Page 143 - ART FORM AND MENTAL HEALTH - Ingrid Pénzes

effects of art therapy for patients with a personality disorder. Haeyen et al.’s outcomes are in line with results in more general clinical samples (Lukat et al., 2016; van Erp Taalman Kip & Hutschemaekers, 2018). A variety of hypotheses can be formulated to account for these outcomes: maybe the differences are related to differences in patient samples, the use of specific measures (BSI versus OQ-45 and SMI), or differences in study design (we did not study the effects of an art therapy intervention and did not calculate effect sizes). Undoubtedly, further research is needed to rule out the different hypotheses and to enlighten us in more detail about the nature of the relation between illness and positive health. At this point, again, we think it is more important to focus on what we have found: a clear and convincing relationship between formal elements of the art product and mental health.
The main conclusion of this thesis is that the combination of ‘movement’, ‘dynamic’ and ‘contour’ of the art product appears to be a robust indicator of some important aspects of “mental health”, i.e., resilience and experiential acceptance, which refers to psychological flexibility (Hayes, Strosahl & Wilson, 1999). Our results show that the art product contains traces of the patients’ “ability to fully contact the present moment and the thoughts and feelings it contains without needless defense, and, depending on what the situation affords, persisting in or changing behavior in the pursuit of goals and values.” (Hayes, Luoma, Bond, Masuda & Lillis, 2006, p. 7). Underlying all the controversies among art therapists, we have found strong arguments in favor of their common claim that the art product has great diagnostic value.
Why not assume, therefore, that similar to psychological flexibility, art making itself requires being in the present moment (Smeijsters, 2008) and evokes both cognitive and emotional experiences. Moreover, one could assume that making art is related to executive functions (Abbing, Baars, Sonneville, Ponstein & Swaab, 2019), such as choosing, focusing, directing action, paying attention to the present situation, taking distance, and reflecting on the impact on one’s feelings. Furthermore, it requires the client’s capability to play, experiment and discover (e.g. Hinz, 2009, 2015). In other words, the formal elements reflect the way a client is adjusting to the properties of art materials within the context of art therapy. An art product shows “the ability to adapt and to self-manage, in light of specific physical, emotional and social challenges of life,” which conforms to the definition of positive health (Huber et al., 2016, p. 1).
If this interpretation is correct, we could argue that formal elements
Summary and general discussion | 141
6