The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of art therapy on Self Concept, Family Relationship and Eating Attitude of an Eating Disorder.
For this study, a first-grade middle school student of an Anorexia Nervosa participated in art therapy. The total 16 therapy sessions took place 45minutes once a week from May 2000 to Sept. 2000. In case there was a family interview, the interview took place twice a week including art therapy. Follow-up interviews were given to the participant fortnightly from
Sept. 2000 to Dec. 2000 and monthly from Jan. 2001 to Mar. 2001
The treatments of materials to deal with the results of this study are as follows: First, the changes of the participant shown from each session were analyzed through his art activities, self-records and reports provided by a group of therapists. Second, the changes of the student’ Sclf Concept both before and after art therapy were analyzed through Self Consciousness Scale. Third, the changes of his Family Relationship were described and
analyzed through the Kinetic Family Drawing Test. Fourth, the changes of his Eating
Attitude shown both before and after art therapy were analyzed through Eating Attitude Test
The conclusions of this study are as follows:
First, As the results of Self Consciousness Scale, the point reached up to 36 from 29, which suggested a positive improvement of Self Concept. For instance, inappropriate abridgement, improper symbols and emphases on his mother’ s image disappeared in Kinetic Family Drawings. It also Eating Attitude Test, the point fell to 45 from 77, which implied that his Eating Attitude became c10ser down to the safe line, even though he still had some problems. ln addition, his weight went up to 40kg, which is the least safe level, from 26kg, even if his weight fell short of the expectation.
Second, Art Therapy improved Self Concept of an Anorexia Nervosa, that is, the participant expressed himself through art while he couldn’t express himself verbally. This enabled him to achieve Self Conception by broadening his awareness of problems, putting his body and his mind in order and keeping them combined
Third, art therapy is helped the Anorexia Nervosa case to reduce his self-defense in both his Family Relations. As a result, he became open→hearted to others. It also helped the participant to experience his family dynamics, which malfunctioned before, and realized his control problems, personal abilities and problems of independence and socialization.
Fourth, art therapy enabled the Anorexia Nervosa casc to choose food ingredients for himself and change his attitude into the positive attitude. lt helped him to reduce his conscious behaviors and obsessed behaviors particularly through collage. He got out of bad behaviors like counting an average of calories of food and Jeamed the sound behaviors such as choosing the highly nutritious food and deciding on the proper amount of food. In addition, the anxiety derived from Anorexia Nervosa decreased. As the Anorexia Nervosa case realized the fact that a therapist, art therapy and his play a role reciprocally and became aware of his symptom, he stepped away from Anorexia Nervosa.