Art and Trauma

The focus of Western art changed dramatically in the late 19th and early 20th century from providing a window on the external world to being a conduit [Page 27]to interior life. Up to that time, most artists had been employed in the service of religion or the state. With photography supplanting art as a means of documenting the physical world, artists began to focus on subjective experience. Because much of the 20th century was punctuated by worldwide and regional wars, political upheaval, natural disasters, and mass displacements, some artists used these traumatic events as subject matter. In addition, the development of psychotherapy provided a way to elicit and understand unconscious material. The art done by children, psychiatric patients, and non-Western peoples became a means of understanding different psychological perspectives. Also, many people untrained in art reacted to overwhelming traumatic events by doing their own spontaneous drawings and paintings.

Some writers have called the recently ended 20th century the most violent in human history. If we can infer from the first decade of the 21st century with its earthquakes, hurricanes, genocides, and suicide bombings, the present century may not be much different. Headlines in newspapers, eyewitness accounts on radio, and shocking images on television bear witness to these large-scale collective traumas that are often overpowering even to those halfway around the globe from the actual event. Another category of trauma—the interpersonal—is increasingly visible through the increasing number of books on abuse of various kinds written by survivors as well as professionals. One can find many examples of art that has been created in response to both types of traumas.