1st Edition

Grief and the Healing Arts Creativity as Therapy

By Sandra Bertman Copyright 1999
    440 Pages
    by Routledge

    440 Pages
    by Routledge

    For nearly three decades, Sandra Bertman has been exploring the power of the arts and belief--symbols, metaphors, stories--to alleviate psychological and spiritual pain not only of patients, grieving family members, and affected communities but also of the nurses, clergy and physicians who minister to them. Her training sessions and clinical interventions are based on the premise that bringing out the creative potential inherent in each of us is just as relevant-- perhaps more so--as psychiatric theory and treatment models since grief and loss are an integral part of life. Thus, this work was compiled to illuminate the many facets that link grief, counseling, and creativity. The multiple strategies suggested in these essays will help practitioners enlarge their repertoire of hands-on skills and foster introspection and empathy in readers.

    Introduction

    The Arts, Personal Griefs, Professional Roles •On the Psychology of Loss William M. Lamers, Jr.
    •What the Nurse Likes  Cortney Davis
    •Preventing Harm in the Name of Help: Ensuring Ethical Care Through the Concept of  "Preserving Own Integrity"  Lynn Cummings
    •Becoming the Patient  Cortney Davis
    •Music—A Companion for the Journey from Mourning to Morning  Sally S. Bailey
    •Night Nurse  Cortney Davis
    •Comfort Care  L. J. Schneiderman
    •To Know of Suffering and the Teaching of Empathy Sandra Bertman and Melvin J. Krant
    •The Body Flute  Cortney Davis
    •Reflections on Suffering  Aaron Lazare
    •Hope and Millie  David Hatem
    •The Faces of AIDS: An AIDS Quilt  Wilma Bulkin Siegel
    •Seeing Fred On a Respirator  Carol Picard


    Some Ways Caregivers Use the Arts for Themselves and Those They Companion •Using Art Therapy with Pediatric Oncology Patients  Linda G. Nicholas and Suzanne Lister
    •Art Techniques with Children with Cancer  Barbara M. Sourkes
    •Puppets: Bridging the Communication Gap Between Caregivers and Children about Death and Dying  Brenda Eng
    •Transformations: Visual Arts and Hospice Care  C. Regina Kelley
    •Sound and Silence: Music Therapy in Palliative Care  Kevin Kirkland
    •Songlines  Carol Picard
    •Movies as Movement: Films as Catharsis in Grief Therapy  Lynne Martins
    •A Wake for Dying: Forum Theatre Kate Wilkinson and Judith McDowell
    •Crisis in the Cafeteria  Maria Trozzi
    •The Life and Death of Yusuf Hawkins  Christina Schlesinger
    •Gravestone Rubbing—Epitaph for Yusuf Hawkins  Roberta Halporn
    •Remembrance Photographs: A Caregiver's Gift for Families of Infants Who Die  Mindy L. K. Gough


    Lessons from Cultures Old and New •Culture, Creativity and Death  J. Havelka
    •Visible Words: Ritual in the Pastoral Care of the Sick and Dying  Kurt Stasiak
    •The Role of the Visual Image in Psychodynamics of Grief Resolution (Viewed Through Jewish Law and Tradition)  Hannah Sherebrin
    •Pathological Grief—A Problem in Search of a Definition: The Tragedy of Hamlet as a Model  Roberta Halporn
    •Keeping Emotional Time: Music and the Grief Process  Lesleigh Forsythe
    •A Study in Grief: The Life and Art of Kaethe Kollwitz  Louis A. Gamino
    •Death and Grief Made Visible: The Life and Work of Edvard Munch  Judith M. Stillion
    •Against Daily Insignificance: Writing Through Grief  Martha K. Davis
    •Sculpting Through Grief  Nancy Fried
    •AIDS Time: A Passage Through Cawthra Park  James Miller
    •Social Support "Internetworks," Caskets for Sale, and More: Thanatology and  the Information Superhighway  Carla J. Sofka
    •Healing and the Internet  Thomas R. Golden


    Basic Needs of Grieving People •Therapeutic Touch: For Those Who Accompany the Dying  Mary J. Simpson
    •The Nurse and the Art Are One  Carol Picard  meditation on the Vietnam Women's Memorial, 1994
    •Hello, David  Anonymous
    •My Mother's Hands Elaine Freed Lindenblatt
    •The Sourdough Father  Lesleigh Forsyth
    •The M(ortality) Word and the L(ove) Word…  Elsa Dorfman
    •Dear Edith  Jessie Kesson • Silent Conversations  Leigh Westerfield

    Biography

    Bertman, Sandra