‘This book is at the vanguard of the political turn taking place in sections of the psychotherapy profession. Eloquent and accessible, it is a powerful, critical account of how art psychotherapy has been used on “the front line” in a range of settings, not only to ameliorate the psychological harm produced by neoliberal policies, but also to empower the citizen. Skaife and Martyn’s work is a call to arms, challenging many of the taken-for-granted norms of the psychotherapy profession.’
Farhad Dalal, Psychotherapist and group analyst; Author of CBT: The Cognitive Behavioural Tsunami: Managerialism, Politics and the Corruptions of Science‘Sally Skaife and Jon Martyn’s book comes at a critical moment as art therapists grapple with the impact of the neoliberal “free market” policies that have contributed to the vast divide between the rich and the poor. This book questions the impact of capitalism and marketization on the epistemology of art psychotherapy. Practicing art psychotherapy necessitates that we question our complicity in colluding with privatization that values profit over wellness. As the world comes to grips with the inadequate distribution of health care during COVID-19, which has severely impacted communities of color, this book should be necessary reading for anyone working in mental health.’
Savneet Talwar, Professor; Chair, Department of Art Therapy, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago‘Just the title alone is sufficient for me to add this book to my “must read” list for 2021. The book summary promises a critical examination of art therapy in the context of a corporate capitalism that commodifies therapy and individualises distress and dis-ease, overlooking how social and institutional norms that fundamentally unhealthy generate distress in the first place. Combining rigour with a fast and energetic polemical prose style, this book promises to be one of the most important (and I hope influential) art therapy texts of the decade.’
Susan Hogan, Professor of Arts & Health University of Derby, College of Arts, Humanities & Education; Professorial Fellow, Institute of Mental Health, Nottingham
This book explores how ‘the hostile environment’ of neoliberalism affects art therapy in Britain. It shows how ambiguity in art and in psychoanalytically understood relationships can enable art psychotherapy groups to engage with class dynamics and aspire to democracy.
The book argues that art therapy needs to become a political practice if it is to resist collusion with a system that marginalises collectivity and holds individuals responsible for both their suffering and their recovery. It provides accounts of the contradictions that are thrown up by neoliberalism in art therapists’ workplaces as well as accounts of art therapy groups with those affected by the fire at Grenfell Tower, in an acute ward, a women’s prison, a community art studio and in a refugee camp.
Written by art psychotherapists for arts therapists and other mental health workers, the book will bring political awareness and consideration of resistance into all art therapy relationships, whatever the context and client group.
This chapter is an introduction to the writing of the book, its place in the art therapy literature and to its main ideas.Neoliberalism has created a hostile environment for everyone other than a few billionaires and corporations whilst damaging the health and wellbeing of the vast majority. What are the implications for art therapy? The thesis of this book is that it is not possible to separate art therapy from the political systems of domination in which it exists. Art therapists work with some of those who have been most marginalised by neoliberalism, but all are affected, including ourselves. As professionals, though, our discourses and theories will be affected by an internalised sense of superiority inherited from our country’s colonial past. We are in danger of projecting suffering onto the ‘other’. Hope lies in the capacity of art and psychodynamic relations to express the contradictions involved in neoliberalism, creating spaces in which they can be worked.
LATIMER COMMUNITY ART THERAPY is hosting an evening to commemorate the release of ‘Art Psychotherapy Groups in The Hostile Environment of Neoliberalism: Collusion or Resistance?’ by Sally Skaife and Jon Martyn.
The book is available here: https://routledge.pub/3gVHXsB (Save 20% with discount code ESA22)
The evening will give us a chance to come together and connect over the state of politics and the need for resistance in our profession.
Here’s a sketch of the schedule:
6.30 Welcoming drinks.
Talks will begin at 7.00
Opening message from Susan (Latimer Community Art Therapy)
Book summary from Sally and Jon .
Panel discussion from chapter authors (Holly, Mia, Emily, Helen and Susan)
Audience response.
The event will close at 8.30.
