Treatment of psychotic patients with preoccupations of demon possession

Imagery and Visual Expression in Therapy

“…Assuming that color represents the affective component, the use of color indicated the first step towards the connection of form and affect, or the representation on the perceptual level with the affective component of this level. Jones and Rush (1979) report on a study of patients preoccupied with delusions of control by unseen destructive forces described as demons or devils. In a supportive group setting, art therapy provided the possibility of exploring these "devils" in graphic form.…”

Art Therapy as an approach for working with schizophrenic patients

“…Typically, the schizophrenic's bodily representations lack sexual distinction or gender identity. Bizarre monster-like images abound, as well (Halbreich & Assael, 1979;Jones & Rush, 1976;Wittels, 1975). Depersonalization of the self can, perhaps, be seen through the visual distortions of the body image by various means: through simplification, detachment, dismemberment, fusion, omission, incongruencies, X-ray vision and/or labelling of body parts.…”