Edith Kramer : Art as Therapy

Overview

The art therapist must develop a third eye with the insight to “perceive the multifaceted messages embodied in artwork produced in the course of art therapy—messages that may defy translation into words…In conjunction with this special vision, art therapists must also contribute a “Third Hand”, a hand that helps the creative process along without being intrusive, without distorting meaning or imposing pictorial ideas or preferences alien to the client…[art therapists] must cultivate an area of artistic competence…employed solely for empathic service to others” (Edith Kramer, “The Art Therapist’s Third Hand: Reflections on Art, Art Therapy, and Society at Large” Art as Therapy: Collected Papers by Edith Kramer and Lani Gerity, p. 48) Filmmakers Elena Makarova and Efim Kuchuk capture Edith Kramer in her final years as she reminisces on her pioneering career and methods in Art Therapy.