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NONVERBAL CONSCIOUSNESS
It is clear that birth and prenatal experience occur before
the development of language, but not necessarily before the
formation of sensations and concepts. Prior to eighteen months,
introjected stimulus to an infant and the processing of introjected
stimuli is largely nonverbal (Feher, 1981). It is not surprising
that prior to eighteen months the right hemisphere of the
brain is dominant, as that also happens to be the sphere of
the brain which later manages nonverbal experience. Blakeslee
(1983) comments that:
Clearly the right brain, which has a consciousness of its
own, is an important part of a whole person; yet it is ignored
by the verbal consciousness of the left brain.... we must
overcome a lifetime habit of acknowledging only thoughts that
can be expressed in words. (p. 19).
Pre- and perinatal ideas and thought might be in part, in
forms other than language or words. Early experience may be
perceived in sense impressions or another type of knowing.
Non-verbal modalities seem to be the most effective means
of uncovering and processing material which has been mentally
constructed beyond the domain of language. Indeed, largely
verbal therapies may have innate limitations for accessing
and processing pre-verbal material. Noble (1993) asserts:
Pre- and perinatal psychology has much to offer conventional
psychiatrists and psychologists, who traditionally engage
in verbal exchanges.... The significant primal material is
rarely tapped because, by definition, it is preverbal and
inaccessible through ordinary conversation. (p. 40)
Art activity has many levels on which it addresses preverbal
content in the psyche, for example, among others: nonverbal
expression; altered states of consciousness; a bridge between
non-verbal and verbal thought; holistic and multimodal procession;
decreasing defenses; fluid access to the unconscious; expression
of somatic and sensory experience; discharge of emotions;
providing safe psychological containment; nurturance and repatterning;
communication; ensoulment; objectification; symbolic and metaphorical
expression.
In this list of the qualities of natalistic art in therapy,
the therapeutic features of interpretation, symbolism and
metaphor are the last category. This is done to avoid over
focus on interpretation and symbolism. Cognitive processes
tend to lead to the older abstracting and language periods
of development. To a large degree the knowledge of the body
is the path into the pre- and perinatal realm. Exploring creative
process and the experiences of the body during creative activity
is likely to be more productive therapeutically than verbally
analysing the visual symbols of natalism.
A discussion of the advantages of art and creative activity
in therapy does not negate the validity of talking in therapy,
but rather demonstrates advantages which art and creative
processes can add to "the talking cure." In and
of itself art activity will not heal early trauma, but combined
with other therapeutic techniques and approaches, the creation
of art can greatly enhance many aspects of the therapeutic
process, and the outward manifestations of that process. As
McNiff (1981) assures, "The arts increase the potency
of therapeutic enactments and symbols" (p. 12).
THERAPEUTIC PROPERTIES OF NATALISM
In the order listed, the remainder of this chapter examines
the following common therapeutic properties of natalistic
art and natalistic activity:
Natalism as a Holistic Process; Psychological Imagery in
Natalism; Decreased Defences Through Natalistic Activity;
Natalism as Expression of the Unconscious; Permanence of Natalism;
Body Expression Through Natalism and Natalistic Activity;
Natalism as Objectification; Emotional Release Through Natalism;
Assisting Therapeutic Pacing With Natalism; Spatial Matrix
in Natalism and Natalistic Activity; Natalistic Activity as
Altered State of Consciousness; Natalism Assists the Preverbal
to Become verbal; Creative and Physical Energy in Natalism;
Repatterning Through Natalism, Physical Repatterning, Repatterning
Numbing Qualities of Anaesthesia; Natalism as Psychological
Induction and Suggestion; Natalism as Communication; A Life
Force in the Womb; and Representation, Symbolism, Metaphor
and Interpretation in Natalism.
- NATALISM AS A HOLISTIC PROCESS
There are many levels on which a therapy needs to function
and be accessible in order to address the person as a whole.
Natalism as a form of artistic expression addresses the person
on the levels of psyche, soul, feeling, intellect and body.
It is intrinsic to art and art activity to span the many layers
of the self. In itself, expressive art is one of the most
holistic psychotherapeutic approaches. Creating artwork can
allow one to: retrieve memory; have emotional abreactions;
bring material to the preconscious; or allow unconscious forces
to come forward in order to examine them. Therapy processes
involving the production of art integrate right brain and
left brain functions. Art activity engages the body, facilitating
somatic expression. Art provides a third relationship object
to the therapeutic diad. Art as an object or presence in the
therapeutic setting can be seen as acting as a third container
for the therapeutic relationship. When art is used in the
therapeutic relationship there is more fluidity and broader
accessibility of both conscious and unconscious material.
Both therapist and client interact with the art -- creating
a therapeutic triad.
Beyond art production, natalistic art in therapy activity
employs music, relaxation, writing, verbal dialogue, visualization
and guided imagery, therapeutic dissociation and altered states
of consciousness, induced regression, catharsis, and movement
focused body work. During natalistic art in therapy activity
the verbal and preverbal selves are addressed and engaged
on a number of levels. Rogers (1993) comments:
More and more we are coming to understand the need to engage
in processes that integrate all aspects of self: the body,
mind, emotions, and spirit. Simply put, we cannot integrate
all aspects of self without involving all aspects of self.
(p. 95)
Pre- and perinatal consciousness exists on many levels (Chamberlain,
1988). The numerous roots of what it is to become the adult
self are created in the preverbal period. Much of the life
experience to follow is, in some form at least, lightly scented
by the essence of original marination in gestational waters
and the transformative passage of the birth canal. Integrating
the wide spectrum of self or consciousness is of particular
importance in working the foundational material of the preverbal
period.
In working with natalistic imagery and process, the experiences
from the preverbal realm finally find an integration with
later consciousness. The right brain has a particular facility
for identifying and sorting out segmented and incomplete feelings
and experiences (Blakeslee, 1983). Zdenek (1985) states, "The
right hemisphere can process many kinds of information simultaneously,
sees problems holistically, and can make great leaps of insight.
It is able to evaluate the whole problem at once" (p.
13). Preverbal feelings and experiences, particularly unresolved
ones, form fragmented and incomplete gestalts in the psyche.
Zdenek (1985) also acknowledges, "Right-brain knowledge
is not achieved through words but through images" (p.
13). The "working through" of early psychological
material by employing natalistic art in therapy activity can
be unifying for consciousness as a whole.
Natalistic art in therapy approaches have the ability to
engage many levels of the self to facilitate the resolution
of lifelong core issues which have been foundational to the
developing psyche. Johanna, a natalistic art workshop participant's
description of her natalistic drawing experience is an eloquent
portrayal of the many levels on which one drawing can work:
While drawing I was still feeling I could not get out of
my mother. She would not let me out. In the womb I felt I
had tremendous power, tremendous force, tremendous push; but
at birth she was just as strong at killing me. There was a
kind of a poison that was building up inside of me.
I did not consciously think of drawing the poison, but if
the poison were in the drawing it would be the green and yellow
that are there. The feeling of poisoning started soon after
the green and yellow were drawn. There was a feeling of fiery
burning with it and a lot of anger.
The red was the pushing rage. As I was drawing I was pounding
with my fist, "She wins, I die; she wins, I die."
That sense of dying is what the sadness is about. When I released
the rage with my body and my pounding it connected me to the
sadness of her winning and me having to die. The sadness was
over in the blue.
The having to die came out in my life pattern of I always
give up myself and my things for other people. I always come
second or last. I can not get what I want. I have lots of
things that I want and I can not have them. It has been just
like a constant tease. I get all the images of what I want,
but I can not have any of them.
Through her natalistic drawing and natalistic processes
Johanna was unifying conscious, preconscious and unconscious
material. Previous understandings and vague felt senses were
further extracted and illuminated. Unconscious forces were
being expressed and were later discovered and further understood.
Johanna worked with body awareness, cognitive and emotional
processing. Her later life experiences found a context with
her birth and in utero dynamics. Feelings and somatic sensations
were finding a form for identification and release. She struggled
with insight and repatterning. Within herself and in relationship
to others her art became an advocate for her inner experience.
Sharing her art and process in a group provided the opportunity
for witnessing and social interaction and validation.
In part, natalistic art in therapy serves as a holistic
modality through its ability to integrate other growth and
healing experiences, and its facility for bridging to other
modalities. Psychological healing is a process, not a moment
or event. Many experiences preceding or following natalistic
activity may add to personal healing and transformation. Indeed
important aspects touched on through a natalistic drawing
may not fully flower until they are connected with other meaningful
experiences months or years later.
Giving birth, like being born is a profound creative act
and as such allows for powerful experiences of personal expression
and repatterning. In itself, pregnancy and giving birth can
be experiences initiating significant psychological growth.
In a natalistic art workshop, an artist integrated her natalistic
process with her ongoing and previous therapy experiences.
In addition she found associations between her natalistic
experiences, her own birth and the profoundly transformative
life experience of giving birth. In discussing her natalistic
experiences she commented:
As I talked about my own birth issues in the workshop groups
I became aware that giving birth was a very powerful part
of my experience of birth. I suspected having given birth
to my three daughters was part of what helped me deal with
the sadness of the absence of knowledge of my own birth origins
and not having any stories of my own birth. The absence of
memory of my birth was not quite as bad because I had been
there for their births.
There are a whole lot of reasons that it has been really
important that I chose to have two home births. Looking back
at it during the natalistic art workshop I wondered if having
a home birth was also so central for me because I had an unconscious
sense that my own birth was all mucked up. In having a good
birth with my children there was a chance for repatterning
and rescripting my own negative experiences at birth.
The doctor who caught my two children at home avoided all
the language that sounded like the doctor doing the birthing
instead of the mother. He would not talk about delivery or
patients, he talked about clients and he caught the babies.
When Kelly was born we had this big window looking out to
the park behind the house. I was in labour all night and the
sun was just coming up. He opened the curtains as I turned
to the window and he literally caught her as she burst into
the sunlight.
For this woman, as with many women, giving birth in part
helped her with confronting and resolving feelings and issues
left from her own birth. The natalistic art experiences were
ingredients in the gestalt of her holistic process of personal
growth and self awareness.
- PSYCHOLOGICAL IMAGERY IN NATALISM
Images are fundamental elements of thought and were our
thought processes before words. Wood (1984) suggests, "'thinking
in pictures' lies at the root of awareness" (p. 65).
Chamberlain (1987) notes, "The visual system is relatively
advanced at birth, though only a few decades ago authorities
were not sure if newborns could see at all. Actually, newborns
are all eyes and are constantly looking at things, even in
the dark" (p. 74). It seems the newborns are already
organizing visual perceptions of their world. Wadeson (1980)
suggests that images, which come developmentally before words,
are primary foundation blocks of the psyche; and that therefore
they are primary tools/assets in restructuring the psyche
in the psychotherapeutic process. Wood (1984) elaborates,
"There would seem to be general agreement that images
are the primary containers of experience. It follows that
a representation could convey the content and make a bridge
into language" (p. 65).
Images dwell in the right brain. The right brain or nonverbal
brain has a particular facility for processing thought outside
the container of language [thought]. Blakeslee (1983) notes,
"the left brain handles language and logical thinking,
while the right does things that are difficult to put into
words" (p. 6). Materials from the pre- and perinatal
realm is processed in the right brain and working with images
or even viewing them can help focus consciousness in right
brain processes. Therefore the act of making images or reviewing
those images can position the active aspects of the self closer
to infancy, birth and in utero consciousness.
Images may be an intermediary stage between the early prenatal
somatosensory stage and the later childhood verbal stage.
Therapeutically, images may be able to mediate between somatic
memory and nonverbal levels of consciousness, and the rational
language consciousness. Silverman (1991) believes art expression
has a "unique capacity to render or evoke symbols and
images related to infantile experience," therefore, "The
art therapy modality is particularly effective in supporting
the reparative process of those who have experienced early
development impairment" p. 83).
Imagery in natalistic art can be the visual portrayals of
representative likeness, such as a house, tree or figure;
or natalistic imagery can be the scribbles, scrawls, doodles,
swirls, patches, marks and other primitive colourings in the
drawing. Contained within the imagery of art can be conscious
and unconscious expressions of symbolism, metaphor, emotion,
historical content, relationship, age, developmental stage,
ideas, statements, or questions. A simple or a complex image
can address any number of these elements.
Susan was not an artist and previous to her participation
in a natalistic art workshop had never used art for personal
healing. At her first session she spoke of her reticence to
attend and apologized for her lack of skill with drawing.
Yet she later describes the multi-layered and intricate facility
with which the images of one of her natalistic drawing spoke
from her core self:
The red around the outside is rage and the orange circle
surround is danger. The red writing below the red scribbling
says, "Mother rage." I feel like in the womb I tried
to get as far away from the danger of my mother as I could.
The small pink figure is like trying to shrink away from danger
and my mother's rage. It is like the rage is focused from
the angry beating of her heart and I am trying to get as far
away as I can. It has a sense of that little bit of green
and yellow was as though I tried to focus on a place of hope
and light in order to keep going. In the small pink foetal
form I am afraid and I am experiencing perilous danger. I
am afraid she is trying to kill me. In spite of her trying
to kill me, the way that I survived is by holding on to some
kind of hope and some kind of light. In my life I am like
that. I always kind of hope that things are going to get better
and I never seem to learn. I still have that sense of being
enveloped in black. My mom tried to abort me by horse back
riding, she took some kind of drug and used hot and cold baths
and mustard. While doing the drawing of the blackness I started
to get a feeling of being sealed in and isolated in blackness
which was all over the out side of me, but I also had a sense
it gave me some safety. I got a glimmer of maybe I created
an envelope of blackness around myself to protect myself.
That protection is one of my strengths. It was interesting
that two people in the workshop talked about a sense of being
in an out of body space, that is what I did through the feeling
sense of total isolation.
There was a simplicity to the colours and images in Susan's
natalistic drawing. The drawing clearly relates the depth
and power with which art imagery can speak.
A person needs to articulate many words with logical rational
language to sort out a significant event, issue or feeling.
A glance at a therapeutic painting can convey more of an immediate
perception of meaning. "A picture says a thousand words",
and in the images of a therapeutic art picture there are likely
more than a thousand words. When reviewing a series of natalistic
pictures the conscious meaning of the works and their images
for the artists and therapist expands much further than when
each art work is viewed in isolation.
In addition to the power of imagery alone, sometimes more
can be said in using art in therapy because there is the possibility
of combining words and the images to feel, talk and think
through the healing process. Cynthia shares her natalistic
expression of written words spread amongst the images of her
drawing:
The black writing in this drawing represents part of myself
that felt that trauma. The purple scribbly lines represent
loss of identity or loss of wholeness. The blue writing is
asking "where is that peace?" This sense often represented
for me with blue in my drawings. Three colours are used, one
colour in the picture and two colours in the writing. It's
so simple, yet those three colours really say a lot.
Our culture reveres the rational order of left brain words
and language, and tends to place more emphasis on words, particularly
the written word. Lake (1981) allows, "The right hemisphere
is in our culture the more often despised of the two sides
of the brain" (p. 9). Thoughts and ideas expressed in
words are sometimes the only ones deemed to be credible. Yet,
visual insights, psychological connection and transformation
can occur with little or no verbal interpretation. Silverman
(1991) acknowledges:
some patients never achieve the capacity to think verbally;
they think in images. If they can develop "concrete things"
(lines, points, marks on paper, in plastic forms, and so on,
they can use those "things" to "think"
thoughts in a different way. (p. 83)
Perception and thinking can be visual, auditory, kinaesthetic
and tactile. In both children and adults, much thought occurs
outside the perimeters of words and language concepts. When
adults therapeutically regress to the pre- and perinatal period,
their fluency in using words may greatly diminish. During
therapeutic preverbal regression it can useful to have nonverbal
activity and imagery as a means of expression and conceptualization.
One artist describes how nonverbal/nonconceptual art works
supported the expression of a felt sense which were beyond
the verbally conceptual realm:
In producing the art around my birth I had a pretty strong
sense of colour, of what was right and what wasn't. A lot
of people in the workshop had words all over their drawings
and most of the time mine didn't. It's very hard to talk about...I
would have had to go into my head to say this is a painting
that's related to my birth, conception or whatever. There
wasn't a sense of their being a future or a beginning. I was
just there with the picture.... I think in some ways the experience
of doing the art and relating to how to do art was how I experienced
life prenatally.
It was like you want to wiggle your big toe, you do so.
It was the same experience -- if you want to pick up the pink
crayon.
Sculptor Jake Goertzen, whose work is detailed in Chapters
12, 13, 14 and 15, explains about his work with natalistic
images, "When I was working on my art it was a prolonged
state of mourning and it was deeper and it was a more complete
experience because I wasn't trying to verbalize it."
Working with a feeling or issue through imagery encourages
a certain degree of inertia and emphasis which sustains and
focuses the healing process. Particularly when therapeutic
material is preverbal and nonverbal the sustaining activity
of developing and refining imagery encourages the artist to
continue exploring emotions and experience associated with
the imagery which may be outside cognitive perception or conscious
thought. Referring to her early memory through natalistic
art in therapy, Sarah states:
It is difficult to talk about because I am stuck with trying
to describe a wordless state with words. It is easier to do
it with art than it is with words. The natalistic art workshop
provided a very powerful means by which to explore that wordless
place.
For me expressing feelings through colour, line and shape
evokes movement which parallels emotion. Emotion is energy
moving out. Emote = movement out. The art process bypasses
words and concepts and rationalization up in the head. Form,
colour, shape, line and movement all address the gut level,
the feeling level.
By continued observing and relating to the developing image
the client is enables to sort out the preverbal material,
to reflect on it and interact with it.
Wadeson (1980) perceives that, "In addition to the
reflection of images, the art medium often stimulates the
production of images, tapping into primary process material
and enhancing the creative process" (p. 9).
Images allow the artist to move beyond the confines of verbal
languages. Pre- and perinatal issues in personality have components
which are difficult to approach with verbal dialogue and can
even be interrupted by the struggle to find accurate language
to describe and interpret the early experiences and their
legacy in the self. In speaking of the process of preverbal
material surfacing through Natalistic images, Cynthia stated:
It feels like it's something that is hard to put words to;
I can relate to the phenomena of going through the experience
but to put language to it becomes more difficult. I relate
the experience in images over words; words are insufficient
to describe what I felt. I feel like I can express it with
drawing.
Cynthia's experience of the limitations of words is echoed
by Edwards (1986) who notes, "verbal language can be
inappropriate for certain creative tasks and...words can even
hinder certain tasks" (p. xii). The hindering qualities
of verbal thought can be particularly acute with preverbal
and somatic memory and thought. McNiff (1981) notes art has
power, "as a means of furthering the expression of personal
feelings that are difficult to share verbally" (p. 155).
For artists to process psychological material behind imagery,
neither they nor the clinician necessarily needs to know where
the material is coming from or going to; staying with the
art process itself will allow inner forces to unfold naturally.
After attending several natalistic art workshops, Susan began
using the art processes at home to help her deal with emotional
issues and feelings. In one experience, Susan did not definitely
know the origins of her triggered stress. Nonetheless, she
found the art process to be an effective means of dissipating
her strong emotions:
Receiving some good financial news and feeling guilt and
shame about getting what I wanted, I started to hate myself.
I thought the bad feelings were connected with what went on
in the birth primal, but I was not sure. It got really bad
and I started to feel awful emotionally and physically. I
did some drawing and that helped. Using drawing to cope with
feelings which were coming up for me was something new for
me. I do not fully understand what happens, I found it just
worked.
Through the processes of artistic activity healing occurs
on conscious and unconscious levels, on verbal and nonverbal
levels. Learning to trust working with the nonverbal conscious
and preverbal unconscious can have powerful effects on other
therapeutic work the artists are undergoing. As Johanna shared:
The workshop was connecting me to another part of myself
that I never really knew about. I knew about it in little
bits and pieces, but it really scared me. It did not scare
me with fear, it scared me with excitement and I was not honouring
it very much. It was getting stronger and stronger so that
was good; because the stronger it got the more I wanted to
move in another direction, but I had no idea where.
It seemed at the time I was not working with my therapist
on the birth issues in the same way. I would have my sessions
with her under hypnosis and just go back into the space where
I was at while doing the natalism. I would go somewhere quite
deep, I would not actually sleep, but it might of appeared
that way . I was sort of not really aware, I could not really
talk and we were not dialoguing at all. She would just leave
me in that deep place for an hour. I would just go into early
stuff. A lot was happening, but it felt like nothing was happening,
I felt I had to do it. Luckily she just did what she did when
I was in there.
In working with early preverbal material it is important
for client and clinician to trust in the natural unfolding
of the healing process. At times there are words, images,
movements or sounds, and at other times there is healing and
processing through silence.
Beyond the process of creating the images, the very images
themselves can act as a reflecting therapist, mirroring back
to the artist that which has been consciously and unconsciously
manifested in the artwork. Like the acknowledging and validating
therapist who reflects back what is being heard, or summarizes
a portion or all of the therapy session, the images in therapeutic
art convey back to the creator an accurate portrayal of the
unfolding therapy process. In reflecting on her natalistic
imagery, Sarah, a natalistic art workshop participant, expresses:
I perceive that viewing my art brings back into me what
I sent out. The art gives an expression to what I am sensing
with my body and acts as an emotional mirror. I can see in
the art work what the experience is like inside myself, in
my body. In a way the art reflects back to me what I feel.
As a depthful mirror, the images of the art work can act
as a form of nurturing therapist to repattern deep wounds.
France Fuchs is reported by Rogers (1993) to have said, "Art
has the capability of being both the midwife and child of
our inner selves" (p. 70). Cynthia's natalistic art in
therapy experience demonstrates the effectiveness of the art
image and process as therapist. In discussing her drawing
it is clear that there are many simultaneous levels on which
Cynthia is therapeutically interacting with her art work.
The images of the natalistic art work serve or assist as mirror,
witness, emotional release, communication, nurturer, safety,
containment, repatterning and reframing. The natalistic art
process engages Cynthia physically, emotionally, cognitively,
spiritually and aesthetically, and socially. According to
Cynthia:
The drawing is definitely mother mirroring. The mother and
the baby have tears.... The woman was a Madonna image. In
the drawing there is a halo or spiritual light that is infusing
my body. My infant hand reaches out for the breast which is
the giver of life. The mother has nice big breasts and she
is cloaking me in a nice blanket. I am nestled in there very
secure and warm.
In the security and warmth I just needed silence. I do not
need to hear any words. I just want to hear the heart beat
and the silence. The silent loving energy that comes through.
There is empathy and she is crying. They are both crying at
the same time.
The drawing is my ideal mom. After I was finished doing
the painting I felt enthusiastic. While talking about the
images in the group I began to cry, "I do not have a
mother. She is alive but she is not a mother. I could not
get that from her. I never had that from her."
I felt like if I could receive from a sense of a mother
inside of me I would be different in many facets.
In the reparative phases of the natalistic process artists
will often combine artistic visual images and "creative
visualization" imageries to nurture and repattern early
wounds. As one artist shares:
I did the positive womb drawing in the workshop as a scene
from nature. I hoped the womb as nature would not seem facetious
to others. There were trees around me and birds and sky. I
am not sure if it is ducks or boats in the water. The little
black dots up between the green things are a group of Canada
geese. The sky overhead is a blue for hope and expansion.
Associated with the reddish colour I had an image of myself
sort of in the womb sitting and bending my feet in the water.
I do not know how to write music, but the little doodley shapes
above my head are little music notes.
It is not just the imagery which repatterns, but the larger
context of process in which images play a part. When the artist
puts away the drawing, the images continue to act upon the
psyche, reinforcing and suggesting transformation.
- DECREASED DEFENCES THROUGH NATALISTIC ACTIVITY
Artistic productions are a form of expression and communication.
Often expressive art can be a powerful voice from the deeper
core self because experience that is processed through art
tends to be less inhibited, conditioned and defended than
verbal speech and thought. The visual articulation of artistic
creations may not have the fluency and ease learned through
decades of talking, but for most adults creative expression
is likely to be less defended and provides a straighter path
between the defended outer self and the deeper wounded inner
self.
People communicate and interact continually every day through
verbal language. There is such familiarity with language that
people are consciously and unconsciously highly aware of its
nuances and structures. External and internal stresses and
anxieties are continually being filtered through the structures
of ongoing speech and language thought processes. To avoid
a constant state of anxiety, psychological defences naturally
develop around the verbal realm and language conceptual thought.
Emotional defenses have most of their practice and habituation
in the context of verbal encounters. Sarah discusses her relationship
with words and art:
I think working with art and the natalism approach was especially
powerful for me because I rely so heavily on words. I use
them often as a barrier and as protection. I found doing natalistic
art a marvellous tool. Through working with art I sidestepped
the defences around words. The art processes allowed me to
connect directly with the internal experience, which was very
powerful to do.
More and more I have become aware of words and their importance.
I think I learned to use words very effectively early on.
Words can be both a bridge and a wall. I am very aware of
how I can use them in booth ways. For a lot of my life I have
deflected people and kept people at bay with words rather
than use them as a reaching out and as a means of really communicating.
It was very important for me to use the words with the art
work in the way they are meant to be used as communication
and not as a barrier.
For most people, expression through the creative arts is
not a common occurrence. In day to day social interaction,
artwork is used far less for communication than words. People
generally spend less time creating art than talking. Because
art is not used as a primary form of daily expression and
communication it does not necessitate the degree of defences
which are required of language. There is less formal structure
to art than to language and fewer defenses around the images
and processes of creating art. This vulnerability affords
greater access to psychological material.
Art activity, having fewer and less developed defenses,
can allow unexpected psychological material to surface. Rogers
(1993) affirms, "Frequently what we then create comes
from the unconscious. We may be surprised by what appears"
(p. 43). Wadeson (1980) concurs, "Unexpected things may
burst forth in a picture or sculpture, sometimes totally contrary
to the intentions of its creator" (p. 9).
The right hemisphere of the brain is the more dominant centre
for emotion, spatial and nonverbal thought, and the legacy
of pre- and perinatal events and impressions. Spoken language
engages left brain activity and therefore does not directly
kindle the vestiges of emotion or the preverbal realm. In
part, left brain thinking serves as a defense against the
emotional qualities of the right brain. Zdenek (1985) states,
"Although emotions are actually a product of another
part of the brain (the limbic system), it is the right hemisphere
that is more in touch with these feelings" (p. 14). Art
activity by-passes the defenses of rational thought and left
brain linear logic, allowing the fires of birth and the womb
to ignite the darkened nonverbal domain of the right brain.
Natalistic activity as right brain process moves directly
into those areas of the brain which mediate the forces of
emotion, nonverbal and preverbal experiences, and the unconscious.
Simultaneously, natalistic processes encourage a bridge between
the unconscious and the conscious, between preverbal and verbal,
between emotion and logic. Sarah relates how the natalistic
art experience put her in touch with emotion and the nonverbal
realm, and then the natalistic process encouraged movement
through to language, internal organization and higher order
communication:
The process of choosing colour was very important to me
to symbolize different feelings. I was sensitive to the emotional
content or feel of a colour. Colours seemed to have a kind
of universal symbolism that crossed the barriers of language
and that reached me where I live. In some ways, choosing the
colour could represent the feelings that I had.
Then placing the words on the drawing allowed an additional
kind of claiming to the experience. Putting the words on the
pictures was important to me in terms of claiming the feelings
and the experience as my own. In a way it was the words for
me that acted as kind of a bridge between the non-verbal feeling
state and the adult who can articulate the experience and
communicate it.
Some of the properties of decreased psychological defence
which is associated with art comes about as a result of objectification.
A psychologically problematic person, issue or feeling becomes
contained in and interacted with, through the representations
of the art work and art processes. Birtchnell (1984) allows,
"that a picture of a person or thing is not the same
as the person or thing, and yet carries some of their characteristics.
Thus it represents a safe, half-way stage" (p. 41). Through
the protection of art as a half-way stage the artist can begin
to deal with some of the overwhelming and painful issues residing
in the characteristics of the artwork. According to McNiff
(1981) the artworks serve, "as intermediary or 'transitional'
objects of communication...when verbal discussion might be
too threatening" (p. 155). This form of psychological
bridge can serve to enhance relationship and expression to
other people or between the outer and inner self.
Transitions, transformation and the unfamiliar can circumvent
habituated defenses and allow a burst from the unconscious,
bringing forward the psychological forces of birth and the
realm of the womb. Janus (1991) explains:
Throughout postnatal development, early experience is covered
by later experience and is concealed within one's general
attitude to life. However, events of an unusual nature, not
only threatening but also pleasant ones, or great changes
in life can serve to evoke early experience. (p. 204)
For most people art activity, and in particular natalistic
art activity, can provide the kind of unusual change which
may evoke expression of early experiences.
- NATALISM AS EXPRESSION OF THE UNCONSCIOUS
Art is well known for its ability to express feelings from
the deeper self. These deeper layers of the psyche are generally
understood to include the realms of the unconscious and of
core experience. The psychological foundations of the unconscious
and its cores of belief and feelings are experiences from
the preverbal period. Rogers (1993) speaks for many in stating,
"When people create art -- whether it is a doodle, an
expressive painting or sculpture...it always reveals an aspect
of the self. It may reveal an aspect of the unconscious self"
(p. 77).
A proposal of natalistic theory is that artistic expression
also has an affinity for expression of the repressed or dissociated
preverbal unconscious.
Birth and prenatal traumas often have a component of psychological
shock (Lake, 1981). Shocking or traumatic experiences may,
characteristically, be locked out of the conscious mind, but
still reverberate in the unconscious mind. Noble (1993) points
out that:
During a traumatic event, a person is often in shock, and
later in normal consciousness is unable to remember very much
at all. Yet under hypnosis, crime victims for example, can
recall such details as the numbers on a car license plate.
(p. 89)
Natal experiences occur before the organization of cognitive
structures. Birth recall may lock visual or auditory details
such as numbers or words, but there is a high degree of kinaesthetic
and tactile memory in birth regressions. These somatic sensations
or body memories are the psychophysiological responses of
the preverbal unconscious (Janov, 1983). To work consciously
or verbally with early trauma, the individual has to move
the psychological material out of the realms of the preverbal
unconscious. Noble (1993) continues:
The key is to find a bridge between the physiological and
verbal levels of experience. The memory is encoded in a state-bound
form and thus a person has to get back into a particular state
to access the experience. Regressive association is the process
by which we put two and two together, not by reasoning but
by spontaneous feeling. (p. 89)
There are numerous routes to regression into the unconscious
through encouraging spontaneous feeling. Ross (1986) summarizes:
Arthur Janov used the Gestalt method of bringing infantile
relationships with the parents into the present - addressing
them directly as "Mummy" and
"Daddy" and getting into the buried feeling. Leonard
Orr used a large tub of warm water to simulate the uterine
environment. Frank Lake at one stage used cushions to enhance
the awareness of the womb but then went on to develop a guided
fantasy that reflected, as accurately as possible, the stages
of development of the embryo from ovulation on to about the
stage of the third month of pregnancy. With this method, a
surprisingly high proportion of people appeared to get into
touch with personal experiences in the first trimester which
seemed to have some meaning and value for them. (p. 54)
Art activity is highly accepted for its ability to speak
for the deeper self and unconscious. The pre- and perinatal
unconscious is often closely aligned with life long core urges
and desires. Representation of those urges can sometimes be
a part of the process of uncovering the landscape of prenatal
material. Initially, imagery from the preverbal unconscious
will not be fully understood by the artist. As the realm of
birth and the in utero world became more familiar to the adult
consciousness, symbolism of early experience begins to take
on more meaning.
Noble (1993) portrays her own experience of being asked,
at the beginning of her primal regression work with Graham
Farrant, to "Draw a scene":
My scene was a sketch of the pond where I lived on Cape
Cod. This reflected my desire to live by water. Although I
grew up in Australia and looked at the horizon of an ocean,
I prefer the perimetry of a lake, a primal feeling to do with
borders and zones about which I would learn more as I underwent
the process and understood my use of prenatal symbols. (pp.
115-116)
Noble became aware that for her the containment of a lake
was much more a prenatal domain than the symbology of an ocean.
For each person, the unconscious is uniquely expressed in
art and its symbols and images.
Like Noble (1993), Deborah, an artist and natalistic workshop
participant, also had art images of water connecting to prenatal
experience. In the expressions of the unconscious in Deborah's
dream life she also had experiences of unrest and turbulent
waters, which she related to the toxicity and turmoil in the
watery world of her womb. As Deborah said, "When I am
having emotional turbulence I see it in my dreams as water
and floods, tidal waves and turbulent seas, and drowning.
For me water is a very prominent imagery for strong and overwhelming
feelings." Deborah's unconscious relationship to water
was distress and life risk. To resolve the deep core relationship
of trauma and water Deborah used art to express her fears
and distress, but also she used the natalistic art process
as a transforming agent for the very symbols of her unconscious
fears.
In an interesting process of transformation, rather than
deny the basic elements of her internal imagery, Deborah stepped
off from where she was and allowed water to continue to represent
her core feelings and beliefs. As Deborah explains:
Some of the imagery that I tried to work with to transform
the turbulence of water was just being on a raft and flowing,
going with it nice and cosy and soft.
My drawing was working with the same images of soft waves;
their lulling, flowing, soft, nice, rocking -- like connecting
with a soft womb.
Through visualization and art work Deborah allowed water,
the element of her nightmares, to take on a more nurturing
and embracing function. What was once threatening to her was
now beginning to take care of her. Initially the objectified
image of water, as a psychological container, was apparently
also taking care of Deborah by holding the overwhelming turmoil
of her womb period in the unconscious preverbal domain; until
she was grown and strong enough to look at and sort through
chaos created by the rejection, hate and ambivalence she felt
in the world of her beginnings. Now that the imagery of water
was released from the feelings and memories it was holding
separate; Deborah's core relationship to the familiar object
of water could take on a different meaning, providing the
lulling, rocking softness of an emotionally nourishing and
healing womb.
Susan connected her natalistic drawing to a life-long recurring
journey dream. On the drawing was written, "I've got
to get there -- it's so hard. I'm tired, can't do it. Have
to keep going. So hard, can't do it. Have to feel so weak
and helpless and powerless. I've got to get there, never do.
The journey that never ends." In talking about the dreams
Susan shared:
In my dream of trying to get home there's no colour except
grey. The dreams are always very bleak, that's why there's
no colour. I sometimes wonder if the dream is related to when
I got born. My experiences of reliving birth has been sort
of unconscious, it's like I didn't experience my birth, so
I didn't know I was born. I'm still going through that struggle
because I don't know I was born.
Susan went unconscious from ether which was administrated
in the last stage of labour. As an infant she had gone through
the labour and then was consciously anaesthetically deadened
for the conclusion of her birth. On a preverbal foundational
level, being robbed of the conclusion and accomplishment of
birth left her with an inner struggle of still trying to finish
her journey. Through her art work at the natalistic art workshops
and at home Susan began to create pictures of having arrived
and being looked after the way she deserved. Through the use
of colour in her drawings she also changed the bleak grey
journey of birth into a colourful inner path. At the next
natalistic art workshop she shared:
After the session where I really relived that early portion
of my life, I had quite a long and wonderful dream. In it
I had married a man who I'm very attracted to.... In the dream
I achieved some really really close relationships.... We had
to work through a lot of problems and we ended up with a real
closeness. It's what I've always wanted to be able to experience
with people and never could. I woke up with a really warm
feeling.
Along with the negative feelings which flow from the unconscious
while producing art, there are positive healing forces which
help with repatterning wounds and with affirming that positive
meaning exists within the artist and her world. Furth (1988)
writes:
It is interesting to note that when professional artists
produce pictures from the unconscious, they frequently become
aware of a flow of inner good feelings accompanying their
work. They seem to be expressing a freedom that they have
not felt in years, or awakening memories of using media associated
with good feelings experienced years ago. (p. 12)
As an explorer of human experience the artist balances the
command and skill of conscious intent and direction against
the power and potency of unconscious forces. As Kramer (1958)
considers "The artist's position epitomizes the precarious
human situation: while his craft demands the greatest self-discipline
and perseverance, he must maintain access to the primitive
impulses and fantasies that constitute the raw material for
his work" (p. 23).
It can be a very powerful tool to take a component of an
artwork to further develop into another new work. Deborah
states that:
After one of the natalism sessions I had done another little
drawing of one of the large drawings I had left in Michael's
office. I was feeling that the workshop drawing, which I did
not have at home, had felt so healing to me at the time. So
I wanted to have the image around to further the healing.
The replacement drawing did not look like just like original
one but it worked for me.
Artists often take a section, image or theme of a painting
further develop it in new works. In the process of my sculpting
I discover forms or elements which are part of a sculpture
which I want to explore in another sculpture. Nadeau (1984)
states, "artists will testify to the fact that in producing
one drawing or painting, ideas are therein born for another
ten or more works" (p. 36). Conversely when an artist
explores the unconscious forces in one work there will be
found dynamics from other previous works. When the artist
reflects on the development of unintended themes which occur
over a period of time she is observing her unconscious at
work.
Preverbal material is particularly susceptible to artistic
exploration which is nonverbal, therefore non-cognitive and
seemingly unconscious. Before language and cognition become
fluid with the surfacing dynamics, the non-language mind may
significantly approach and address preverbal feelings and
issues. As one professional sculptor, who created natalistic
imagery before ever attending a natalistic art workshop relates:
The sculpture, Wounded Mother, with the larger hole and
the crack is to me no doubt an expression of prenatal experience.
On one hand it is a sculpture of a mother and her empty womb.
On the other hand, when it is turned upside down it looks
like a sculpture of a fetus. I did not consciously see the
fetus while I was doing the mother. Initially I missed seeing
all the significance of that dynamic.
Each piece that I have done since then has seemed like a
variation on the theme of the narcissistic mother and the
damage she unconsciously does to her child. The primary theme
was picked up in Wounded Mother and then it has been elucidated
and developed through various pieces over the last eight years.
In some ways there is a number of layers in that initial sculpture.
I have sort of been exploring some of the themes with further
work.
It has been remarkable to observe the degree of detail which
adopted individuals have worked with in natalistic productions.
With little or no historical details of birth, a significant
portrait of the birth experience can unfold over a series
of natalistic drawings and experiential birth regressions.
The sense of another realm which is typically associated with
birth and womb regression must be all the more poignant for
the adoptee who not only left the womb, but left the first
family. It may be that this dual loss provides all the more
reason to uncover and work through early pre- and perinatal
material. As Brigette, an adoptee, reflects of birth and her
natalistic experiences:
There had been a lot of birth things that had flashed in
and out of my head as I settled into the workshop series.
[Being adopted,] there is little that I empirically know about
my birth and origins. I know I was born in the General Hospital
and I was five pounds. As an infant they had great difficulty
finding food that I could tolerate. That is about all I know
of myself as a little infant.
Throughout history and cultures art has been associated
with the search for meaning and the origins of the self or
society. Art does not always give answers, but it does send
forth flares which momentarily brighten the night of the unconscious.
Each art work illuminates an unto now hidden part of the unconscious.
Like the professional artist, the therapy client struggles
to confront and make order out of the unconscious imagery
released over a series of pieces. Brigette said:
There was something about the blank spot in the second drawing
that was different from the blank spot in the previous drawing.
I needed to talk more about it in the group go around. It
was definitely supposed to be blank. I thought about that
a lot as I drew, there was not supposed to be any thing there.
The blank may be twin stuff. I think the poking might have
been like the abortion stuff. I do not know if there was an
attempted abortion or if it got a twin. It was like there
was no distressed feeling there. It was like the was just
nothing over there, like it was not my space. It was bordered
by black with a faint bit of purple in the space.
Something with the yellow circle was like that was the only
friendly thing in the whole place. It was coloured in kind
of pretty. Green for me is very nurturing, so it was the only
nurturing something. I wondered if it was the twin in the
nurturing light. If the whole drawing is viewed as three dimensional,
the twin could be kind of in behind.
The rational conscious mind can be quite challenged by the
breath and depth with which unconscious material is presented
in art and dreams. In waking from the realm of dreams the
unconscious content of the dream can dissolve. In completing
a work of art the forces which became represented in the art
still call out from the visual images which do not fade as
easily as dreams. In approaching and dialoguing about the
therapeutic art work the artist is approaching and discussing
the realm of her unconscious.
In addition the listening to the artwork speaking back to
the artist is a condition of listening to the voice of the
inner mind. Brigette shares:
I got this really clear picture that I did not particularly
want to draw a womb like shape.
I knew the drawing I wanted had to have really firm boundaries.
I set out to draw something that would be enclosed and has
some circles in it as opposed to sharp angles. What intrigued
me, at the time, was it was almost more like the two lobes
of the heart.
The one circle drew itself and then the other one wanted
to be drawn under and around. I think it is probably supposed
to be three dimensional.... An image came of an arm and I
knew I needed it to be enclosed and to be circular in some
way. That was kind of the only plan.
I did the squiggle and then somehow I knew it needed to
be black and strong. I was frustrated with the crayon because
I could not make it dark enough. I spent a lot of time getting
the lines as distinct as I could. I think that had something
to do with boundaries, safety and security; like in my ideal
place the areas would be clearly delineated. It would be safe
and there would be no pokers coming in.
The artwork both acts upon, and mirrors, that which is occurring
in the deeper self. Jung (1977) concurs that when clients
"look at" their works of art:
they feel that their unconscious is expressed. The objective
form works back on them and they become enchanted. The suggestive
influence of the picture [sculpture] reacts on the psychological
system of the patients and induces the same effect which they
put into the picture. That is the reason for idols, for the
magic use of sacred images, of icons. They cast their magic
into our system and put us right, providing we put ourselves
into them. (Vol. 18, p. 181)
As the client gains familiarity in working with the preverbal
unconscious through natalistic processes, voyage into the
inner mind becomes more fluid and productive. Brigette shares:
I started getting keener at being able to sense what I wanted
to do, what I needed to do, or what the drawing was meaning.
I was getting keener, through not having to think as much.
I was getting better at connecting with unconscious levels
of knowing. I had very little sense of thinking before I drew.
Michael talked the first night about maybe there's a colour
that's just calling out to you and things like that. I guess
I had some sense of that the first night, but later that just
happened quickly and I would look at the colours and knowing
what I needed just happened quickly and I remember one time
I needed a purple and I didn't have a purple and I had to
go charging across the room to get a purple, because I just
knew that something else wasn't the right colour.
It was an experience of listening to a felt sense of what
needed to happen and intuitively trusting that. I didn't have
to know where the picture was going. I didn't have to know
what was going to work. I could just trust that it would be
coming to me and that way my urge to do was perhaps the thing
to follow. I didn't want to process it all through my head.
It is difficult to find the words for it but it was like
I wanted to let the inside out. To let the deep me be the
one that paints not just the head me. I like my paintings
better when I do that.... I know I'm thinking with my head
when I'm saying "There's a blank piece of paper on the
floor, and well what shall I draw next?" That's thinking.
When I'm not thinking that doesn't happen. In my head I just
kind of go with it and I really like the experience. It feels
nicer to do that. I also like the productions better, so I
can't see any good reason to draw the thinking way. I think
the thinking gets in the way of art.
Dreaming and creating art are likely two of the most powerful
means of tapping into and expressing unconscious forces. When
Sarah was discussing her natalistic pictures she commented
about one drawing, "A feeling in this dream is a dream-like
state." She did not notice her use of the word dream
instead of drawing. This is an interesting remark because
writers about art in therapy speak of therapeutic art being
like a visual dream. Natalism can be viewed through the same
lens as dream material and dream process.
Art and dreams represent the internal experiences of the
unconscious in similar ways. London (1989) allows, "Dreams,
the images we create in our mind's eye, are always pertinent,
expressive, compelling and convincing, mystifying and edifying.
They are never shallow, never gratuitous, never decorative"
(p. 49). Approaches and procedures for working therapeutically
with art productions are similar to working with dreams in
therapy.
Therapy is a place where the unconscious and conscious meet,
where art and rational order are bridges, where the realms
of dreaming and waking blend. People have commented that birth
regressions may feel like a dream state (Khamsi, 1987). Feher
(1980) notes the relationship between the realm of regression
in birth therapies and realm of the unconscious in dream life:
As many have remarked, repressed impulses are released in
sleep and problems enacted through the dream. So, too with
natal therapy. It seems to energize, organize, and master
unconscious material, while the individual is still awake
enough to deal with it cognitively. During the natal therapy
experience, the individual is, in some sense, asleep and awake
simultaneously, where both the unconscious and the conscious
are functional and collaborating the behaviour displayed.
(p. 185)
Creating therapeutic art has been described as having dream-like
qualities. In an interview about her art and process, English
(1985), who wrote Adventures of a Caesarean Born, commented:
There are a couple of different kinds of art that I did.
One was of like a dream where I'd draw the picture in my mind.
I couldn't take the camera inside so I'd check inside and
then copy it. The other type of drawing was to take a blank
piece of paper and a pile of marking pens, and I'd usually
be drawn to one colour, pick it up and then let my hand do
something. I would not have any idea of what was coming.
The unconscious forces of art activity, therapy, birth regression;
all as semi-dream states, meet and blend when art activity
is employed in therapy for birth regression. One workshop
participant described her natalistic drawing and writing experience
as an altered state of consciousness like that of floating
in a dream, "It was a very strong feeling of being in
water and very much a dream like state with a feeling of being
infused and suffused."
Hall (1967) found sixty percent of dreams contained content
of prenatal and birth experiences. Van Husen (1988) describes
some of the dream content which she eventually interpreted
as unconscious prenatal material:
Years ago, during hypnoanalytical investigations of nightmares,
panics, compulsions, etc., I often encountered detailed descriptions
of underwater coral reefs, mobile walls moving in and out,
of being stuck in dark chambers and similar descriptions usually
connected with fear and often panic. I often wondered where
these imprints came from.
Repeating the investigation at intervals several times would
bring the same descriptions, usually with additional data
added until the complete experience was related. It finally
struck me that the only mobile, rhythmically contracting and
enclosing walls I was familiar with as a physician were those
of the womb. (p. 180)
Noble (1993) reports that:
Most dreams have a hidden date or in some way reveal the
period of life into which the events of the dream fit. In
the prenatal period, there may be clues from the ratio of
body (especially head) size to the surrounding: the larger
the space, the smaller the baby. (p. 76)
If these phenomena were applied to art productions, then
one might look for details of the prenatal story in the content
of the artworks. A small being in a large space could be speaking
of early prenatal material. Certainly the proportion of the
size of head to size of body as a landmark for prenatal age
has been noted by Verny (1981) and van Husen (1988).
Noble (1993) summarizes references to unconscious conception
imagery in dreams:
Silberer, in 1912, gave examples of sperm dreams and believed
them to be the wish to go back into the father's body. Campbell
related a ritual among African bushmen that symbolizes the
sperm journey in all its detail, from the crowd experience
to travelling up the mucus channels to gamete death and rebirth
as a zygote. Stephen Seely, at University of Manchester Medical
School, suggests that about one percent of published dreams
can be recognized as representing some phase of gamete development.
(p. 79)
It would seem that if sperm, egg and conception energy could
find their way into the unconscious content of dreams, then
a similar possibility could exist in the unconscious imagery
contained in therapeutic works of art. If one is to give credence
to the verbal reports of artists working with natalistic art
and art therapy then this kind of expression of early gamete
awareness is possible. When reviewing the actual images produced
in art in therapy there are many which could quite accurately
represent embryonic and pre-embryonic conditions. These images
of cellular consciousness may be coincidental, or may be influenced
by biology class texts or films; yet there is a possibility
they could be the cry of early life experience looking for
resolution through creative expression. Feher (1989) notes:
Included in this hypothesis is the belief that the non-verbal
hemisphere has its own communication system and logic. The
non-verbal hemisphere, on the other hand, communicates symbolically
or metaphorically, for example through the patterns of posture
and gestures. Its logic is that of dreams. And it follows
than non-verbal communication, with its different language
and different reality, may be distorted and misunderstood
by the dominant verbal consciousness. (p. 114).
Feher (1980) suggests that behaviour which is being influenced
by the nonverbal/preverbal mind "is perceived as irrational
- though it is understandable when deciphered, just as dreams
show logic when interpreted" (p. 114)
- PERMANENCE OF NATALISM
Artwork is a consistent statement and revealing story of
the artist's process. It leaves a tangible record. It cannot
like words in memory be forgotten and lost with time. Looking
back over old work, the artist can recall feelings which occurred
when the art was originally created. When poignant art is
revisited, the feelings can be further worked through and
deeper insight can be achieved. Deborah recalls, "While
I was speaking in the sharing group about the art experience
it brought back a little of the pressure and pressing feeling
and I explored it a little bit." Rogers (1993) echoes,
"Since the images we create are lasting, the visual arts
are particularly useful on the inner journey. Over and over
again, we can look at our work, reflect on it, and let it
speak to us" (p. 70). McNiff (1981) emphasises, "The
great strength of the visual arts in therapy can be attributed
to the physical permanence of art objects" (p. 154).
The dynamic of increased permanence of unconscious feelings
and images in physically concrete and lasting artworks, as
opposed to memories of dream experiences is important for
the therapist to recognize and consider. Psychological issues
flourish and are internally worked with in the world of dreams.
Significant and powerful unconscious material comes to the
surface, or up to a preconscious level, during the dream.
In the dream content, images and feelings which the conscious
mind is not ready to fully know, and cope with, will be presented
and can be mulled through.
When the dreamer wakes, certain parts of the dream are remembered
and other elements are conveniently lost. The details that
are remembered are likely issues which are ready to be further
processed and made sense of. The content of the dream which
the person remembers later and brings to therapy is likely
that which is appropriate and valid material to explore therapeutically.
Therapeutic artwork is similar to dreams in that symbolic
material comes to the surface, or into the preconscious mind.
Yet, unlike with dreaming, when the art making process is
finished the significant symbolic images and material are
still just as vividly present, in the work on the paper, as
when the artwork was unfolding. After an art piece is finished,
all the psychological material symbolized in the colours,
forms and images retain their presence on the page. Internally,
the psychological forces which have surfaced from the unconscious
and the inner mind while they were engaged in the creative
art process may have receded back to the preconscious or unconscious
mind. Although the psychological forces may no longer be present,
their shadows, marks and footprints are there in the feelings
and content of the artwork.
These inherent features of permanence in artwork make for
the ever- present availability of significant sensitive emotional
content which may be revisted as the psyche of the artist
is ready to deal with it. In contrast, psychological material
found in the symbols and images of the dream which the person
is not ready to face, discuss in depth or have analyzed may
conveniently be forgotten in the receding memory of the dream.
The prominent marks of an art piece are not so easily forgotten.
This phenomenon of permanence of art as opposed to dreaming,
requires an added degree of responsibility on the part of
the therapist. Respect and sensitivity is required from the
clinician in terms of discussing and processing the psychological
material in a person's work of art. There can be material
in the artwork that needs to be left alone until the artist
brings it up.
Unlike the dream which, in part or in total, may be difficult
to remember in a week or three months, the artwork can be
returned to and reviewed over time as the person comes further
along in the therapeutic process. With the passage of time,
the artist can look at the artwork and may see something which
had not been noticed before and finally understands an image
because she is ready to.
When looking over a series of pieces, insights can occur
that are not possible when exploring a single painting or
session. Additionally, in reviewing a series of drawing from
a lengthy period of time, both the client and the therapist
can concretely recognize progress and development which has
taken place over the duration of therapy. Having the opportunity
to view a series of art pieces created over a period of time
can allow for a broader sense of connectedness and continuity
to the internal process. The person reviewing paintings that
have been done over a two to three month period sees the images
that have been preconsciously coming out in the pictures and
therefore gains greater insight.
Through the permanence of emotional material in therapeutic
art psychological issues from earlier in a session, from a
previous session or from between sessions are available for
further therapeutic discussion and exploration. Indeed, a
primary value of art in therapy is the ability to repeatedly
return, through art production, to core material as its layers
are worked through. In addition, that material which is initially
brought forward and worked with in therapeutic art activities
can be effectively further worked with in other activity or
in the dynamics of the therapeutic process. Hall (1987) states:
The permanence and tangibility of the art products gives
art therapy a dimension that other therapies don't have (especially
the talking therapies) - not only can you refer back to your
creation and look again later, and it won't have changed,
but also you can express things by what you do afterwards
with what you've created - that can be very expressive. You
could destroy them, mutilate them, hide them prominently,
display them, give them to people - lots of possibilities.
(p. 181)
Birtchnell (1984) suggests art activity alone can not be
fulling healing. The permanence of art allows the therapeutic
elements of art to be taken into other dimensions of therapy.
For example, Birtchnell (1984) states, "various forms
of aesthetic pursuit, whilst being satisfying in themselves,
do not bring emotions and conflicts near enough to the surface;
or if they do, we do not hold on to them long enough to work
through them" (p. 37). Birtchnell's solution to this
dilemma is to encourage the artist: to further dialogue with
the art; to take an aspect of the picture and make it larger;
to become a component of the drawing and speak of one's experience;
to create the space in which to have deeper emotional catharsis
in relation to the issues in the art work; or to, in some
form, further "psychologically dismantle" what is
behind the art production for the creator.
- BODY EXPRESSION THROUGH NATALISM AND NATALISTIC ACTIVITY
Many of the experiences -- life threats, unmet needs --
which occur pre- and perinatally are physical. Traumas from
the preverbal period are often experienced, interpreted and
stored in the body as body consciousness (Buchheimer, 1987;
Lake, 1981). Buchheimer
(1987) proposes that early pre- and perinatal, "memory
storage exists throughout the body" (p. 53). Buchheimer
allows that:
In making this proposal, I draw heavily on empirical observations
in regressive-abreactive therapy, where focusing on any part
of the body in different ways, mentally or physically, can
trigger a birth primal, or where people in intense regressions
can reproduce the sensory perceptions of infancy and early
childhood. (p. 53)
Modalities of psychotherapy like Holotropic Breathwork (Grof,
1985), Mind/Body Therapy (Rossi & Cheek, 1988), Primal
Regression (Noble, 1993) which focus on some form of body
or somatic expression are generally the ones which elicit
and process pre- and perinatal experience (Noble, 1993). Pre-
and perinatal experience is perceived and laid down in the
psyche before cognitive/language thought develop. Early feelings
and memories may be stored in regions of the brain and body
which are outside the direct perimeters of cognitive language
process. Therefore reconnection with, and retrieval and processing
of, significant early experience in the psyche occur frequently
outside usual language memory.
Common modes of regression to the pre- and perinatal period
have often incorporated nonverbal expression, such as spontaneous
sounds and body movements. These approaches rely heavily on
body awareness, and trusting and following the natural expressive
urges of the body. It is suggested that these primitive forms
of release are expressions of body memory (Buchheimer, 1987;
Farrant, 1993). One artist in a natalistic art workshop experienced
somatic sensations of birth which were familiar to her through
deep feeling regressive therapy. As the feelings surfaced,
Deborah struggled with her decision whether to drop into
the feelings, allowing an abreaction, or to interact with
the feelings through art. Deborah states:
I eventually decided to try to stay with the pressure and
feelings, without going into an abreaction, and see what would
happen through moving the emerging feeling experiences into
the art work I was doing.
There was a headache on the side of the head which had as
a component of it an urge to push. There was also a feeling
of pressure which had along with it an urge to push with my
head. As I was pushing and drawing part of the sense of pressure
was coming from inside, and part of the feeling of pressure
was the reality of pushing up against the wall. I felt like
I was pushing and like I was not getting anywhere.
The side of my head which was feeling the pressure and pushing
was like the area of my body during birth which took in the
stress and feelings of not getting anywhere. While drawing,
my head was feeling the pressure of trying to move forward
and being blocked by my mother. I sort of felt flattened there.
It felt like I went through the birth canal with the side
of my head. It was like my birth might have been a kind of
slamming against the wall.
The head pain, which is all the red at the bottom of the
womb in the drawing, felt like birth and like my head was
slamming into the birth canal. As I negotiated my way through
the birth canal there was pain. As well there was rage but
it was not mine, it was my mother's rage. I felt like when
my head slammed against the uterus, it was like I was slamming
against her rage.
People can internally experience some of the body memory
feelings and physical sensations of birth. Primal regression
to early conditions may be called a revivification of birth
or womb experiences -- they are experienced as a reliving
of the original birth experience. These body memories may
quite adeptly be expressed though art activity.
Body memories can bring forward a vague and obscure sense
of conditions at birth, or conversely, quite vivid birth imagery
may surface for the regressed person. After working on two
natalistic drawings in a workshop setting, Brigette shared
with the group her experience
of the first drawing:
While doing the drawing I was laying on my left side. The
first thing I was aware of was a feeling in my neck of wanting
to twist almost in a corkscrew motion. The need to turn is
the green spiral at the top of the drawing. The feeling inside,
at first, was of having lots of room and then of being pressed
in on and the black arrows was just wanting more space. There
was a great ambivalence about coming out of the womb. There
was a sense of: in here it is quite cosy and safe but I was
also feeling cramped and I wanted out, so the two were going
on together. Then I was aware of my mom not wanting me to
come out into the world. Li | 
