Editorial
The collection of articles in individual issues of Inscape sometimes follows a planned theme, but more often there is an element of chance in what articles appear together. The selection usually reflects current preoccupations in the profession even if nothing else links the various subject matters. In this issue, the theme of art taking second place in art therapy has emerged, with authors focusing on the importance of the art process in different ways.
Skaife questions the way that psychoanalytic models currently dominate theory in the art therapy profession, pointing out that this means that the verbal often takes precedence over the visual and the therapeutic relationship is emphasised to the detriment of the therapeutic contribution of the art-making. In her theoretical article, she researches an alternative, with reference to intersubjectivity and Merleau-Ponty's concepts in particular. She makes links between the gestural quality of art-making and the early, preverbal interactions between primary carer and infant.
Using a heuristic research process, Mahony explores looking at art and showing artwork in the fields of both the visual arts and art therapy. Through sharing her own experiences of visiting three exhibitions, she draws attention to the fact that our emotions affect what we see and what we remember. In an exhibition of artwork by patients from a day hospital, she draws our attention to the ethical considerations in exhibiting the work of vulnerable clients. Finally, she poses questions about the elements of art therapy practice that are taken for granted but deserve more detailed investigation and discussion. These questions arise as a result of the data which emerges through her narrative.
David MacLagan's review article, which is a personal response to Rita Simon's The Symbolism of Style, pays tribute to the contribution Rita Simon has made to the art therapy profession,at a time when her importance has been marked by her appointment as BAAT's new Honorary President. Here, as in Scaife's and Mahony's articles, the focus is on the visual image and the art-making process in art therapy.
A fourth article is Diane Waller's brief update on research in progress into the efficacy of art therpy in the field of dementia. This contribution is a new format for this journal, which the editorial group would like to encourage other researchers to consider as a possible way of sharing their work.
There are challenging ideas in this issue which, as always, the editors hope will stimulate correspondence in future.
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