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Therapeutic action and aesthetic experience: Resonance and reorganization
Author(s) -
Wexler Joan
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/jclp.22575
Subject(s) - psychology , action (physics) , meaning (existential) , dance , context (archaeology) , dimension (graph theory) , aesthetics , aesthetic experience , expression (computer science) , the arts , bridge (graph theory) , linguistics , cognitive science , psychotherapist , art , philosophy , computer science , visual arts , medicine , history , physics , mathematics , archaeology , quantum mechanics , pure mathematics , programming language
Is there an aesthetic dimension to therapeutic action? The author proposes that while the arts, in this example, dance, can serve as a bridge to give form and expression to the ineffable for both the artist and the observer, language, especially metaphorical language, in the context of a resonating therapeutic relationship, similarly gives form and enhanced meaning to what has been felt but not yet understood. Even if the content is painful, the process of mutually creating a common language that reorganizes the mind is aesthetically pleasing.