On the Conception of Therapeutic Expressionism...

Therapeutic Expressionism as A Psychosocial Resource...

“The origin of something is the source of its nature. The question concerning the origin of the work of art asks about the source of its nature. On the usual view, the work arises out of and by means of the activity of the artist"(Heidegger, 1971, 1997)

“Neighborhood social capital could influence the health of individuals via psychosocial processes by providing affective support and acting as the source of self-esteem and self-respect” (Wilkinson, 1996) 

• Given the past and present energetic dynamics of our collective society, there has been a consistent erosion of personal and collective social capital by way of a decrease of positive energetic influence. A bubble of support that insulates the individual and collective environment from the negative influence and internalization of extreme energetic dynamics. This dynamic has always been a part of the existence of the Black American. They have always had to suffer through a particularly violent, persistent, and insidious erosion of their individual and collective social capital within their specific community since the conception of the American plantation. 

"Variations in the availability of psychosocial resources at the community level may help to explain anomalous finding that socially isolated individuals residing in more cohesive communities - such as the East Boston community (Seeman et al. 1993), African Americans in rural Georgia (Schoenbach et al. 1986), and Japanese Americans in Hawaii (Reed et al. 1983) - do not appear to suffer the same ill health consequences as those living in less cohesive communities." (Berkman & Kawachi, 2000)

• Not to construe the understanding of the generalized comparison of health outcomes of the groups named, one consideration in using this example is to demonstrate the capacity for the individual self to carve out a pathway to better health outcomes, even in rural or deprived neighborhoods and communities. 

• I posit that therapeutic expressionism, as a psychosocial intervention, can support the improvement of health outcomes for “isolated” individuals. The isolated individuals that are specific to the conception of this theory are Black Americans; those who have a specific lineage to the institution of American racism and slavery. One of the core components of the institution of American slavery is the suppression of the slaves' ability to express themselves in a way that was constructive and in alignment with the worthy and progressive ideal of a cleansed self concept. They had no gender and they had no voice. Their lives were not their own. They were meant to be silent, voiceless objects; unable to think and unable to feel. 

“Thus we are compelled to follow the circle. This is neither a makeshift nor a defect. To enter upon this path is the strength of thought, to continue on it is the feast of thought, assuming that thinking is a craft. Not only is the main step from work to art a circle like the step from art to work, but every separate step that we attempt circles in this circle."(Heidegger, 1971, 1997)

• What, then, can we absorb from the process of the production of art or aesthetics through the process of creative expression? The use of ones’ creative faculties; inherent talents; to produce, from the heart of trauma, a physically perceptible piece of Art. A demonstration of their process of healing. The work of transforming pain into beauty. 

“The art work is, to be sure, a thing that is made, but it is something other than the mere thing, itself, is allo agorevei. The work makes public something other than itself; it manifest something other; it is an allegory. In the work of art something other is brought together with the thing that is made. To bring together is, in Greek sumballein. The work is a symbol." (Heidegger, 1971, 1997)

• What does the work of art symbolize? What is it symbolic of? Does the origin of the nature originate in the individual who produces this work of art? Here, we can posit that therapeutic expressionism as a form of psychosocial resource can attempt to answer these questions in a way that centers the emotional and intellectual growth of the person who undergoes this process of creation. The process of reaching deep into the self to produce a form of manifested personal truth in the form of a work of art that demonstrates the art of the work that went into producing it. A symbol, or symbols, that speak to the process of ones’ own healing. 

• Therapeutic expressionism, as posited above may have the capacity to increase the level of social capital of the Black American but it also has the potential to increase the levels of emotional and intellectual capital for the self, as a part,  and the community as a whole. This, in support of the creation of a new value system and love ethic that moores the being in a foundation that is substantive and in alignment with the worthy and progressive ideal of the healed self concept, has the potential to carve out a pathway to healing that improves individual and collective health outcomes; and subsequently the quality of life and life expectancy for the Black American. 

 -Yogabrofessor

Berkman, L. F., & Kawachi, I. (2000). Social epidemiology. Oxford University Press.

Goldblatt, D., & Brown, L. (1997). Aesthetics: A Reader in Philosophy of the Arts.