Found Object/Readymade Art in the Treatment of Trauma and Loss

Michal Bat-or, Orna Megides

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Found object/readymade art is a familiar expressive medium in art therapy that has been insufficiently explored. The present article theoretically and clinically examines Found object/readymade art as a progressive therapeutic intervention in the treatment of trauma and loss. It aims to show how creating found object/readymade art enables the client to encounter and contain damaged/disconnected memories and provides a space for integrating and meaning-making in the face of rupture and loss. This is discussed through a review of found object/readymade art medium in the history of art and in art therapy and by phenomenological observation of its creating process. Specific links to the treatment of trauma and loss are incorporated, as well as the therapist’s role. Clinical vignettes and examples from found object/readymade art workshops illustrate these therapeutic characters through art therapy, psychoanalytic, and neuroscience lenses.
Original languageEnglish
Article number3
Pages (from-to)1-30
JournalJournal of Clinical Art Therapy
Volume3
Issue number1
StatePublished - 2016

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