Journal of Religion and Health, Vol. 32, No. 3, Fall 1993
Art, Logotherapy, and the Unconscious God JIM LANTZ ABSTRACT: In this article the author outlines how art can be used in Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse to help the client uncover, discover, and make use of the meaning and spiritual potentials in his or her life. In Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse art can be used to help overcome fear of verbal communication, to help overcome fear of the spiritual and meaning potentials in the client's life, and to help the client gain awareness and contact with the "unconscious God."
Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse are both terms used to identify a form of Existential Psychotherapy developed by the Viennese psychiatrist, Dr. Viktor FranklJ In Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse the function of the therapist is to help the client uncover, discover, and make use of the meaning potentials and spiritual opportunities in the client's lifeY In Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse it is believed that a disruption in meaning and spiritual awareness results in what Frankl has called an existential vacuum2 This existential-meaning vacuum will then be filled by the development of emotional problems, psychiatric problems, and/or family problems2 In Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse the therapist helps the client "shrink" the existential-meaning vacuum through the development of spiritual and meaning awareness. 5 This decreases the intensity and frequency of those symptoms that fill the existential-meaning vacuum2 In Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse, network intervention can be used to increase meaning opportunities in the client's social environment; social skills training can be used to increase the client's ability to make use of meaning and spiritual opportunities in the client's life; and existential or Socratic reflection can be used to help bring repressed meanings and spiritual potentials into the client's conscious level of awarenessJ All three interventions are used together to help the client create, uncover, identify, and make use of the meaning and spiritual opportunities in life. 8
Jim Lantz, Ph.D., is Director of the Worthington Logotherapy Center and a faculty member at The Ohio State University College of Social Work in Columbus, Ohio. 179
9 1993Institutes ofReligionand Health
180
Journal of Religion and Health
Resistance and the fear of meaning awareness
Viktor Frankl has pointed out that individuals, groups, families, and communities all experience both a "will to meaning" and a fear of the two side effects of meaning and spiritual awareness, which are an awareness of human vulnerability and an awareness of human responsibility? In Frankl's Existenzanalyse it is believed that meaning and spiritual awareness "always" include an awareness of these two side effects,i~ Frankl has described in detail how individuals, groups, families, and communities repress, deny, and push meanings, spirituality, and meaning potentials into the "existential unconscious" in order to avoid awareness of both vulnerability and responsibility. H In Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse, existential reflection methods and activities are used to help the client overcome the fear of meaning and to bring spirituality and meaning potentials into the conscious level of human awareness, is In Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse, art and other expressive activities are believed to be especially helpful in helping the client overcome resistance to meaning and spiritual awareness and in bringing repressed spirituality and meaning potentials into conscious awareness. ~3 In Frankl's Existenzanalyse, art is understood to be especially helpful when talking with the client's existential unconscious. 14The use of art as existential reflection in Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse is illustrated in Figure Number One.
A r t and the existential unconscious
Artistic expression has long been understood to be an excellent way to gain entrance into the client's unconscious. 15In Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse the therapist can facilitate the client's search for meaning and spirituality by encouraging the client to use artistic expression for the purpose of spiritual reflection and meaning awareness. In such a process the logotherapist attempts to help the client use art to gain awareness of meanings and meaning potentials that have been clouded and covered by physical and biochemical illness, characterological problems, social stress, trauma, and/or the client's fear of the two side effects of meaning awareness26
Four ways to use art in Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse
I have used art in Logotherapy in four specific ways. At times, I have asked my clients to look at selected pieces of art in an attempt to stir existential reflection and Socratic reflection. In many instances I have found it helpful to encourage clients to draw and paint, both at home and in the clinical interview, to stir existential reflection. On occasion I have done a drawing or painting about the client, the client's life situation or the treatment relation-
J i m Lantz
181
FIGURE 1
CONSCIOUS LEVEL OF The Use of Art and ArtistiExpression to Gain
Repressed Meanings and Spiritual Potentials
Meaning ant Spiritual Awarenes~
AWARENESS
ship and given it to the client to stir existential reflection, and at times I have used my own drawings and paintings to clarify and manage my own countertransference issues that always have the potential to either enhance or disrupt existential reflection during the process of Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse.
Asking the client to look at art during Logotherapy Most major religious traditions have long recognized the value of encouraging the spiritual traveler to look at art as a way to become more aware of the meanings and spiritual potentials that have been repressed and/or pushed into the unconscious level of awareness. 17 For example, both the Christian church 1~ and Navaho spiritual practitioners 19 use art to help the worshipper become more aware of the meanings and spiritual potentials in life. Nouwen's recent book, The Return of the Prodigal Son, is another excellent example of how reflecting upon art can stimulate the search for meanings and spiritual opportunities in life. 2~Moon in particular has shown that art selected by the
182
Journal of Religion and Health
therapist for client observation can have a profound impact, resulting in the client feeling understood and experiencing the therapist's empathy. 21 Asking clients to paint and draw during Logotherapy Lantz ~2and Feder and Feder 23have all pointed out that the process of making art can help the client to focus reflection in an internal direction and to become more aware of repressed feelings, symbols, meanings, and spiritual potentials. In Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse clients are asked to use the creation of art as a way to tell the therapist about their life, their problems in living, and the potential meaning and spiritual opportunities that exist in their life. The creation of art is a process that profoundly encourages existential and spiritual reflection.~4 Art as a reflection about the treatment situation At times it can be very useful for the logotherapist to draw or paint a picture about the client and/or treatment situation and then to give it to the client. This can help the client become aware that the logotherapist understands the client's pain, believes that treatment might prove useful, that the logotherapist has an idea about "how" meaning and spiritual awareness are being disrupted in the client's life, and has an idea what the client might work on to discover meanings and spiritual opportunities that exist in his or her life. The logotherapist creates art to manage countertransference At times the logotherapist can use painting and drawing to identify and manage countertransference issues that may be disrupting the therapist's empathic understanding of the client and/or the client's pain. In this approach the logotherapist uses art, drawing, and painting to reflect on the therapist's inside pain that mirrors the client's pain. This is done in an attempt to develop both empathic awareness and a better idea about the repressed meanings and spiritual potentials embedded in the client's existential unconscious. In this use of art the logotherapist does not usually give the client the art work that has been created by the therapist. The following clinical material will illustrate the use of art in Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse. Sandy's use of art during logotherapy Sandy requested treatment in February of 1985. At that time she felt overwhelmed with anxiety, tension, and depression. She also felt helpless,
Jim Lantz
183
alone, inadequate, and insecure. She verbally reported no sense of meaning and purpose in her life and scored a very low 78 on the Crumbaugh and Maholick Purpose in Life Test. 25 (A score of less than 93 indicates a serious disruption in the client's awareness of purpose and meaning in life; a score of 112 to 140 indicates that the person does experience a sense of meaning and purpose in life; and a score of 93 to 111 suggests that the person is or is in danger of experiencing an existential-meaning vacuum.) She reported that her life style was chaotic and that she used "booze and sex to make me feel alive." She reported that she had very few "real friends" and that she had problems getting along with her parents. Sandy was a college graduate and worked as a "casemanager" with children at a local mental health center. She reported that "my job is the only thing I love." In the initial stage of Logotherapy, Sandy experienced great difficulty talking and expressing herself. She reported that "I freeze up and can't think of anything to talk about." She felt embarrassed about not being able to talk and reported that "I feel like a five-year-old child." Since Sandy worked as a casemanager with disturbed children, the logotherapist asked Sandy what she would do to help a five-year-old who had problems talking. Sandy stated that she would "get out some finger paints and help the kid make a mess." After this comment Sandy smiled and stated, "Maybe it would help me to paint."
Sandy's messy paintings Sandy used finger paints during the initial stages of Logotherapy to produce a series of messy paintings. She experienced considerable joy about a process where "you don't have to be perfect and do it right." She experienced a good bit of relief that the therapist was "non-directive" and "didn't expect me to produce anything." The therapist encouraged Sandy to "mess around with the finger paints as long as you want." In the ninth treatment interview Sandy reported that she had stopped "screwing around" since she had started finger painting and had also "cut back my drinking." Sandy reported that she was feeling "less depression" and was doing a "better job at work." Sandy did not understand how "messy painting" could cause such relief. She also reported that "it's easier to talk now than it was when I first started seeing you."
Remembering and talking about the rape On Sandy's sixteenth outpatient visit she brought the logotherapist a drawing that she had done at home with colored ink and felt markers. This
184
Journal of Religion and Health
drawing included a small section of grass at the bottom of the paper with three gravestones in the grass. One gravestone was a Christian cross; another was a square gravestone with the markings "Fuck you" written on its face, and the third was a small, circular gravestone with no markings on its face. Sandy didn't know "why I made this drawing" but spontaneously started talking about her life when she was in college. She reported that she had been raped in college and had gotten pregnant from this rape. She started weeping heavily as she told this story and then reported how guilty she had always felt because "I had an abortion" in reaction to the rape and the pregnancy. Sandy reported that she had felt "dirty and guilty for years" and stated that "having had an abortion makes me a child killer." She reported that she felt great relief about having finally "talked to someone about the abortion." She reported that she had started "drinking and screwing around" after "the abortion" and that she had wanted to talk about "the situation" for years, "but couldn't." The therapist told Sandy he felt it was important for her to "talk it out" or "draw and paint it out," whichever she felt most comfortable doing.
Gravestones and cemeteries After the important breakthrough sixteenth interview, Sandy produced a series of drawings and paintings about death, gravestones, and cemeteries. One recurrent theme that was drawn over and over again was a small, circular gravestone with no name on it and a small potted flower sitting next to it that was droopy and appeared not to have been watered or cared for over a long period of time. A second recurring element in Sandy's drawings and paintings was a gravestone made in the shape of a cross. After numerous gravestone-cemetery drawings, Sandy decided that she needed to "name my dead baby," have a funeral for the baby, and "put a name on the small, gray gravestone." Sandy decided that her dead baby "was probably a girl" and named her "Mary."
Sandy's religious drawings After naming her baby, Sandy started a series of colored drawings that were religious in nature. She drew a series of Christian crosses and, while involved in this artistic theme, started to talk about her need to "return to church." Sandy reported that she was "born a Catholic" but had stopped going to church after the rape, pregnancy, and abortion. She reported that she still wanted to have a funeral for "my baby" but didn't believe she could have a "real funeral" until "I get back to church." Sandy still felt
Jim Lantz
185
"dirty" and reported that even though she intellectually understood that she could go back to church, "My stomach tells me that I'm too dirty."
Sandy's river drawings After Sandy's "religious drawings," she started a new series of drawings that she called "my river drawings." These drawings had a cross on one side of the river, Sandy on the other side of the river, and no way for her to "get across." As this series of drawings progressed, stones started appearing in the river that eventually made a small stone "bridge" across. Toward the end of this "river" stage of treatment, Sandy drew a river with a stone bridge crossing it, a cross on one side of it, and a priest and a nun standing under the cross. The drawing also included herself and the therapist starting to cross the river on the stone bridge to get to the cross. The last drawing in this river stage of treatment included a cross, a priest, Sandy, a nun, and the therapist sitting next to a small gravestone with the name "Mary" engraved on the face of the gravestone. The river was in the background of the drawing. Shortly after this drawing Sandy returned to church, took confession and communion, and arranged with her priest at her "home parish" to have a memorial service for "Mary."
The kids I work with After Sandy's return to church and the memorial service for "my daughter," Sandy started drawing pictures of the "kids I work with at the mental health center." Sandy decided to dedicate her work with these children in honor of "my daughter." Sandy terminated Logotherapy in 1987. At that time her Purpose in Life Test score was 128. At her two-year follow-up interview (1989) her Purpose in Life Test score was 126. In 1988 Sandy started graduate school on a part-time basis. She received her Master's in Social Work in June of 1991, and now functions as a therapist for children at a different mental health center. Sandy got married in 1990. She and her husband are now eagerly waiting for the birth of their new baby.
The meaning in Sandy's art As Marcel has pointed out, art and artistic expression are primarily manifestations of existential mystery.26 If we recognize art as mystery, it then becomes impossible to tell with any certainty what Sandy's art "means." We can only put forth an intuitive guess. It is this author's guess that the therapist's acceptance of Sandy's "messy drawings" represented the thera-
186
Journal of Religion and Health
pist's willingness to hear about Sandy's "messy" life. This acceptance helped Sandy draw and tell about her guilt, her tragedy, and the pain in her life t h a t she had covered through "sex and booze." Sandy's artistic and verbal expression of the pain in her life and the therapist's acceptance of her pain helped Sandy in her search for the meanings and spiritual potentials hidden in her past and in her pain. Toward the end of treatment, Sandy found a way to use the meaning potentials hidden in her tragedy to give to the world in honor of her dead daughter, Mary. Sandy has been using and actualizing these meaning and spiritual potentials "ever since." In this author's opinion, Sandy was able to use Logotherapy and art to "get a cross."
Summary
Art can be an excellent helping tool in Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse. In Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse, art can be used as a way to help the client overcome resistance to verbal communication and, most importantly, can help the client communicate with the meanings and spiritual potentials embedded in his or her existential unconscious.
References
1. Frankl, V., The Doctor and the Soul. New York, Vintage Press, 1955. __, The Will to Meaning. New York, New American Library, 1969. __, The Unheard Cry for Meaning. New York, Simon and Schuster, 1959. __, Man's Search for Meaning. New York, Simon and Schuster, 1959. __, Psychotherapy and Existentialism. New York, Simon and Schuster, 1967. __, The Unconscious God. New York, Simon and Schuster, 1975. 7. Lantz, J., Existential Family Therapy: Using the Concepts of Viktor Frankl. New York, Jason Aronson, Inc., 1993. 8. Lantz, J., and Lantz, J., "Meaning,Tragedy and Logotherapywith the Elderly,"J. Religion and Aging, 1989, 5, 1, 43-51. 9. Frankl, V., "Logos and Existence in Psychotherapy,"Amer. J. Psychotherapy, 1953, 7, 1, 8-15. 10. Lantz,J., "Meaning, Nerves, and the Urban-Appalachian Family," J. Religion and Health, 1992, 31, 2, 129-139. 11. Frankl, V., "From Psychotherapyto Logotherapy,"Pastoral Psychology, 1955, 7, 2, 56-60. 12. Lantz, J., "Franklian Treatment with Vietnam Veteran Couples,"J. Religion and Health, 1991, 30, 2, 131-138. 13. _ _ , "Resistance in Family Logotherapy,"Contemporary Family Therapy, 1992, 14, 3, 405-418. 14. _ _ , "Existential Reflection in Marital Therapy with Vietnam Veterans," J. Couples Therapy, 1990, 1, 4, 81-88. 15. Moon,B., Existential Art Therapy. Springfield,Charles C. Thomas, 1990. 16. Lantz, J., and Lantz, J., "Franklian Treatment with the Traumatized Family," J. Family Psychotherapy, 1991, 2, 1, 61-73. 17. Temple,R., Icons: A Sacred Art. Longmeadow,Element Books Ltd., 1989. 18. Underhill, E., Worship. New York, Harper and Row, 1936. 19. Reichard, G., Navaho Medicine Man. New York, J.J. Augustin, 1939. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Jim Lantz
187
20. Nouwen, H., The Return of the Prodigal Son. London, Doubleday, 1992. 21. Moon, B., Essentials of Art Therapy Training and Practice. Springfield, Charles C. Thomas, 1992. 22. Lantz, J., "Franklian Family Therapy," International Forum for Logotherapy, 1987, 10, 2, 22-28. 23. Feder, E., and Feder, B., The Expressive Arts Therapies. Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1981. 24. Lantz, J., and Harper, K., "Using Poetry in Logotherapy," The Arts in Psychotherapy, 1991, 18, 3, 341-345. 25. Crumbaugh, J., and Maholick, L., The Purpose in Life Test. Murfreesboro, Psychometric Affiliates, 1966. 26. Marcel, G., The Philosophy of Existentialism. Secaucus, The Citadel Press, 1956.
Art, Logotherapy, and the Unconscious God JIM LANTZ ABSTRACT: In this article the author outlines how art can be used in Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse to help the client uncover, discover, and make use of the meaning and spiritual potentials in his or her life. In Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse art can be used to help overcome fear of verbal communication, to help overcome fear of the spiritual and meaning potentials in the client's life, and to help the client gain awareness and contact with the "unconscious God."
Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse are both terms used to identify a form of Existential Psychotherapy developed by the Viennese psychiatrist, Dr. Viktor FranklJ In Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse the function of the therapist is to help the client uncover, discover, and make use of the meaning potentials and spiritual opportunities in the client's lifeY In Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse it is believed that a disruption in meaning and spiritual awareness results in what Frankl has called an existential vacuum2 This existential-meaning vacuum will then be filled by the development of emotional problems, psychiatric problems, and/or family problems2 In Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse the therapist helps the client "shrink" the existential-meaning vacuum through the development of spiritual and meaning awareness. 5 This decreases the intensity and frequency of those symptoms that fill the existential-meaning vacuum2 In Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse, network intervention can be used to increase meaning opportunities in the client's social environment; social skills training can be used to increase the client's ability to make use of meaning and spiritual opportunities in the client's life; and existential or Socratic reflection can be used to help bring repressed meanings and spiritual potentials into the client's conscious level of awarenessJ All three interventions are used together to help the client create, uncover, identify, and make use of the meaning and spiritual opportunities in life. 8
Jim Lantz, Ph.D., is Director of the Worthington Logotherapy Center and a faculty member at The Ohio State University College of Social Work in Columbus, Ohio. 179
9 1993Institutes ofReligionand Health
180
Journal of Religion and Health
Resistance and the fear of meaning awareness
Viktor Frankl has pointed out that individuals, groups, families, and communities all experience both a "will to meaning" and a fear of the two side effects of meaning and spiritual awareness, which are an awareness of human vulnerability and an awareness of human responsibility? In Frankl's Existenzanalyse it is believed that meaning and spiritual awareness "always" include an awareness of these two side effects,i~ Frankl has described in detail how individuals, groups, families, and communities repress, deny, and push meanings, spirituality, and meaning potentials into the "existential unconscious" in order to avoid awareness of both vulnerability and responsibility. H In Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse, existential reflection methods and activities are used to help the client overcome the fear of meaning and to bring spirituality and meaning potentials into the conscious level of human awareness, is In Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse, art and other expressive activities are believed to be especially helpful in helping the client overcome resistance to meaning and spiritual awareness and in bringing repressed spirituality and meaning potentials into conscious awareness. ~3 In Frankl's Existenzanalyse, art is understood to be especially helpful when talking with the client's existential unconscious. 14The use of art as existential reflection in Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse is illustrated in Figure Number One.
A r t and the existential unconscious
Artistic expression has long been understood to be an excellent way to gain entrance into the client's unconscious. 15In Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse the therapist can facilitate the client's search for meaning and spirituality by encouraging the client to use artistic expression for the purpose of spiritual reflection and meaning awareness. In such a process the logotherapist attempts to help the client use art to gain awareness of meanings and meaning potentials that have been clouded and covered by physical and biochemical illness, characterological problems, social stress, trauma, and/or the client's fear of the two side effects of meaning awareness26
Four ways to use art in Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse
I have used art in Logotherapy in four specific ways. At times, I have asked my clients to look at selected pieces of art in an attempt to stir existential reflection and Socratic reflection. In many instances I have found it helpful to encourage clients to draw and paint, both at home and in the clinical interview, to stir existential reflection. On occasion I have done a drawing or painting about the client, the client's life situation or the treatment relation-
J i m Lantz
181
FIGURE 1
CONSCIOUS LEVEL OF The Use of Art and ArtistiExpression to Gain
Repressed Meanings and Spiritual Potentials
Meaning ant Spiritual Awarenes~
AWARENESS
ship and given it to the client to stir existential reflection, and at times I have used my own drawings and paintings to clarify and manage my own countertransference issues that always have the potential to either enhance or disrupt existential reflection during the process of Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse.
Asking the client to look at art during Logotherapy Most major religious traditions have long recognized the value of encouraging the spiritual traveler to look at art as a way to become more aware of the meanings and spiritual potentials that have been repressed and/or pushed into the unconscious level of awareness. 17 For example, both the Christian church 1~ and Navaho spiritual practitioners 19 use art to help the worshipper become more aware of the meanings and spiritual potentials in life. Nouwen's recent book, The Return of the Prodigal Son, is another excellent example of how reflecting upon art can stimulate the search for meanings and spiritual opportunities in life. 2~Moon in particular has shown that art selected by the
182
Journal of Religion and Health
therapist for client observation can have a profound impact, resulting in the client feeling understood and experiencing the therapist's empathy. 21 Asking clients to paint and draw during Logotherapy Lantz ~2and Feder and Feder 23have all pointed out that the process of making art can help the client to focus reflection in an internal direction and to become more aware of repressed feelings, symbols, meanings, and spiritual potentials. In Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse clients are asked to use the creation of art as a way to tell the therapist about their life, their problems in living, and the potential meaning and spiritual opportunities that exist in their life. The creation of art is a process that profoundly encourages existential and spiritual reflection.~4 Art as a reflection about the treatment situation At times it can be very useful for the logotherapist to draw or paint a picture about the client and/or treatment situation and then to give it to the client. This can help the client become aware that the logotherapist understands the client's pain, believes that treatment might prove useful, that the logotherapist has an idea about "how" meaning and spiritual awareness are being disrupted in the client's life, and has an idea what the client might work on to discover meanings and spiritual opportunities that exist in his or her life. The logotherapist creates art to manage countertransference At times the logotherapist can use painting and drawing to identify and manage countertransference issues that may be disrupting the therapist's empathic understanding of the client and/or the client's pain. In this approach the logotherapist uses art, drawing, and painting to reflect on the therapist's inside pain that mirrors the client's pain. This is done in an attempt to develop both empathic awareness and a better idea about the repressed meanings and spiritual potentials embedded in the client's existential unconscious. In this use of art the logotherapist does not usually give the client the art work that has been created by the therapist. The following clinical material will illustrate the use of art in Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse. Sandy's use of art during logotherapy Sandy requested treatment in February of 1985. At that time she felt overwhelmed with anxiety, tension, and depression. She also felt helpless,
Jim Lantz
183
alone, inadequate, and insecure. She verbally reported no sense of meaning and purpose in her life and scored a very low 78 on the Crumbaugh and Maholick Purpose in Life Test. 25 (A score of less than 93 indicates a serious disruption in the client's awareness of purpose and meaning in life; a score of 112 to 140 indicates that the person does experience a sense of meaning and purpose in life; and a score of 93 to 111 suggests that the person is or is in danger of experiencing an existential-meaning vacuum.) She reported that her life style was chaotic and that she used "booze and sex to make me feel alive." She reported that she had very few "real friends" and that she had problems getting along with her parents. Sandy was a college graduate and worked as a "casemanager" with children at a local mental health center. She reported that "my job is the only thing I love." In the initial stage of Logotherapy, Sandy experienced great difficulty talking and expressing herself. She reported that "I freeze up and can't think of anything to talk about." She felt embarrassed about not being able to talk and reported that "I feel like a five-year-old child." Since Sandy worked as a casemanager with disturbed children, the logotherapist asked Sandy what she would do to help a five-year-old who had problems talking. Sandy stated that she would "get out some finger paints and help the kid make a mess." After this comment Sandy smiled and stated, "Maybe it would help me to paint."
Sandy's messy paintings Sandy used finger paints during the initial stages of Logotherapy to produce a series of messy paintings. She experienced considerable joy about a process where "you don't have to be perfect and do it right." She experienced a good bit of relief that the therapist was "non-directive" and "didn't expect me to produce anything." The therapist encouraged Sandy to "mess around with the finger paints as long as you want." In the ninth treatment interview Sandy reported that she had stopped "screwing around" since she had started finger painting and had also "cut back my drinking." Sandy reported that she was feeling "less depression" and was doing a "better job at work." Sandy did not understand how "messy painting" could cause such relief. She also reported that "it's easier to talk now than it was when I first started seeing you."
Remembering and talking about the rape On Sandy's sixteenth outpatient visit she brought the logotherapist a drawing that she had done at home with colored ink and felt markers. This
184
Journal of Religion and Health
drawing included a small section of grass at the bottom of the paper with three gravestones in the grass. One gravestone was a Christian cross; another was a square gravestone with the markings "Fuck you" written on its face, and the third was a small, circular gravestone with no markings on its face. Sandy didn't know "why I made this drawing" but spontaneously started talking about her life when she was in college. She reported that she had been raped in college and had gotten pregnant from this rape. She started weeping heavily as she told this story and then reported how guilty she had always felt because "I had an abortion" in reaction to the rape and the pregnancy. Sandy reported that she had felt "dirty and guilty for years" and stated that "having had an abortion makes me a child killer." She reported that she felt great relief about having finally "talked to someone about the abortion." She reported that she had started "drinking and screwing around" after "the abortion" and that she had wanted to talk about "the situation" for years, "but couldn't." The therapist told Sandy he felt it was important for her to "talk it out" or "draw and paint it out," whichever she felt most comfortable doing.
Gravestones and cemeteries After the important breakthrough sixteenth interview, Sandy produced a series of drawings and paintings about death, gravestones, and cemeteries. One recurrent theme that was drawn over and over again was a small, circular gravestone with no name on it and a small potted flower sitting next to it that was droopy and appeared not to have been watered or cared for over a long period of time. A second recurring element in Sandy's drawings and paintings was a gravestone made in the shape of a cross. After numerous gravestone-cemetery drawings, Sandy decided that she needed to "name my dead baby," have a funeral for the baby, and "put a name on the small, gray gravestone." Sandy decided that her dead baby "was probably a girl" and named her "Mary."
Sandy's religious drawings After naming her baby, Sandy started a series of colored drawings that were religious in nature. She drew a series of Christian crosses and, while involved in this artistic theme, started to talk about her need to "return to church." Sandy reported that she was "born a Catholic" but had stopped going to church after the rape, pregnancy, and abortion. She reported that she still wanted to have a funeral for "my baby" but didn't believe she could have a "real funeral" until "I get back to church." Sandy still felt
Jim Lantz
185
"dirty" and reported that even though she intellectually understood that she could go back to church, "My stomach tells me that I'm too dirty."
Sandy's river drawings After Sandy's "religious drawings," she started a new series of drawings that she called "my river drawings." These drawings had a cross on one side of the river, Sandy on the other side of the river, and no way for her to "get across." As this series of drawings progressed, stones started appearing in the river that eventually made a small stone "bridge" across. Toward the end of this "river" stage of treatment, Sandy drew a river with a stone bridge crossing it, a cross on one side of it, and a priest and a nun standing under the cross. The drawing also included herself and the therapist starting to cross the river on the stone bridge to get to the cross. The last drawing in this river stage of treatment included a cross, a priest, Sandy, a nun, and the therapist sitting next to a small gravestone with the name "Mary" engraved on the face of the gravestone. The river was in the background of the drawing. Shortly after this drawing Sandy returned to church, took confession and communion, and arranged with her priest at her "home parish" to have a memorial service for "Mary."
The kids I work with After Sandy's return to church and the memorial service for "my daughter," Sandy started drawing pictures of the "kids I work with at the mental health center." Sandy decided to dedicate her work with these children in honor of "my daughter." Sandy terminated Logotherapy in 1987. At that time her Purpose in Life Test score was 128. At her two-year follow-up interview (1989) her Purpose in Life Test score was 126. In 1988 Sandy started graduate school on a part-time basis. She received her Master's in Social Work in June of 1991, and now functions as a therapist for children at a different mental health center. Sandy got married in 1990. She and her husband are now eagerly waiting for the birth of their new baby.
The meaning in Sandy's art As Marcel has pointed out, art and artistic expression are primarily manifestations of existential mystery.26 If we recognize art as mystery, it then becomes impossible to tell with any certainty what Sandy's art "means." We can only put forth an intuitive guess. It is this author's guess that the therapist's acceptance of Sandy's "messy drawings" represented the thera-
186
Journal of Religion and Health
pist's willingness to hear about Sandy's "messy" life. This acceptance helped Sandy draw and tell about her guilt, her tragedy, and the pain in her life t h a t she had covered through "sex and booze." Sandy's artistic and verbal expression of the pain in her life and the therapist's acceptance of her pain helped Sandy in her search for the meanings and spiritual potentials hidden in her past and in her pain. Toward the end of treatment, Sandy found a way to use the meaning potentials hidden in her tragedy to give to the world in honor of her dead daughter, Mary. Sandy has been using and actualizing these meaning and spiritual potentials "ever since." In this author's opinion, Sandy was able to use Logotherapy and art to "get a cross."
Summary
Art can be an excellent helping tool in Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse. In Logotherapy and Existenzanalyse, art can be used as a way to help the client overcome resistance to verbal communication and, most importantly, can help the client communicate with the meanings and spiritual potentials embedded in his or her existential unconscious.
References
1. Frankl, V., The Doctor and the Soul. New York, Vintage Press, 1955. __, The Will to Meaning. New York, New American Library, 1969. __, The Unheard Cry for Meaning. New York, Simon and Schuster, 1959. __, Man's Search for Meaning. New York, Simon and Schuster, 1959. __, Psychotherapy and Existentialism. New York, Simon and Schuster, 1967. __, The Unconscious God. New York, Simon and Schuster, 1975. 7. Lantz, J., Existential Family Therapy: Using the Concepts of Viktor Frankl. New York, Jason Aronson, Inc., 1993. 8. Lantz, J., and Lantz, J., "Meaning,Tragedy and Logotherapywith the Elderly,"J. Religion and Aging, 1989, 5, 1, 43-51. 9. Frankl, V., "Logos and Existence in Psychotherapy,"Amer. J. Psychotherapy, 1953, 7, 1, 8-15. 10. Lantz,J., "Meaning, Nerves, and the Urban-Appalachian Family," J. Religion and Health, 1992, 31, 2, 129-139. 11. Frankl, V., "From Psychotherapyto Logotherapy,"Pastoral Psychology, 1955, 7, 2, 56-60. 12. Lantz, J., "Franklian Treatment with Vietnam Veteran Couples,"J. Religion and Health, 1991, 30, 2, 131-138. 13. _ _ , "Resistance in Family Logotherapy,"Contemporary Family Therapy, 1992, 14, 3, 405-418. 14. _ _ , "Existential Reflection in Marital Therapy with Vietnam Veterans," J. Couples Therapy, 1990, 1, 4, 81-88. 15. Moon,B., Existential Art Therapy. Springfield,Charles C. Thomas, 1990. 16. Lantz, J., and Lantz, J., "Franklian Treatment with the Traumatized Family," J. Family Psychotherapy, 1991, 2, 1, 61-73. 17. Temple,R., Icons: A Sacred Art. Longmeadow,Element Books Ltd., 1989. 18. Underhill, E., Worship. New York, Harper and Row, 1936. 19. Reichard, G., Navaho Medicine Man. New York, J.J. Augustin, 1939. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Jim Lantz
187
20. Nouwen, H., The Return of the Prodigal Son. London, Doubleday, 1992. 21. Moon, B., Essentials of Art Therapy Training and Practice. Springfield, Charles C. Thomas, 1992. 22. Lantz, J., "Franklian Family Therapy," International Forum for Logotherapy, 1987, 10, 2, 22-28. 23. Feder, E., and Feder, B., The Expressive Arts Therapies. Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1981. 24. Lantz, J., and Harper, K., "Using Poetry in Logotherapy," The Arts in Psychotherapy, 1991, 18, 3, 341-345. 25. Crumbaugh, J., and Maholick, L., The Purpose in Life Test. Murfreesboro, Psychometric Affiliates, 1966. 26. Marcel, G., The Philosophy of Existentialism. Secaucus, The Citadel Press, 1956.
