Page 70 - ART FORM AND MENTAL HEALTH - Ingrid Pénzes

DISCUSSION
In the first study, a large number of art therapists with different backgrounds have recognized material interaction as an important source of information in art therapy assessment of adult clients. This finding is in line with our previous study (Pénzes et al., 2014) and has given input to refine the categories of material interaction.
In the second study, art therapists have theorized the categories of material interaction in terms of dimensions of observable behaviour. Combinations of these categories reveal styles of material interaction. These styles can be placed on a continuum from rational to affective. Observing a client’s style of material interaction is linked to the level of rationalization and flexibility as psychological characteristics of the client. This is line with the Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC) (Hinz, 2009). A strength of the ETC is that it theorises that clients’ art material preferences and the way clients form images reveal overused or blocked ways of either cognitive or emotional styles of information processing. The style of information processing is linked to psychological behaviour, thinking and feeling in daily life: ‘Clients then reveal, through the creative process and the art expression, central facts about their preferred style of operating in the world.’ (Hinz, 2009, p.194). This is in line with the results of this research that also links the art materials, art making and psychological functioning of clients. A limitation of the ETC might be that it is based on the experiences of only three therapists. However, a large number of art therapists in this study recognize this link between art making and psychological functioning. This link is also made by Smeijsters’ theory of analogy (2008a, 2008b, 2008c, 2012). This theory states that a person’s ‘core-self’ (Damasio, 2003, 2010) influences psychological functioning on a non-cognitive and non-verbal level. This ‘core-self’ consists of patterns of vitality affects (Stern, 2010). Vitality affects are time-based patterns of feelings that are analogous (identical) to the patterns of making art. This implies that observation of a client’s way of making art reveals aspects of a client’s ‘core-self’ that influences a client’s psychological functioning in daily life. A well-functioning person has access to both ‘rational’ as ‘affective’ aspects in adapting to daily life challenges and coping with stress in appropriate ways (Antonosvky, 1997; Hinz, 2009; Vossler, 2012). In line with the theory of analogy (Smeijsters, 2008a, 2008b, 2008c, 2012) this flexibility in adapting to daily life challenges is analogous to the material interaction. Assessing
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