Therapist interprets impromptu drawings

Press, 30 May 1987, Page 9

Therapist interprets impromptu drawings

By

JOHN HARFORD

Unconscious thoughts, expressed through people’s drawings, could be used to help them, according to a New York art therapist, Dr Gregg Furth.

A five-day workshop on the interpretation of impromptu drawings, held in Christchurch by Dr Furth, will end tomorrow.

“Whenever you just draw, your subconscious is also there and you can decipher what it says,” said Dr Furth.

“It is helpful to find out what the subconscious is saying about a situation. You can find out how to help that person live,” he said.

The drawings of a person’s family could show from which family members they did or did not get support. "In the past, people have dealt only with the body. Now there is a more holistic approach. People ask about the mind and the power of the mind.” Dr Furth said there was enough evidence to sug-

gest that some people could forecast where an illness would attack the body next.

He once dealt with a child who had not been told he was suffering from leukaemia but would occasionally draw parts of the body becoming larger.

“He would draw the hands getting larger and larger and two weeks later the illness would affect the hands.

“Some might say that that was just an accident or coincidence but it has happened enough for it not to be an accident.” Another child who suffered from cancer' was asked to draw good cells fighting bad cells within him. The result was a boxing ring with a referee but the good and bad cells were standing outside the ring. Dr Furth saw the drawing as meaning the boy did not want to take part in the conflict within his body. The aim of art therapy was to bring the subconscious into consciousness, thus allowing a person to

be “more into living.” A person aware of their subconscious feelings was more whole, Dr Furth said.

“A person only interested in their conscious world is not whole. A person who lives only in their subconscious is in a fantasy. We used to lock them up as being schizophrenics.” Although healthy peoplewould benefit from analysis of their drawings, Dr Furth has concentrated on seriously ill people. “I find that a dying patient who is conscious of the dying process is really alive. “There are a lot of people who think that they are alive but rigor mortis has already set in and we will be burying them in a few years,” Dr Furth said. About 30 therapists, counsellors, doctors and housewives took part in the workshop.

Dr Furth’s visit was arranged by “Shanti Nilaya New Zealand,” the New Zealand Friends of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross.