Name of Concept
Artwork in Couples and Family Therapy
Introduction
Drawings were made in ancient times on walls of caves in Southern Europe and in Egyptian tombs, and they have continued as spontaneous expressions of the human condition throughout history. However, the use of drawings to provide therapeutic understanding of children, couples, and families had its beginnings in the 1920s when Florence Goodenough developed the Draw-A-Man Test as a nonverbal measure of intelligence. Influenced by psychoanalytic concepts, projective tests were developed to study personality traits in children (Handler and Thomas 2014). The administration of figure drawings that included the Draw-A-Person, House-Tree-Person, the Kinetic Family Drawing were commonly used in the early child guidance clinics established in the USA, and they are still in used in child, family, and sometimes couples’ therapy.
Theoretical Context for Concept
One of the pioneers in art therapy, Judith Rubin wrote a book Artful...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Burns, R. C., & Kaufman, S. H. (1970). Kinetic-family-drawings. New York: Brunner/Mazel.
Cohen, B. M., & Cox, C. T. (1995). Telling without talking: Art as a window into the world of multiple personality. New York: Norton.
Crenshaw, D. A. (2006). Evocative strategies in child and adolescent psychotherapy. Lanham: Jason Aronson.
Crenshaw, D. A. (2008). Therapeutic engagement of children and adolescents: Play, symbol, drawing and storytelling strategies. Lanham, MD: Jason Aronson.
Crenshaw, D. A. (2012). “Stiches are stronger than glue”: A child directs the healing of her shattered heart. In E. Gil (Ed.), Working with children to heal interpersonal trauma: The power of play (pp. 200–219). New York: Guilford Press.
Gil, E. (2013). Courtship, mating, and a little help from play therapy. Family Therapy, 12(1), 10–13.
Handler, L., & Thomas, A. D. (Eds.). (2014). Drawings in assessment and psychotherapy: Research and application. New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
Kwiatkowska, H. Y. (1978). Family therapy and evaluation through art. Springfield: Charles C. Thomas Publisher
Rober, P. (2009). Relational drawings in couples’ therapy. Family Process, 48, 117–133.
Rubin, J. A. (2005). Artful therapy. New York: John Wiley.
Snir, S., & Wiseman, H. (2013). Relationship patterns of connectedness and individuality in couples as expressed in the couple joint drawing method. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 40, 501–508.
Waters, D., & Lawrence, E. (1993). Competence, courage, and change: An approach to family therapy. New York: Norton.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Crenshaw, D.A., Gil, E. (2019). Family Drawing in Couple and Family Therapy. In: Lebow, J.L., Chambers, A.L., Breunlin, D.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49425-8_561
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49425-8_561
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-49423-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-49425-8
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences