IMAGINATION, CREATIVITY AND TRAUMA Processing trauma by means of artistic creation by Antje Heinemann
I would like to begin with a painting by Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (pic.1 - page 38). Born in 1907, she contracted polio at a young age as the result of a serious bus accident. In her painting, «The Broken Column,» she tries to translate her pain into art. She said about it: «I am not sick. I am broken. But I am happy as long as I can paint.» To her, being able to paint means to be alive, to live, to have survived, to know that she exists. The painting thus seems like a possible bridge, allowing her to endure her traumatic inner fragmentation.In this talk, I will approach the question if creative art enables patients to process trauma. Which artistic strategies can be utilised to that end? Moreover, I will give an insight into the practice of art therapy in trauma therapy. While I am not going to discuss individual cases or the therapeutic relationship, I will give an account of my work with seriously traumatised girls between 14 and 20 years of age who live in a therapeutic living community, as well as with traumatised adult patients at a drug rehab clinic. The pictures I will show here originate from these therapeutic cases.
Trauma
“If one does not realise a trauma, one is forced to live through it again or restage it.“ (Janet 1889) As an introduction, I will give a brief theoretical overview of psychological trauma. A trauma is an overwhelming situation in which the afflicted person feels extremely help- and powerless. Their mental, and in many cases their physical integrity is damaged severely. Trauma inflicted onto one person by another, so-called “man-made trauma,” is
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