L'art-thérapie en milieu scolaire: Un outil de prévention tertiaire en psychopathologie de l'adolescence

Abstract

In adolescence, the psychotherapeutic methods have to adapt to the special fragility of the subjects, to their fear of intrusion and to the problematics of limits that is specific to the period of the identity quest. Thus, the psychotherapies based on artistic mediations may be particularly indicated. We shall present a clinical interpretation of research results focused on art therapeutic sessions offered in the psychology department of a secondary school, and stemming from two follow-up studies with adolescents suffering from conduct disorders linked to borderline personality organization. The first study was focused on between and within group comparisons of two clinical groups characterized by hetero-aggressive acting out or by blockade and direction of aggressiveness towards one's own body. The comparisons were based on the stories written under musical induction, for which we have developed special rating scales, allowing us to move from qualitative analysis to quantification and the use of inferential statistics. The second study was a qualitative one, consisting in extracting, from the literary production realized all over the therapeutic sessions, the significant archetypal themes linked to emotional and moral maturation. Two clinical vignettes will illustrate our conception of a differential form of action of art therapy in relation to the structural functioning of personality. Our research results may contribute to the discussion of problems that are currently debated in psychopathology of adolescence. We stress the importance of tertiary prevention in adolescents and we discuss the function of the artistic mediation that may favour the imaginary and symbolic elaboration, thus diminishing the risk of hetero- or auto-aggressive acting out. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved) (journal abstract)