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 Art Therapy
Journal of the American Art Therapy Association

ISSN: 0742-1656 (Print) 2159-9394 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uart20

Magazine Photo Collage: A Multicultural

Assessment and Treatment Technique

Nadia Ferrara

To cite this article: Nadia Ferrara (1995) Magazine Photo Collage: A Multicultural Assessment and
Treatment Technique, Art Therapy, 12:3, 197-198, DOI: 10.1080/07421656.1995.10759161

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/07421656.1995.10759161

Published online: 26 Dec 2013.

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meviews
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Magazine Photo Collage:A
Multicultural Assessment and
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Treatment Technique
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by Helen Landgarten,MA,A.T.R., HLM, New York:
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Brunner/Mazel, Inc., 1993.
224 pp.,96 black &white illus. $29.95,cloth. ISBN
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0-87630-706-3.
Reviewed by Nadia Ferrara, MA,A.T.R.,
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Art therapy textbooks on assessment are rare and greatly in
demand. Helen Landgarten’s Magazine Photo Collage: A
Multicultural Assessment and Treatment Technique, a textbook
for students and art therapists, brings evaluation to the fore-
p u n d and describes how to use a Magazine Photo Collage
(MPC) procedure for this purpose. At the same time, it is multi-
culturally sensitive in its demonstration of uses for the MPC with
various populations.
Landgarten recognizes that we live and work in a mosaic
society filled with diverse cultures. She presents a nonculturally
biased tool, the MPC, and shows how it can be effectively
applied to various ethnic and cultural groups, including Asians,
African-Americans, and Hispanics. Her method uses pre-cut
images from carefully selected, culturally appropriate magazines.
These are separated into two boxes and offered to clients. The
first box contains pictures of a variety of people from various cul-
tures, and highlights differences in age, sex, and economic con-
dition. The second box offers “miscellaneousitems” from a range
of photographs that focus on themes related to chemical depen-
dency, physical and/or sexual abuse, eating disorders, and other
relevant issues. As a resource for collecting pictures, Landgarten
provides a list of “culturallyslanted magazine publications use-
ful for their particular ethnic imagery.
The MPC is a nonstandardized, projective tool. It is
described as beneficial for assessment and treatment stages in
therapy because “clients can iden+ with the images and voice
their projections onto their self-selected pictures” (p. 1).
In the assessment phase, collage focus is on the manifest
content, specifymg that the therapist select pictures that reflect
the client’s ethnicity. Thereafter, in the treatment phase, the clin-
ician may use the MPC to make an intervention or to offer an
interpretation,takmg into consideration its latent content and, as
emphasized by Landgarten, its unique metaphoric language.The
clinician gathers the client’s free associations in order to under-
stand the symbolism in the collage.
The MPC assessment technique includes four tasks that use
the two boxes of magazine pictures. Tasks are presented to the
client using specific instructions. In the first task the client
197
selects pictures from the miscellaneous box and writes his or her
thoughts about each image. The task is openended and the mis-
cellaneous box of pictures is used because of its nonthreatening
nature. No limits are placed on the number of pictures selected.
Landgarten carefully outlines what to look for in assessing art-
related behaviors (eg., how are the photographs handled, glued,
etc.).
In the second task, the client is asked to choose pictures of
people and, on a separate paper, writes what the people are
thinking and saying. This task “reveals clients’ perception about
trust, regarding either themselves, someone in their life, or pos-
sibly the therapist” (p. 10).
During the third task, either box is used to select pictures
that represent something “good” and something “bad.” Choices
may give clues about the client’s idea of positive and negative
images.
The fourth task involves choosing one picture from the
“people” box, writing what is happening to the person, and how
the situation could change. This task may highlight the client’s
attitude, coping mechanisms, and problem-solving skills.
AU four tasks are illustrated with case vignettes that show
how to use the MPC during assessment and treatment phases of
therapy. In the treatment phase, the MPC can be introduced at
any time for any treatment goal. Some MPC objectives are
designed to manage cultural differences between client and ther-
apist and encourage development of cultural self-identifcation
and self-awareness.
Certain art behaviors may indicate a client’s stren@hs and
problem areas. The manner in which images are looked at, han-
dled, and placed on paper are important to observe. It is also
important to observe how the MPC is created, whether in an
extremely cautious or regressive fashion. According to
Landgarten, “The photos in the MPC are projections of the
client’s self, symbolic of significant persons in their life, and/or a
transference statement” (p. 20). Verbal responses and free asso-
ciations are also very important and may confirm or contradict
the therapist’s observations.
Facets of the MPC strongly resemble underlying elements
of phototherapy, although there is no reference made by
Landgarten to phototherapy literature. Weiser (1993)describes
how interactingwith personal snapshots and albums as represen-
tational objects, symbolic self-constructs, and metaphoric transi-
tional objects can reveal deep forms of awareness. According to
Weiser, “Photographs ... have the power to capture and express
feelings and ideas in visual-symbolic forms, some of which are
intimately personal metaphors” (p. 6).
Landgarten uses clinical vignettes to illustrate her ideas. For
instance, one of the goals in a “positive life review” process with
an 85-year-old Asian woman was to encourage her to become
independently creative. Her collage work became a sigruficant
self-object. Both Weiser and Landgarten stress that clinicians
198 zyxwvut
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should proceed with caution when interpreting the unconscious
content of the collages as well as the photographs. The images in
both can create bridges to one’s inner world in ways that words
REVIEWS
often cannot fully represent.
Landgarten’s inferences about process and artwork do not
seem to be founded on acknowledged theoretical approaches,
creating, for this writer, a sense of uncertainty and ungrounded
speculation. For example, in the case illustration of an ll-year-
old Hispanic boy with attention deficit disorder, no attempts are
made to relate current clinical concepts about the disorder to
interpretations of the artwork. This is not a recommended model
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for students to follow because a sigruficant aspect of art therapy
training includes learning to base clinical inferences on the
client’s background, culture, unique interpretations, behavioral
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observations, and related theory. Linking relevant literature to
research is an essential component of the interpretive process.
Collage work clearly can be evocative. The MPC facilitates
self-disclosure and helps establish a relationship between overt
and latent content. According to Lamy (1986), ‘The effect of the
[collage] process is to increase the emotional involvement since
the person is less concentrated on achieving aesthetically pleas-
ing results but rather on the symbolic content ...” (p. 60).
While the MPC is a valuable therapeutic instrument, its lim-
itations, which are important to consider, are not outlined by
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Landgarten. One potential disadvantage of collage artmaking is
that it uses ready-made materials rather than an empty space
which can be transformed. Collage work may promote depen-
dency on the available materials and lead to avoiding develop-
ment of one’s creative process (Lamy, 1986). However, collage
can be effectively used as a tool to guide the client towards work
in drawing, painting, or clay sculpting, gradually developing
dependence on one’s own creative resources.
Because it is not a standardized tool, the MPC is best when
introduced with other standardized assessments. It can also be
used as an adjunct to diagnostic art evaluations. This is the first
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book focusing specifically on magazine collage, and Landgarten
has made a valuable contribution to the field by adding a new
References zy
dimension to art therapy and multicultural assessment. These
important contributions warrant further development and
research.
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Limy, Y. (1986).A study of wUage and assemblage as a therapeutic tool
in art therapy. Montreal, Quebec:Concoda University.
Weiser, J. (1993). Phototherapy techniques: Erplortng the secrets of per-
sonal snapshots andfamiry albums. San Francisco:Jossey-Bass.
Integrative Approaches to Family
Art Therapy
by Shirley Riley,MFCC,A.T.R., with observations
by Cathy A. Malchiodi,MA, A.T.R., Chicago, IL:
Magnolia Street Publishers, 1994.
262 pp,,95 black & white illus., $29,95,paper.
ISBN 0-96 13309-5-3
Reviewed by Linda Sibley Seaver, MPS, A.T.R.,
Bedford Village, NY
This is the chronicle of a weaver and her tapestry of many
colors. Shirley Riley achieves the promise of her title by demon-
strating clearly the successful integration of art therapy with sev-
eral distinct approaches to family therapy: structural, systemic,
and strategic, and social c o n s t r u c t i o n i s t . While a f f i i -
ing the role of both language and visual metaphor in the healing
process, Riley places renewed emphasis on the narrative, the
family’s story of their problem. In an introduction to each sec-
tion, co-author Cathy Malchiodi, offers observations that place
Riley’s work in context. She states that it is “[tlhe integration of
art making into family therapy that yields ... a clearer under-
standing of family dynamics, roles and rules, ways to reinvent
communication and behavior patterns ...” (p. 12). Therapy with
Riley, an experienced and gifted clinician, also appears to be a lot
of fun.
Riley writes for an audience of professional art therapists
and family therapists who are most often psychiatric social work-
ers, but also include psychologists and psychiatrists. Malchiodi’s
notes in her introductions for teachers and supervisors of gradu-
ate art therapy students, offer further points of discussion.
Riley’s social constructionist theoretical stance is clearly the
latest in an intellectual odyssey. The family and the therapist
together will dis-solve the problem by their collaborative efforts.
The narrative is central and authority is shared, although the
therapist retains responsibility for introducing art tasks that allow
the family to illustrate their story.
To her credit, Riley has investigated and mastered the think-
ing and practice of the strategic, systemic, and structural theories
of family therapy. Each of these represents a considerable body
of literature and each requires many hours of practice in session
to master. The interlacing of art therapy with each of these
schools of thinking is Riley’s generous contribution to the field.
This mastery allows her the flexibility to apply the most useful
approach, whatever the presenting problem, whatever the cul-
tural and socioeconomic background of the family. Malchiodi
early on refers the reader unfamiliar with family therapy to more
comprehensive foundation books in the field. Without this
knowledge, one would not fully appreciate Riley’s dexterity and
skillful interventions.
This book is divided into three sections. In “Family Art
Therapy-Integrating Theory with Practice,” Riley begins with
the significance of the family’s illustrations of their story, the rea-
son they came for help. Joseph, an abused 11-year-old,told Riley
the story of being forced to kneel on dried beans as a punish-
ment. Through art, she helped the child transform this image by
making paper beans, expanding, and playing with their symbolic
meaning. At one point, Riley offers Joseph a handful of real dned
beans to cany in his pocket as a reminder he now has the power
over them and not the other way around. This case vignette
shows art therapy at its best. The author investigates the creation
of reality and meaning in the therapeutic process.
A basic concept of the social constructionistview is that the
therapeutic session is time spent in conversation, co-constructing
a new outcome to a problematic situation presented by the
client($. Therefore, “unless the concept of ‘languaging,’the dia-
logue that arises from exploration of the art product, is attended