Visual Art Therapy in psychiatry Rehabilitation

Since the 19th century, many authors debated the role of art to understand psychopatology and psychopathology to understand artistic works, although a specific role of art as a therapeutic approach in psychiatry is recognized with scientific evidence only by the end of the 20th century. Art-therapies are currently defined as various forms of psychological therapy employing different artistic media (painting, graphics, sculpture, dance, theatre, music, etc.), using both expressive and receptive communication modalities. Visual art therapy currently qualifies as a well-established rehabilitation technique, grounded on solid and precise principles, in which the attention to the production of patients is not related to diagnostic classifications, but rather focus on the creative process considered and used within an individualized therapeutic project. The available scientific evidence on visual art therapy tend to show that this form of art-therapy is indicated for patients with major psychiatric disorders only as a part of integrated tretment. However, to date, many studies have provided evidence in favour of the idea that visual art rehabilitation programs may be beneficial in inducing a reduction of negative and affective symptoms, in particular for patients with schizophrenia and major mood disorders. The aim of this chapter is to provide, without leaving aside an historical perspective, a vivid picture of what recent research in the field of mental health care is highlighting as more relevant in the field of visual art therapy and to point out the limitations of the current implementation of visual art therapeutic programmes, in order to finally shed some light on the directions to be taken by the discipline in the future.