1Bayon

Courtney Bayon

Professor Raluca Musat

301:Stress and Mental Health

24 March 2015

Artwork Relieves Stress for Artist and Viewer

Introduction

Catharsis is the process of releasing, and thereby providing

relief from, strong or repressed emotions. Individuals can find

catharsis in therapy sessions, religious experiences, and

discussion with friends. Artwork has the ability to heal not only

the artist when he or she provides artwork, but it also has the

power to heal the viewer as well. However, each individual is

unique, therefore every artistic experience is unique. Regardless

of the intentions of the artist, each viewer might experience a

different meaning in the artwork. The beauty of art has a

powerful ability to grasp both the creator of the artwork and the

individual who is viewing the art on a deep, meaningful level.

2Bayon The study of the beauty of art is called the psychology of

aesthetics which includes the aesthetics from below (the

philosophy of art) and aesthetics from above (the psychology of

art). Both are necessary in order to illustrate how individuals

understand the beauty of art. In the psychology of aesthetics,

which Carl Jung explains in his book The Archetypes of the Collective

Unconscious, and Sigmund Freud and Anna Freud explain in the

Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, all agree that artwork

provides a window into the subconscious. Artwork offers a deeper

understanding of a person’s personality. Additionally,

psychologist Ellen Winner, in Invented Worlds: The Psychology of the Arts,

posits that artwork requires a learned artistic literacy in order

to read the hidden symbols that are defined by the artist. These

psychologists all understand that artwork can lead to a deeper

understanding of the artist or audience; likewise, the Health

Environments Research & Design Journal by Meghana Karnik presents

scientific data examining how patients in a hospital feel better

after looking at artwork. Meghana Karnik’s work is more of a

database similar to the psychological data used by Sigmund Freud

3Bayon and Carl Jung, which base their psychology on humanistic

behavioral findings. The question of how viewing or producing

artistic expression can be cathartic experiences for both the

artist and the viewer requires investigation. The following will

argue that art allows individuals to release repressed emotions

by evoking deep, personal feelings. While this enables both the

artist and viewer to connect through the experience of catharsis,

each does so in different ways unique to the individual.

Aesthetics from Above

In order to understand how artwork can be cathartic to the

artist and viewer, it is important to explain the philosophy of

art (aesthetics from above) because it is the building block for

the psychology of art (aesthetics from below). “Aesthetics from

above” is known as the theoretical view of the understanding of

why people have the motivation to make and view art. In

approximately the 4th and 5th century, Greek philosophers believed

art was something otherworldly because art had such a great

effect on people. Two of these great philosophers were Plato and

4Bayon Aristotle, who were both great influences on the development of

the idea of aesthetics from above. Plato observed human behavior

in order to come to the understanding that art has a great power

over humans, reaching people at the most intimate levels, their

souls. This proves that art influences people; by creating an

intimate connection to viewers and artists that cures inner

emotions that are damaging to people’s personalities. Plato

analyzed art as otherworldly and developed the Theory of Divine

Inspiration in his dialogue “The Ion.” The Theory of Divine

Inspiration describes the artist as an “instrument of a god,”

meaning that the artist is influenced by supernatural forces to

make art. As Socrates explained in “The Ion” by Plato, “In like

manner the Muse first of all inspires men herself; and from these

inspired persons a chain of other persons is suspended, who take

the inspiration. For all good poets, epic as well as lyric,

compose their beautiful poems not by art, but because they are

inspired and possessed” (Plato). Plato referred to the inspired

artist as the muse; the muse is an inspiration or creativity that

is given to an artist from the gods in order to make art.

5Bayon Arguably, Aristotle understood Plato’s philosophy that people are

greatly influenced by art, but he disagreed with the philosophy

of the muse, or divine inspiration. “Aristotle believed that

members of the audience are attracted to dramatic tragedy enacted

on stage because of its cathartic, purging effect” (Winner 9).

Artwork attracts people because art acts as a faucet for emotions

to both the artist and viewer. Thus, art serves as a “purging”

release of emotion. This means that art can be cathartic because

it helps the feelings resonate with the audience in unison. The

capability of the artist to express emotion in artwork is another

form of purging emotions, which reflects on the viewer. In other

words, there is a pre-purging of emotions when the artist makes a

piece of artwork, and later there is more release of emotions

when the audience observes the artwork. Aristotle’s theory was

that artwork is cathartic to the viewers or performer because

when Aristotle watched the audience and the performer of ancient

Greek tragedies, he saw the release of emotions in crying and

laughter. Aristotle and Plato give theories as to why people are

motivated to look at or create art; however, they do not give

6Bayon evidence behind their theories. Nonetheless, their theories

helped lay the groundwork for future generations to discover how

art can be cathartic to both viewer and artist alike. Also, their

explanations of how art helps release emotions and deeply affects

a person’s soul illustrate the basis of the argument that art is

a form of catharsis. Therefore, the aesthetics from above offer a

foundation for psychologists studying the psychology of art to

analyze human behavior and explain why art is cathartic for the

viewer and artist.

Over time, philosophers understanding of the aesthetics from

above broadened, as philosophers looked deeper into the souls and

minds that Aristotle and Plato suggested were greatly influenced

by artistic expression. The philosophy of why art can be

cathartic becomes more specific to the individual as time

progresses into the 19th century. Ellen Winner’s book Invented

Worlds: The Psychology of the Arts suggests that the philosophy of

artistic creativity developed over time into a more logical and

in-depth understanding.

7Bayon But while Plato viewed artistic creation as having an

external source, divine inspiration, the romantics

believed artistic creation to have an internal source,

the unconscious. For this reason, the roots of

creativity in dreams, drug induced fantasies, and

psychoses, as well as physical illness, were some-times

stressed. While the Greeks believed in inspiration from

above, nineteenth century believed in inspiration from

below (Winner 10).

During this time period, the aesthetics from above morphed from

Plato’s belief of the muse being influenced from an unknown

source to philosophers believing that that of the spirit is the

mysterious unconscious. The Romantics of the nineteenth century

provided a structure for the theory of psychoanalysis, which

includes all the drives and motivations within the unconscious

and conscious mind. Freud refers to these drives and motivation

with regard to art as aesthetics from below. The psychoanalytic

theory is based off of Freud’s methodology of clinical data from

free association, dreams, and memories of patients with diagnosed

8Bayon neuroses (mild mental illness). The aesthetics from below offers

data to back up the aesthetics from above; therefore, it is

necessary to understand the philosopher’s theory to comprehend

the psychology of art (aesthetics from below). The theories of

the aesthetics from above help give the basic idea that there is

some form of purging that occurs when viewing and making art, but

psychology explains the mechanics of how art can be cathartic.

Aesthetics from Below

The psychodynamic theories of psychoanalysis help explain

the artist’s mind and cathartic healing power of art and also

explain the psychology of the viewer. People have a desire to be

happy and psychodynamic theories help explain how and why people

are happy or can become happy. Freud’s psychoanalytic concepts

are divided into three ideas: the mind, personality, and

psychosexual developmental stages. Freud understands that the

mind consists of the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.

“The unconscious that is to say, the repressed offers no

resistance whatever to the efforts of the treatment. Indeed, it

itself has no other endeavor than to break through the pressure

9Bayon weighing down on it and force its way either to consciousness or

to a discharge through some real action” (Freud 1961). In other

words, the conscious is the part of the mind that the individual

is aware of, such as thoughts, perceptions, feelings, and

decisions. On the other hand, the unconscious is where unwanted

desires are hidden. In the last words of the quote above, Freud

mentions that “discharge” of emotion can be through one’s

actions. A way to release emotion that is positive is by viewing

or making artwork.

Freud’s psychoanalytic notion, the conscious is only the

tip of the iceberg of the human mind, and the unconscious mind is

far from awareness of the individual. This is important to artist

because it is within the depths of the unconscious where

inspiration for art is created. The unconscious mind consists of

deep fears, unacceptable sexual desires, irrational wishes,

selfish needs, and immoral urges. However, the unconscious could

be pulled into consciousness through the psychoanalytic technique

of free association. The psychosexual development of the

individual has different stages, however the Oedipal Conflict is

10Bayon most common among artist, it is the desire to replace one’s same

sex parent with oneself. Freud analyzes the personality because

he believes hidden unexpected desires, such as the Oedipal

Conflict, are secretly buried in the unconscious. However, Freud

understood the affect art has though his analysis of the

psychoanalytic concept of personality, specifically the ego, of

the artist and the viewer. The ego is part of the personality,

which seeks pleasure and avoids pain, devising a realistic

strategy to obtain pleasure (Freud 1961). The ego is able to

avoid pain by using defense mechanisms such as sublimation, which

is the re-channeling of unacceptable instinctual drives through

creative acceptable forms.

Pleasure-Principle And Reality-Principle : Respectively, the

desire for immediate gratification vs. the deferral of that

gratification. Quite simply, the pleasure-principle drives

one to seek pleasure and to avoid pain. However, as one

grows up, one begins to learn the need sometimes to endure

pain and to defer gratification because of the exigencies

and obstacles of reality: An ego thus educated has become

11Bayon 'reasonable'; it no longer lets itself be governed by the

pleasure principle, but obeys the reality principle, which

also at bottom seeks to obtain pleasure, but pleasure which

is assured through taking account of reality, even though it

is pleasure postponed and diminished (Definition of the

Pleasure Principle).

Freud’s notion of the Pleasure Principle and Reality Principle is

the connection between everyday life and the desire to be happy.

In reality, people are not always happy because their desires

cannot be instantly gratified. Therefore, people repress those

hurtful feelings into the unconscious in order to be civil and

blend into society. This idea applies to the audience of art

because the aesthetic value in art offers pleasure to

individuals. Furthermore, the artist is constantly looking for

happiness; therefore, creating artwork acts as a release of the

pain and leads to pleasure after completing a piece of artwork.

As every individual has unique life experiences, each of his

or her unacceptable drives is different; therefore, it is not

necessary for the artist and viewer to share the same feeling

12Bayon when in contact with the same piece of artwork. In the contact

with a piece of artwork, the viewer relieves some sort of stress

or emotion as a reaction to the aesthetic value of that work,

which makes art cathartic. The aesthetic value of art is used in

free association, which is the analysis of the preconscious,

which contains thoughts within the unconscious that can be easily

recalled. Free association is done by the hypnosis of a patient

by a psychologist or by analyzing dreams, stored memories, and

artwork. All humans share an intimate connection with art.

Rituals from all different cultures relate to one another in

essence of the general symbols of life.

“Myths, rituals, folklore, and so on differ from dreams

precisely in that they are not idiosyncratic

productions, which can only be interpreted with a

detailed knowledge of life, experiences, memories, and

motivations of an individual subject; but that, on the

contrary, they are created with the express purpose of

being widely understood by strangers. They may not be

consciously understood, of course; but they are

13Bayon designed to be deciphered subliminally by the innate

mechanisms of symbol formation which typify the

unconscious psyche of homo sapiens” (Paul 89).

Humans as a species share a collection of life stories that are

all similar, which constitute a body of mythology. In addition to

this collection of experiences shared among humans, each

individual has distinctive emotions that create uniqueness. Just

as dreams, artwork is seen as a window into the intimidate

feelings of a person. Freud believed that the artist creates art

to sublimate or repress a subconscious sexual conflict (oedipal)

by using idiosyncratic symbols to fulfill a wish or resolve the

conflict that lies within the unconscious of the artist. Artists

use idiosyncratic symbols in their work, which symbolize

unacceptable wishes or desires deep within their unconscious

(Freud vol.1). Furthermore, discovering these symbols reveals an

in-depth understanding of the artist because they are connected

to the artist’s unconscious mind. These symbols are a form of

sublimation discovered by pathography, the biological study of

the artist, and can be cathartic because it is no longer within

14Bayon the artist’s unconscious eating away at his or her mind and the

personality (Freud vol.1). Being able to define some hidden

desires or conflicts is the first step of how artwork can be

cathartic. “Pathography” is the best way to analyze artists’

works because it begins with the study of the him or herself

before analyzing his or her artwork. After studying the

biographical data of the artist in analysis, the psychologist

applies pathography to define key symbols that are significant to

the artist’s life. In the book Sigmund Freud's Leonardo da Vinci and a

Memory of His Childhood, Freud states; “For if the Gioconda’s smile

called up in his mind the memory of his mother, it is easy to

understand how it drove him at once to create a glorification of

motherhood, and to give back to his mother the smile he had found

in the noble lady” (Freud 70). In Leonardo da Vinci’s Modonna with

St. Anne, Freud defines the “blissful maternal smiles” as the

idiosyncratic symbol because of da Vinci’s repressed wishes for

his step- and biological mothers’ love (see page14). Freud’s

psychoanalytic theories of the personalities within the mind are

required to understand the artists’ symbols. Psychoanalytic works

15Bayon such as free association and idiosyncratic symbols are tools used

to reach the deepest parts of peoples’ minds, which begin the

psychological healing process. In hope of reaching happiness,

people will try therapy or hypnosis; however, defining symbols

from artwork or dreams asserts that people can find happiness and

learn more about themselves in the process.

People us universal symbols that can be found in artwork. An

example of a universal symbol is a yellow smiley face or a sun,

which represents happiness and can be generally understood by

most people. Carl Jung believes that artists use standard

symbols, which are easily recognizable, in order for viewers to

understand the artist. This seems more logical if the artist

wants his or her emotion to be apparent and evocative to the

viewer.

He believed that when a person draws or paints a

mandala (symbol representing self), unconscious

leanings or wants are expressed in its patterns,

symbols and shapes. In his therapeutic practice, Jung

found mandalas to have a 'magical' effect, reducing

16Bayon confusion in the psyche to order, and often affecting a

person in ways that only became apparent later. They

worked because the unconscious is allowed free reign;

what has been swept under comes to the surface (Brealy

3).

This is important because this shows that there is a

possible linkage between the artist and the viewer. In some

cases, artists will purposely push their emotion into their

artwork on purpose in order for the viewer to understand his or

her emotions. Similar to Freud, Carl Jung believes in the methods

of psychoanalysis, which help the individual relieve these inner

conflicts, for example transference reaction. Transference

reaction is the redirection of feelings or desires, which lie

within the unconscious and are retained from childhood, toward a

new object. “For most artists, there is no notion of an audience,

or only a vague one at best. There is the subject, the material,

and the process. The notion of how this work will be viewed when

completed is pretty far from the minds of most artists” (Smith

7). This is a sort of cry out to help from the artist by using

17Bayon artwork as their medium instead of their own voice. Art is used

as a psychological tool for patients during psychoanalysis. This

new object that the emotions are directed to in transference

reaction is usually artwork or in cases without artwork the

object can be the psychologist, which is not as safe as artwork.

Carl Jung agrees with Freud that motivation and healing

comes to the artist from the release of inner emotions that is

fostered by creating or observing art. However, Jung disagrees

with Freud about which inner emotions motivate one’s personality

and the perception of art. In comparison to Freud, Carl Jung’s

focus is less on sexual desire and more on the temperament or

nature of the artist or viewer. Jung’s perception of the

unconscious is that it is an archetypal collective unconscious

that everyone is born with.

In this sense there is a considerable difference

between the archetype and the historical formula that

has evolved. Especially on the higher levels of

esoteric teaching the archetype appears in a form that

reveals quite unmistakably the critical and evaluating

18Bayon influence of conscious elaboration. Their immediate

manifestation, as we encounter it in dreams and

visions, is much more individual, less understandable,

and more naïve than in myths, for example. The

archetype is essentially an unconscious content that

takes its color from the individual consciousness in

which it happens to appear (Jung 5).

In other words, Jung is saying that the unconscious is more of a

collection of years of stored memories or feelings that are

typical, but the feelings of the moment when each memory was

created alter the reality of the memory and then become hidden

within the unconscious. This is important to the understanding

that beauty found in artwork is healing because it means that

memories are not exactly accurate to reality; therefore, the need

to compare memories to an abstract visual depiction of an

artist’s work helps that memory dissolve. The memory can remain

silent in the healthy conscious and the personality of people

remains happy or good. Jung lessens the importance of sexual

drives to a focus on hidden battles of authority between good or

19Bayon evil within the unconscious. The notion that the temperament of

the individual depicts the unconscious mirrors the idea of humans

as wild or animal-like. Like all species in the animal kingdom,

humans take certain situations and twist them within their own

minds. This can be seen as a zookeeper is attempting to approach

a lion with food: the lion sees the illusion of a person trying

to attack them, when in reality it is time to feed the lion.

People who make art have impressions created in their unconscious

from their distorted memories from time and emotion. This

suggests that the artist’s feelings resonate with an individual

while viewing his or her artwork, even though they have different

life experiences, causing catharsis for both the artist and

viewer alike. Additionally, this facet of Jung’s theory expresses

an individual’s ability to be civil or uncivilized and explains

the need for sublimation to channel and express these conflicts.

Carl Jung means that stored memories and how the individual

perceives these memories are what control the unconscious and in

essence what controls the individual’s behavior. This proves that

if these distorted memories remain within the unconscious they

20Bayon become conflicts that will eat away at the individual’s

personality. Without releasing bad memories by viewing or

creating artwork, the individual can have more stress or,

depending on the severity of the condition, suffer mental health

problems.

The notion that viewing artwork helps people relieve stress

and makes people feel less pain or release emotions that are

painful is proven in the study A Hospital’s Contemporary Art Collection. As

Freud and Jung suggested that artwork is a reflection or window

into the unconscious, the study conducted in the hospital has

data of patients being liberated from their illnesses by viewing

the collection of artwork at the hospital. The artwork shown to

the patients was a collection of diverse imagery, subject matter,

and media that was in hospital environment. The conclusion of the

study proved people of all ages, excluding infants, are

positively affected by the artwork in the hospital. Patients’

stress, pain, and moods responded positively to the artwork.

Specifically, the study proved that patients with cancer reported

65% improvement in their stress levels, 75% of breast cancer

21Bayon patients, 69% patients with anxiety, and 81% with patients with

PTSD. This supports the notion that Jung’s universal symbols or

Freud’s idiosyncratic symbols are a sort of communication from

the artist to the viewer because the patients all had similar

feelings of relieved stress. In Freud’s Pleasure-Principle And

Reality-Principle the patients in the study were able to find an

outlet of aesthetics within their environment, a hospital, which

offers them pleasure. The aesthetic power of artwork is reflected

as the patients rated the artwork as follows: “Of the 826

respondents, 73% described the art collection as Beautiful, 81% as

Tasteful, and 73% as a Positive Distraction” (69). Similar to Aristotle’s

notion that Greeks were attracted to dramatic tragedies because

of its purging effect, the patients were attracted to the beauty

of the artwork because it provided a source of catharsis for

them. Every patient is different; therefore, some patients felt

an actual release of physical pain while viewing the art instead

of just emotional pain. This reflects the idea that artwork

affects the individual in different ways because each individual

has different experiences, or for the patients different

22Bayon illnesses.

Conclusion

The analysis above proves that art can be cathartic. The

notion that art is a reflection of an individual and a window

into that individual’s unconscious helps illustrate the theories

of aesthetics from above and aesthetics from below. The aesthetic

presence in art is the key to the individual’s unconscious and

release of damaging emotions. Part of this unconscious is shared

among all human beings who can tap into collective experience,

but at the same time each individual is unique and interprets

their experiences differently. This uniqueness translates into

the understanding of art. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

and, therefore, every person’s view of art is different and

relates to individuals differently because of unique life

experiences. However, as art has been studied over the years,

certain symbols in art can be found and people can better

understand the intentions of the artist. Life is brief, so the

need to look for happiness is an ideal laid upon people that

seems ouch of reach. The aesthetic authority found in artwork has

23Bayon proven to be an easy way to release unwanted emotions, which can

essentially lead to the ideal of happiness.