The Revealing Image

Schaverien’s text is rich in ideas… Schaverien applies her polycular lens to a well-chosen case study; its images embody the alchemical cycle of psychological transformation in a remarkable way. – Transcultural Psychiatry
Since its first publication in 1991, Joy Schaverien’s thoughtful and inspiring book The Revealing Image has become a seminal text. It links the two worlds of analytical psychotherapy and art therapy in the practice of analytical art psychotherapy, which establishes the art object in a central position as the locus of transformation. This book is essential reading for anyone who is interested in the healing powers of art, the archetypal nature of images, and ways of tracking the transference. Analytical psychotherapists may find themselves inspired to rush out to the art shop and stock up on paints, of at the very least look with added enthusiasm on any artwork that finds its way into the consulting room. Jung positively encouraged his patients to paint and draw, as he did himself, and I frequently find myself working with people who use art as a means of self-expression, discovery and healing. Sometimes pictures can say more than words, which this book so eloquently illustrates. – The Journal of Analytical Psychology
A subtle and fascinating account of the experience of art therapy. Schaverien skilfully reveals the intense drama with which the process is invested if it is to make contact with the patient’s deepest desires and emotions. The threads of resemblance between art therapy and psychoanalysis are finely traced. – The Journal of the British Association of Psychotherapists
Explores previously uncharted territory in art therapy focussing on the complex transference phenomena of value to art therapists it merits the attention of psychotherapists one of the first serious attempts to bridge the two disciplines. – Professor Richard Wollheim, University of California, Berkeley
It is hard to do full justice to this clear and well-written book. …The author backs up her ideas with a full discussion of [their] psychological, aesthetic and philosophical origins…most importantly she includes an extended and convincingly illustrated case study…Schaverien has put the picture right back in the centre of art therapy. – British Journal of Psychotherapy
The Revealing Image was first published in 1991 and since then has become a seminal text. Drawing on philosophical aesthetics, psychoanalysis and analytical psychology this is an innovative study of the role of art within the transference and countertransference dynamic. Using many illustrations, both in colour and black and white, The Revealing Image makes the complex ideas of analytical art psychotherapy readily accessible. It is essential reading for art therapists, psychotherapists, analytical psychologists, counsellors and all those who encounter art within a therapeutic relationship, whether experienced practitioners or trainees. – Journal of Analytical Psychology

Joy Schaverien is in private practice as a Jungian Analyst in Leicestershire. She is a Professional Member of the Society of Analytical Psychology in London and Professor Associate in Art Psychotherapy at the University of Sheffield. She lectures extensively in Britain and abroad and among her many publications she is author of Desire and the Female Therapist: Engendered Gazes in Psychotherapy and Art Therapy, (Routledge 1995) and The Dying Patient in Psychotherapy: Desire, Dreams and Individuation, (2002).

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