stresses tolerance, honesty, ‘intuitive self-reliance’ and clients’ responsibility for their own psychological and spiritual growth. As the author himself observes, there is really nothing new in this approach (indeed he claims ancestry for it as far back as Plato). Similar attacks on ‘value free’ psychotherapy have been launched by many writers, including O.H. Mowrer, Karl Menninger and Paul Vitz. The author writes in a popular style - not in itself a bad feature, but unacceptable when it is used to conceal the poor evidence for his many sweeping claims. For example, he states (p. 171) that statistically there is a negative correlation between psychopathology and religious belief, but provides only a single reference to support this. He singles out psychoanalysis and behaviour therapy for criticism, again using a very limited set of references to ‘prove’ their inefficacy, and then offers his new ethical therapy as the only approach which can ‘provide lasting relief from a wide variety of emotional problems’. Yet his evidence for this counter-claim consists largely of anecdotal accounts of treatment incidents scattered throughout the book. Many more examples of this inadequate argumentation could be taken. To this reviewer it seems especially unfortunate that Plato is frequently claimed as an authority without any proper exposition of his ethics or his general philosophy. [It does not create confidence in the author’s scholarship when we are offered several unreferenced quotations from Plato which, we are told, were collected prior to having ‘an organized research strategy’ (p. 177).] It is unfortunate that Dr Andrews’ arguments are put forward in such a simplistic and unscientific manner. He is well qualified both by training and experience to provide a much more closely argued work, one which does not create stereotypes of alternative approaches to psychotherapy. The debate about the place of values and of religion in mental illness and health is a central one which has never been far absent from serious discussion of psychotherapy since Freud’s time. In particular, ego psychology and client centred counselling (both potent influences on pastoral counselling) have stressed the responsibility of clients to develop their own internal value systems. The problem is how to focus on values in a way which does not make the therapist into a moral authority upon whom the client remains dependent. This important issue is never properly discussed in this book, perhaps because the author is too anxious to make the case against his mythical opponent, value free psychotherapy. Viewed simply as a popular book, with many apt quotations and interesting case examples, this work has some attraction, but it cannot be regarded as a serious contribution to the debate about values in psychotherapy or the place of religious belief in mental health.
Department
of Christian
ALASTAIR V. CAMPBELL Ethics and Practical Theology University of Edinburgh
Book Reviews
Using Drawings in Assessment and Therapy. 1987. 190 pp. Price not known.
G.D.
OSTER and P. GOULD.
BrunnerlMazel,
New York,
IMPLICIT in the creation of an artwork, is a transmission of reality as perceived by the artist to the audience: a fragment of reality is reified by the act of self-expression and made concrete. Through the 19th and 20th centuries, as models of care and treatment for the mentally ill and disabled were developed, the potential was recognised, of self-expression in art as a transmitter of insight and understanding which could be of use in the therapeutic process. This recognition of the psychotherapeutic value of artwork, led to attempts at a more precise delineation of the information which it offered to the therapist, a wider exploration of the possible roles for art in therapy and latterly to the establishment of art therapy as a discrete field of work. Most of the existing literature on art therapy has been written by and for art therapists themselves but as the field has become established, art therapists have begun to share their skills with a wider audience. In this book, Oster and Gould have continued this process and attempt to make some of the techniques developed by art therapists more readily accessible to the non-specialist. The historical and therapeutic context for the use of art is set out in the first chapter with an overview of the field of Art Therapy as it is today. Chapter Two provides a concise guide to the various drawing procedures in common use (particularly those which have been standardised), interpretation of these procedures and their part in overall assessment of clients’ needs. The variety and breadth of information which such procedures may elicit cannot be adequately conveyed in so short a text; however, in their descriptions and case histories, the authors give a fair measure of the potential of these methods but do not shirk from giving their limitations and the need for care in application and interpretation. Chapters Three, Four and Five describe the application of art therapy techniques in group, individual and family therapy. As with Chapter Two, they offer a practical manual for a range of current approaches to therapy, and the apposite use of case studies illuminates the text and makes plain the immediacy of using art as therapy with a range of client populations. The book concludes with an annotated bibliography, which will aid the non-specialist in seeking out primary texts, and there is a comprehensive list of references. My only cavil about the material covered in the book concerns the omission of any mention of Rawley Silver’s work in Chapter 2 though it is included in the bibliography. The Silver Drawing Test of Cognitive and Creative Skills, published in 1983, is the most significant recent work on assessment through art and creative skills, and is a valuable addition to the canon. Oster and Gould set out to offer a field guide to the uses of drawings in therapy and have focussed on four areas which will be most directly relevant to other professionals in mental health work. They have related the use of artistic expression to a broad framework of practice, i.e. assessment, individual, family and group work; which can be utilised in many approaches to therapy, irrespective of one’s particular theoretical orientation. Each chapter provides an uncluttered perspective on the techniques it describes; their role in therapy: their usefulness; and makes clear the essentials of each approach. There are limitations in attempting a summary of such an extensive field but the authors are able to convey the ‘feel’ of it and the clear references direct the reader to sources of more comprehensive information. They not only make the value of drawing procedures in therapy accessible to a wide audience of non-specialists but will encourage their readers to assimilate them appropriately into their own professional practice. The book should also appeal to art therapists, in practice and in training, as a clear, concise primer of techniques and as an aide-memoire. An artwork serves as a link between therapist and client and the authors of this book have described the means by which all professionals in the mental health field may better appreciate and exploit the opportunities for using drawings and art media in therapy. Drawings as therapy are not a panacea but Oster and Gould make out a forceful case for the wider use of these techniques as part of a comprehensive approach to treatment. SIMON WILLOUGHBY-BOOTH Senior Art Therapist Gogarburn Hospital Edinburgh REFERENCE 1. SILVER RA. Si/ver Drawing Test. Seattle:
Special
Child Publications,
1983.
Review of Behavior Therapy, Vol. LI. Theory and Practice. G. TERENCE WILSOV. CYRIL M. FRANKS, PHILIP C. KENDALL and JOHN P. FOREYT. 404 pp. Price $37.50. THIS is the 11th volume in a series concerned with providing an up to date critique of methods of behavior therapy. It contains a survey of experience with a variety of clinical conditions in which
Book
555
Reviews
behavior therapy has been tried. Methods of assessing a client’s needs and the appropriateness of dealing with them by behavioral techniques are thoroughly discussed. There is also a chapter on theoretical issues that justify behavior therapy as a clinical modality distinct from other cognitive psychological and social treatments. In essence, the four authors of the eight chapters offer a handbook for a clinical speciality that is practiced by psychologists as well as physicians. It is clearly intended for those actively engaged in behavios therapies and in research designed to evaluate them. The language is heavy with words and phrases tailored to the initiated. The works cited (including unpublished manuscripts) from the current literature of behavior psychology are carefully critiqued. Citations to papers on psychoanalytic methods and other psychotherapies are made mainly to discredit them. In the chapter on Behavioral Medicine, references are made mainly to published conference proceedings, epidemiologic and psychologic studies with little attention to neurophysiological and other experimental evidence. Apart from its parochial bias, however, the book is well organized, and business-like.
Totts Gap Medical
To Thine Own Self Be True: The Rebirth of Values in the New Ethical Therapy. New York: Anchor Press/Doubleday: 1987. 176 pp. Price $16.95.
STEWART WOLF Research Laboratories Bangor, PA, U.S.A.
LEWIS M. ANDREWS.
THIS book argues for the treatment of a wide range of psychological problems (including depression, anxiety, boredom, loneliness and addiction) by means of a new, ‘ethical’ therapy which stresses tolerance, honesty, ‘intuitive self-reliance’ and clients’ responsibility for their own psychological and spiritual growth. As the author himself observes, there is really nothing new in this approach (indeed he claims ancestry for it as far back as Plato). Similar attacks on ‘value free’ psychotherapy have been launched by many writers, including O.H. Mowrer, Karl Menninger and Paul Vitz. The author writes in a popular style - not in itself a bad feature, but unacceptable when it is used to conceal the poor evidence for his many sweeping claims. For example, he states (p. 171) that statistically there is a negative correlation between psychopathology and religious belief, but provides only a single reference to support this. He singles out psychoanalysis and behaviour therapy for criticism, again using a very limited set of references to ‘prove’ their inefficacy, and then offers his new ethical therapy as the only approach which can ‘provide lasting relief from a wide variety of emotional problems’. Yet his evidence for this counter-claim consists largely of anecdotal accounts of treatment incidents scattered throughout the book. Many more examples of this inadequate argumentation could be taken. To this reviewer it seems especially unfortunate that Plato is frequently claimed as an authority without any proper exposition of his ethics or his general philosophy. [It does not create confidence in the author’s scholarship when we are offered several unreferenced quotations from Plato which, we are told, were collected prior to having ‘an organized research strategy’ (p. 177).] It is unfortunate that Dr Andrews’ arguments are put forward in such a simplistic and unscientific manner. He is well qualified both by training and experience to provide a much more closely argued work, one which does not create stereotypes of alternative approaches to psychotherapy. The debate about the place of values and of religion in mental illness and health is a central one which has never been far absent from serious discussion of psychotherapy since Freud’s time. In particular, ego psychology and client centred counselling (both potent influences on pastoral counselling) have stressed the responsibility of clients to develop their own internal value systems. The problem is how to focus on values in a way which does not make the therapist into a moral authority upon whom the client remains dependent. This important issue is never properly discussed in this book, perhaps because the author is too anxious to make the case against his mythical opponent, value free psychotherapy. Viewed simply as a popular book, with many apt quotations and interesting case examples, this work has some attraction, but it cannot be regarded as a serious contribution to the debate about values in psychotherapy or the place of religious belief in mental health.
Department
of Christian
ALASTAIR V. CAMPBELL Ethics and Practical Theology University of Edinburgh