Living with Daisy: the therapeutic potential of cartooning in art therapy

Abstract

In this thesis, I argue that cartooning has the significant potential to be a therapeutic language within the context of art therapy to promote activation of the dynamic field in Schaverien Analytical Art Psychotherapy and support mental health recovery. My research used the framework of heuristic inquiry to explore my own process and experience as an autobiographical cartoonist. I started with the ‘hypothesis’ that cartooning (as a narrative-art language) promotes a unified development of critical thinking, resilience, and emotional intelligence that supports mental health recovery. To investigate this hypothesis, I analysed a decade of my autobiographical cartooning, with a focus on the role of my alter-ego character named Daisy. Seeking to answer: Can a cohesive narrative be created from single-frame autobiographical cartoons and does the process have therapeutic value? To support the heuristic process, I structured the theoretical framework by merging Comics Theory and Schaverien theories of image in art therapy. Using this framework, I have found that (1) cartooning images can be simultaneously diagrammatic and embodied; (2) autobiographical cartoons document moments in time and hold new information that becomes illuminated when reviewed retrospectively, within a therapeutic context; and (3) The process involves narrative thinking which engages divergent and convergent thinking concurrently and enables critical thinking and innovative problem solving leading to increased resilience, and emotional intelligence. Significantly, I have shown the hypothesis to be true and developed a model of my cartooning process I call The Portal and The Path. The model describes my heuristic creative process in cartooning and how the integration of narrative thinking and repeated symbolic narrative - visual language of cartooning aids mental health recovery. The Portal and The Path has potential to be used as a model in art therapy.

Date of Award	2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Western Sydney University
Supervisor	Joy Paton (Supervisor)