The Importance of Ceramic Art in Psychotherapy



Clay is a familiar material in art therapy and psychotherapy. Numerous studies (eg Anderson, Mattes and Robbins) showing the diagnostic and therapeutic potential of ceramics in individual, group and family therapies have been published since the 1990s. When ceramic is mentioned, it is possible to knead, shape and produce a product. Thus, in the expression of the person in the art, both the production process and the product provide important information about the inner world and mental processes of that person.

What is Ceramic?

Ceramic has been an important part of culture for thousands of years. From prehistoric pots to delicate pieces used in space shuttles, ceramics has been the area of ​​occupation of countless artists and craftsmen. Technically, the ceramic is made of materials that change permanently when heated. There are chemically bound water in the clay. This causes a broken and dried object to disintegrate when placed in water. When the same object is baked at 350 ° C to 800 ° C, the clay becomes ceramic and never again dissolves and retains its shape. All kinds of clay is a ceramic material, but there are other ceramic materials. For example, the glazes are ceramic materials and they change during firing. Industrial ceramics include a number of different materials, such as silicon carbide and zirconium oxide.

Art and Psychotherapy Relationship

Therapy with art is a therapeutic technique based on the idea that productive expression can improve healing and mental well-being. As a meaningful tool in the treatment of psychological disorders, art is used to help people communicate, overcome stress, and explore different aspects of their personalities. In psychology, the use of artistic methods to treat psychological disorders and improve mental health is known as therapy with art (or art therapy).
Art therapy integrates psychotherapeutic techniques into the manufacturer process to improve mental health. Art therapy is defined as tanımlan a mental health method and profession that uses the process of producing art to improve and maintain the physical, mental and emotional health of individuals ”. This method of psychotherapy helps people involved in the process of expressing themselves in artistic ways solve their internal conflicts and problems, develop interpersonal skills, manage their behaviors, reduce their stress, increase their self-esteem and self-awareness and gain insight.
Therapy with art can be used to treat a wide range of psychological disorders, and in many cases with other psychotherapy techniques such as cognitive-behavioral therapy or group therapy. Some cases of art therapy are:
- Children with learning difficulties.
- Adults with severe stress.
- Children with behavioral or social problems at school or at home.
- Those with mental health problems.
- People with brain damage.
- Children or adults who experience a traumatic event.

The Meanings of Ceramics

Ceramics, starting from prehistoric times, are well known in the history of human beings, including amphoras, pots, pots, vases, human and animal figures, which contain grains, olive oil and wine. According to Neumann, clay fits the belief that ancient world people are the source of all things. In addition to its functional use, ceramics have also taken part in a variety of cultures (such as goddess figurines) as a tool of religious meaning in human life. Research by anthropologists found that these clay-like symbolic forms had magical and ritual meanings.
From this information, it is understood that there is a connection between the various ceramic figures and the mental - spiritual structure of people, which started in the early periods of human history. Figures from earth, clay, ve world y reflect the connection between the mental world of the human and the material world. The therapy with art centers this connection and uses art materials in the ine representation kiÅŸ of one's inner world. In the 1950s and 1960s, more emphasis was given to the use of art materials in the therapy with art, the process of working with plastic art materials in clinical settings required a lot more space, money and time, as well as the difficulty of preserving unburned works that became fragile when dried.
Woltmann's research in the 1990s, clay and three-dimensional expression of the roots of ceramic modeling has been explained in depth. In the early years of their development, Woltmann said that they discovered plasticity in their feces, and he also explained the developmental stages of mastering the use of plastic materials, which he called "maturation cycles". In this process of development, the child proceeds from his purposeless activities with plastic materials to real objects with meanings and emotional values.
Another study by Golomb and McCormick on ceramic studies has tested two alternative hypotheses on the development of this three-dimensional expression. The linear graph hypothesis suggested a sequence of stages similar to the development in the image (first one-dimensional, then two-and three-dimensional drawing in the end). The direct modeling hypothesis suggested that development, though primitive, started with three-dimensional representation. The results of the experiments on 109 children and 18 university students aged four to thirteen confirmed the second hypothesis.
Four-year-old children exhibited three-dimensional primitive modeling examples with some basic three-dimensional insight. The children of older children were more refined and differentiated. However, in children aged between eight and nine years, the level of differentiation in modeling was decreased. According to Golomb and McCormick, this seemingly decline is related to the effort of children to focus on creating figures that show more similarity to the complexities of real objects.
When used for ceramic therapy purposes, the formation process and the resulting products must be evaluated with a holistic approach. This approach will be of great benefit in understanding the geliÅŸim non-verbal communication la and development of patients, with the more precise accuracy of the production process and products, the phenomenological observation in art therapy and psychotherapy.

The meaning of ceramic studies in psychotherapy

When the literature of clinical experience of the last fifty years is examined, the three main therapeutic properties of ceramic studies are prominent, although they are related to each other and often have difficulty in separating them as diagnostic or therapeutic interventions:

1 - Tactile Experience

Ceramic work is a strong tactile experience with touch sense. Touch is one of the first sensory responses of human development and is the first form of communication that the baby learns. The first stages of human life is dominated by mouth and skin contact between the baby and his mother.
Therefore, clay-playing is also a very basic form of self-expression and communication. Forming the clay also includes a wealth of infinite physical activity necessary to realize those forms, along with a wealth of mentally infinite form for modeling. Thus, ceramics are transformed into a non-verbal but powerful language, a method of communication, for the producer to describe his or her own mental realm, emotions, and object relations.
According to the attachment theory, there are two consecutive binding forms. The first is unconscious, developing in the early years of life, is a very primitive structure. The second, more sophisticated form of attachment is linguistic and conscious. Both of these work simultaneously. Mental expressions about self develop from sensorimotor expressions without linguistic coding. Art, especially clay, is a way of conveying them. The sense of touch acts as a window for non-verbal memories and expressions, and also helps those who have difficulty in verbally expressing themselves.
Ceramic products are multi-dimensional objects and can represent objects in real life very closely. In addition to height, width and length, it has weight, depth and texture properties. In contrast to an image, a clay product can be viewed, viewed, and viewed from different angles. People can do things similar to reality, clay objects from the inner world, fear, worry, wishes and so on. It also functions as symbolic game objects for its manifestations. This is true for children as well as adults in psychotherapy.

2 - Reflective and destructive processes

Working with clay provides a very meaningful experience of producing something that is not, and transforming it into different forms. Touching the mud, the person leaves his fingerprints in his real world, that is, his personal marks. The opportunity to do something concrete, a metaphor and a symbol of the inner world of a person with a piece of clay, is a process similar to alchemy to transform emotion (eg pain) into a meaningful expression. Both the unprocessed clay part and the newly constructed object can be formulated again and again during the therapy process. Working with blood makes visible the constructive and destructive aspects of self in the processes of psychic change, identity formation or self-formation.
Yastakiler, or suffering sufferers, express the expressions of pain, anger and frustration in the bush. Clay can also be used to recreate the image of the lost. The image of the lost person (or thing) can be revitalized in clay and confronts one's feelings and fantasies. The feelings of producing a new image of the lost are strong and they provide a healing effect by making it easier to deal with deep pain.

3 - Regression

Ceramic studies allow sensory properties, regression processes and are very important in treatment. According to Knafo, who examined art products from a psychoanalytic point of view, three different
regressions can be mentioned:
a) Transition to the previous stages of temporary regression or psychosexual development: Kramer and Schlossberg say that children and adults perceive clay as a toy, and revitalize fantasies of oral, anal and phallic with objects made with clay.
In art therapy, it is common for children to produce objects representing food and to create symbolic diets. Some children may see clay feces as a reflection of the anal period. It is common for both children and adolescents to use clay as a means of reflecting their sexual fantasies and fears. In addition, aggressive regression, deep hand cutting or knife-like cutting tools, etc. anger in the use of aggressive forms manifests itself.
b) Regression to reduce the risk of decompensation: In the prevention of the development of compensatory deficiency due to the inability of the defense mechanisms to be used in personality disorders, clay helps the person to walk around the limits of identity and reality. During therapy, people often form symbols that represent themselves symbolically, but also ugly and distorted. These distorted objects are reflections of their own subconscious minds that may be scary. Explains the various parts of their self or how they see themselves as a whole. The racks of most art therapy clinics are often full of ceramic monsters, including creatures and aggressive figures.
c) Topographic and structural regression: This type of regression, which is conceptualized by object relations theory, can be summarized with more free access in visual and basic ways of thinking. According to Ogden, the primitive end of human experience points to autistic features dominated by sensations of touch and rhythmic experiences. Objects from clay echo in this respect the primitive entity and communication modes of man.

Therapeutic Factors of Ceramics

There are six major therapeutic factors in the use of ceramics in psychotherapy and therapy with art:
1 - Facilitate the expression of emotions.
2 - Create Katarsis.
3 - Unleash the subconscious.
4 - To reach rich and deep expressions.
5 - To facilitate oral communication.
6 - To ensure the concretization and symbolization of the person's inner world.
Ceramic combines primitive forms of primitive use in human history and the echoes of the experiences of human early life in clay. Studies with clay include physical processes and body expression through movement, mental processes through modeling and product observation. It
allows the integration of emotions, memories and fantasies in different levels of consciousness . Ceramics, in revealing the subconscious, indicate the personal meaning of a symbol and especially in the treatment of traumatic problems. In the therapeutic process, ceramic provides great benefits with its structure that enables access to non-verbal representations of the relations between itself, the other and the other.
Source: poxox.com learn
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