Aesthetic emotion arises in an individual at the particular moment when he or she is captivated by the unique beauty of a work of art, by a shape or a word that reveals a deeply intimate yet universal truth. Such rare and precious moments open up a space for playing and creativity in the monotony of existence or in pathological repetition. We will attempt to study the context of two moments of aesthetic emotion we observed in an art therapy workshop for adolescents hospitalized full-time.
Discourse and attitudes in the face an adolescent’s violence in reaction to the violent transformation of the body which is imposed on him or her are themselves often a reaction within the counter-violence (the author enumerates the five usual traps), while a desiring violence can often generate works of fiction that will indirectly treat their problems, mixing the relation to the law of the father and the reunions with the mother’s song. The adolescent defines himself semiotically as a “ negative subject ”, declining the verbs “ want ”, “ ought ”, “ know” and “ can” in the negative. How the can “ creation as process of transformation ” help to re-establish oneself as the “ subject of a quest ”, in search of one’s identity under construction ? Can the experience of psychotherapy feed other practices, including those that don’t seem to be asking to be fed ? The author, a psychotherapist and dramatist, relates an experience with a writing workshop involving adolescents who have been expelled from middle school because of their behavior and their violent speech.
The article traces the participation of five teenagers in an ambulatory therapeutic program over the course of eighteen months. This treatment program combines several therapeutic groups which open up spaces for narration, beginning with an initial experience of cultural mediation. Accompanying and prolonging the production of a Contemporary Opera Music, the organization of narratives increases the potential for the process of symbolization.
Adolescence, 2009, T. 27, n°4, pp. 1019-1026.
Revue semestrielle de psychanalyse, psychopathologie et sciences humaines, indexée AERES au listing PsycINFO publiée avec le concours du Centre National du Livre et de l’Université de Paris Diderot Paris 7