The unconscious as paradox: Impact on the epistemological stance of the art psychotherapist

The Unconscious, by definition, is unconscious . . .. Consequently, how do art therapists know that something pertaining to the realm of the unconscious is manifesting itself in a session? Pondering the implications of using a psychoanalytic framework in art therapy while advocating for the validity of such an approach within the contemporary practice of art therapy, this paper proposes a reflection on constituents of the epistemological stance of the psychoanalytically oriented art therapist. By re-visiting Bion’s notion of learning through experience (1962) under a postmodernist view of countertransference, the article demonstrates how the aesthetic experience of the art psychotherapist may lead to meaningful understanding and knowledge about patients and images. Viewing the effect of the image as a presentation event that is beyond its representational content shows how the visual image in art therapy is a particularly apt locus for the transmission and reception of infra-verbal and infra-representational forms of communication. To that end contemporary views of projective identification as a primitive, non-verbal and effective way of communication are reviewed. A case vignette further serves to illustrate how art therapists may have access to a form of visual thinking which is instrumental in acquiring knowledge about unconscious psychic transmissions occurring between patient, image and art therapist. © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.