james hillman on art and therapy

Pardon the mailing but thought it might be better to be inclusive than exclusive on this and let it land where it may.
Please excuse if not of any interest to you. i particularly find amusing the list of what he sees the arts suffering from

comments welcome

From Emotion. James Hillman. Northwestern University Press.1960
this is from the 1991 preface to a later printing of the book

The field of art therapy has always imagined the use of the arts to be therapeutic either for the expressive release of the blocked psyche or for symbolism, sublimation and communication, which thereby allow the patient to give creative formulations to the disordered soul. I want to reverse this relation between art and therapy of emotion. I want now, and finally as a last thought, to suggest that therapy is useful to the arts.
Let us assume that the arts in our western world are in as much disarray as the patients we encounter.
The Arts themselves are suffering from exploitation, commercialism, delusions of grandeur, low self esteem, dried out rationalism, addictive careerism, fascination with success, vulnerability to criticism, loss of direction and intention, personalism, and so on. What seems lost to the arts is precisely what therapy deals with everyday: soul. Through art therapy soul returns to dance and painting, to poems and sculpture. Each gesture the patient makes attempts to place into defined form the emotional influxes that assail a human life. Each gesture is made for the sake of the gesture and not for anything external to the gesture itself.
I dance my woe as fully as I can and paint my wild madness with a rich palette as I can attain, not for reviewers of my product, not for recognition, not for the increase in size of the letters of my name.
I do it for soul�s sake, and this gesture, encouraged by the art therapist in studios, practices, and clinics in the city after city, town after town, may be more than a therapy of the patient> It may also be a therapy of the arts themselves, restoring to them the archetypal gestures of the soul

--
Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island <http://anaphoria.com/>
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU <http://www.kxlu.com/main.html> 88.9 FM Wed 8-9 pm Los Angeles

Hi Kraig,

Firstly, I think the passage you quote is relevant to understanding
our own motives in making microtonal music.

More comments below.

Yahya

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Kraig Grady wrote:
>
> Pardon the mailing but thought it might be better to be inclusive
than exclusive on this and let it land where it may.
> Please excuse if not of any interest to you. i particularly find
amusing the list of what he sees the arts suffering from
>
> comments welcome
>
> From Emotion. James Hillman. Northwestern University Press.1960
> this is from the 1991 preface to a later printing of the book
>
> The field of art therapy has always imagined the use of the arts
to be therapeutic either for the expressive release of the blocked
psyche or for symbolism, sublimation and communication, which
thereby allow the patient to give creative formulations to the
disordered soul. I want to reverse this relation between art and
therapy of emotion. I want now, and finally as a last thought, to
suggest that therapy is useful to the arts.
> Let us assume that the arts in our western world are in as much
disarray as the patients we encounter.
> The Arts themselves are suffering from exploitation,
commercialism, delusions of grandeur, low self esteem, dried out
rationalism, addictive careerism, fascination with success,
vulnerability to criticism, loss of direction and intention,
personalism, and so on. What seems lost to the arts is precisely
what therapy deals with everyday: soul. Through art therapy soul
returns to dance and painting, to poems and sculpture. Each gesture
the patient makes attempts to place into defined form the emotional
influxes that assail a human life. Each gesture is made for the sake
of the gesture and not for anything external to the gesture itself.
I dance my woe as fully as I can and paint my wild madness with a
rich palette as I can attain, not for reviewers of my product, not
for recognition, not for the increase in size of the letters of my
name. I do it for soul's sake, and this gesture, encouraged by the
art therapist in studios, practices, and clinics in the city after
city, town after town, may be more than a therapy of the patient. It
may also be a therapy of the arts themselves, restoring to them the
archetypal gestures of the soul.

---

Kraig, any thoughtful artist will at times ask himself or herself:
Why do I do this? What drives me to do it?

If the answers which the artist finds do not, in the slightest
measure, include the motives that Hillman imputes to artists, why
then, that artist is a king among men, a mahatma, a great soul. But
most of us more ordinary mortals do enjoy the praise of others.
This is the reward, of those Hillman lists, most likely to be met
with today.

However, we do also take great pleasure in giving others pleasure.
I don't think Hillman mentioned this motive or outcome, which is
mutually beneficial to both artist and enjoyer. (Unless that's what
he meant by "personalism", a term I'm unfamiliar with, but which I
take rather to be a shorthand for "the cult of personality".) These
are the two rewards *involving others* which perhaps motivate me
most to make music, to write poems and songs, and to make pictures
and arrange objects in various ways (I can't say "sculpt", since I
don't).

Then there are the personal rewards. These include my pleasure at
practising and improving my skill and craft; pleasure in the works
themselves, as it were anew, as if I were experiencing and enjoying
them for the first time, which is perfectly possible because I often
forget which of the several possible paths at each point on the
journey of creation I actually took, rather than contemplated before
discarding in favour of another; and of course, pleasure in the
journey of discovery (*) itself.

But I rarely if ever think of my creative endeavours as being self-
expression. Perhaps I am constitutionally unsuited to using any
kind of art as therapy? (since I use them all as means of
discovering the world around me).

(*) That this journey is one of discovery is I think a truism; we
uncover, rather than create, relationships between things that exist
entirely outside of ourselves. In regarding these relatinoships, I
perhaps come closest to being convinced by the Platonic notion of
the music of the spheres ... though it seems to have little
scientific - ie repeatable experimental - support.

Regards,
Yahya

Thanks for your comments and what you mention are indeed motivations that he would agree with.
i think his list are those things he finds/"ills" within artist and the artistic communities and such, not unnecessarily a survey of all that it entails

yahya_melb wrote:
> H
>
> Kraig, any thoughtful artist will at times ask himself or herself: > Why do I do this? What drives me to do it?
>
> If the answers which the artist finds do not, in the slightest > measure, include the motives that Hillman imputes to artists, why > then, that artist is a king among men, a mahatma, a great soul. But > most of us more ordinary mortals do enjoy the praise of others. > This is the reward, of those Hillman lists, most likely to be met > with today. >
> However, we do also take great pleasure in giving others pleasure. > I don't think Hillman mentioned this motive or outcome, which is > mutually beneficial to both artist and enjoyer. (Unless that's what > he meant by "personalism", a term I'm unfamiliar with, but which I > take rather to be a shorthand for "the cult of personality".) These > are the two rewards *involving others* which perhaps motivate me > most to make music, to write poems and songs, and to make pictures > and arrange objects in various ways (I can't say "sculpt", since I > don't).
>
> Then there are the personal rewards. These include my pleasure at > practising and improving my skill and craft; pleasure in the works > themselves, as it were anew, as if I were experiencing and enjoying > them for the first time, which is perfectly possible because I often > forget which of the several possible paths at each point on the > journey of creation I actually took, rather than contemplated before > discarding in favour of another; and of course, pleasure in the > journey of discovery (*) itself. >
> But I rarely if ever think of my creative endeavours as being self-
> expression. Perhaps I am constitutionally unsuited to using any > kind of art as therapy? (since I use them all as means of > discovering the world around me).
>
>
> (*) That this journey is one of discovery is I think a truism; we > uncover, rather than create, relationships between things that exist > entirely outside of ourselves. In regarding these relatinoships, I > perhaps come closest to being convinced by the Platonic notion of > the music of the spheres ... though it seems to have little > scientific - ie repeatable experimental - support.
>
> Regards,
> Yahya
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
>
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>
> >
>
>
>
> -- Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island <http://anaphoria.com/>
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU <http://www.kxlu.com/main.html> 88.9 FM Wed 8-9 pm Los Angeles