The Revealing Image

The Revealing Image: Analytical Art Psychotherapy in Theory and Practice by Joy Schaverien '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.'

- Professor Richard Wollheim University of California, Berkeley.

'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'

- Francesca Raphael, British Journal of Psychotherapy

'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...'

- Dr Peter Tatham, Journal of Analytical Psychology

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.